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See Gaza Strip Access Restrictions.pdf since 2007 at:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Gaza_Strip_Access_Restrictions.pdf** This figure is released by the Israeli military, showing the soldiers whose names “were allowed to be published.”
*** The death toll in West Bank and Jerusalem is not updated regularly. According to PA’s Ministry of Health on March 17, this is the latest figure.
Source: mondoweiss.net
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Boris Kagarlitsky is in Prison!
On February 13, the court overturned the previous decision on release and sent Boris Kagarlitsky to prison for five years.
Petition in Support of Boris Kagarlitsky
We, the undersigned, were deeply shocked to learn that on February 13 the leading Russian socialist intellectual and antiwar activist Dr. Boris Kagarlitsky (65) was sentenced to five years in prison.
Dr. Kagarlitsky was arrested on the absurd charge of 'justifying terrorism' in July last year. After a global campaign reflecting his worldwide reputation as a writer and critic of capitalism and imperialism, his trial ended on December 12 with a guilty verdict and a fine of 609,000 roubles.
The prosecution then appealed against the fine as 'unjust due to its excessive leniency' and claimed falsely that Dr. Kagarlitsky was unable to pay the fine and had failed to cooperate with the court. In fact, he had paid the fine in full and provided the court with everything it requested.
On February 13 a military court of appeal sent him to prison for five years and banned him from running a website for two years after his release.
The reversal of the original court decision is a deliberate insult to the many thousands of activists, academics, and artists around the world who respect Dr. Kagarlitsky and took part in the global campaign for his release. The section of Russian law used against Dr. Kagarlitsky effectively prohibits free expression. The decision to replace the fine with imprisonment was made under a completely trumped-up pretext. Undoubtedly, the court's action represents an attempt to silence criticism in the Russian Federation of the government's war in Ukraine, which is turning the country into a prison.
The sham trial of Dr. Kagarlitsky is the latest in a wave of brutal repression against the left-wing movements in Russia. Organizations that have consistently criticized imperialism, Western and otherwise, are now under direct attack, many of them banned. Dozens of activists are already serving long terms simply because they disagree with the policies of the Russian government and have the courage to speak up. Many of them are tortured and subjected to life-threatening conditions in Russian penal colonies, deprived of basic medical care. Left-wing politicians are forced to flee Russia, facing criminal charges. International trade unions such as IndustriALL and the International Transport Federation are banned and any contact with them will result in long prison sentences.
There is a clear reason for this crackdown on the Russian left. The heavy toll of the war gives rise to growing discontent among the mass of working people. The poor pay for this massacre with their lives and wellbeing, and opposition to war is consistently highest among the poorest. The left has the message and resolve to expose the connection between imperialist war and human suffering.
Dr. Kagarlitsky has responded to the court's outrageous decision with calm and dignity: “We just need to live a little longer and survive this dark period for our country,” he said. Russia is nearing a period of radical change and upheaval, and freedom for Dr. Kagarlitsky and other activists is a condition for these changes to take a progressive course.
We demand that Boris Kagarlitsky and all other antiwar prisoners be released immediately and unconditionally.
We also call on the authorities of the Russian Federation to reverse their growing repression of dissent and respect their citizens' freedom of speech and right to protest.
Sign to Demand the Release of Boris Kagarlitsky
https://freeboris.info
The petition is also available on Change.org
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*Major Announcement*
Claudia De la Cruz wins
Peace and Freedom Party primary in California!
We have an exciting announcement. The votes are still being counted in California, but the Claudia-Karina “Vote Socialist” campaign has achieved a clear and irreversible lead in the Peace and Freedom Party primary. Based on the current count, Claudia has 46% of the vote compared to 40% for Cornel West. A significant majority of PFP’s newly elected Central Committee, which will formally choose the nominee at its August convention, have also pledged their support to the Claudia-Karina campaign.
We are excited to campaign in California now and expect Claudia De la Cruz to be the candidate on the ballot of the Peace and Freedom Party in November.
We achieved another big accomplishment this week - we’re officially on the ballot in Hawai’i! This comes after also petitioning to successfully gain ballot access in Utah. We are already petitioning in many other states. Each of these achievements is powered by the tremendous effort of our volunteers and grassroots organizers across the country. When we’re organized, people power can move mountains!
We need your help to keep the momentum going. Building a campaign like this takes time, energy, and money. We know that our class enemies — the billionaires, bankers, and CEO’s — put huge sums toward loyal politicians and other henchmen who defend their interests. They will use all the money and power at their disposal to stop movements like ours. As an independent, socialist party, our campaign is relying on contributions from the working class and people like you.
We call on each and every one of our supporters to set up a monthly or one-time donation to support this campaign to help it keep growing and reaching more people. A new socialist movement, independent of the Democrats and Republicans, is being built but it will only happen when we all pitch in.
The Claudia-Karina campaign calls to end all U.S. aid to Israel. End this government’s endless wars. We want jobs for all, with union representation and wages that let us live with dignity. Housing, healthcare, and education for all - without the lifelong debt. End the ruthless attacks on women, Black people, immigrants, and LGBTQ people. These are just some of the demands that are resonating across the country. Help us take the next step:
Volunteer: https://votesocialist2024.com/volunteer
Donate: https://votesocialist2024.com/donate
See you in the streets,
Claudia & Karina
Don't Forget! Join our telegram channel for regular updates: https://t.me/+KtYBAKgX51JhNjMx
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We are all Palestinian
Listen and view this beautiful, powerful, song by Mistahi Corkill on YouTube at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQwuhbLczgI
Greetings,
Here is my new song and music video, We are all Palestinian, linked below. If you find it inspiring, please feel free to share with others. All the best!
Mistahi
We are all Palestinian
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Labor for Palestine
Thousands of labor representatives marched Saturday, December 16, in Oakland, California. —Photo by Leon Kunstenaar
Video of December 16th Labor rally for Palestine.
Bay Area Unions and Workers Rally and March For Palestine In Oakland
https://youtu.be/L9k79honqIA
For More Information:
bayarealabor4palestine@gmail.com
Production of Labor Video Project
www.labormedia.net
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Just Like The Nazis Did
By David Rovics
After so many decades of patronage
By the world’s greatest empire
So many potential agreements
Were rejected by opening fire
After crushing so many uprisings
Now they’re making their ultimate bid
Pursuing their Final Solution
Just like the Nazis did
They forced refugees into ghettos
Then set the ghettos aflame
Murdering writers and poets
And so no one remember their names
Killing their entire families
The grandparents, women and kids
The uncles and cousins and babies
Just like the Nazis did
They’re bombing all means of sustaining
Human life at all
See the few shelters remaining
Watch as the tower blocks fall
They’re bombing museums and libraries
In order to get rid
Of any memory of the people who lived here
Just like the Nazis did
They’re saying these people are animals
And they should all end up dead
They’re sending soldiers into schools
And shooting children in the head
The rhetoric is identical
And with Gaza off the grid
They’ve already said what happens next
Just like the Nazis did
Words of war for domestic consumption
And lies for all the rest
To try to distract our attention
Among their enablers in the West
Because Israel needs their imports
To keep those pallets on the skids
They need fuel and they need missiles
Just like the Nazis did
They’re using food as a weapon
They’re using water that way, too
They’re trying to kill everyone in Gaza
Or make them flee, it’s true
As the pundits talk of “after the war”
Like with the Fall of Madrid
The victors are preparing for more
Just like the Nazis did
But it’s after the conquest’s complete
If history is any guide
When the occupying army
Is positioned to decide
When disease and famine kills
Whoever may have hid
Behind the ghetto walls
Just like the Nazis did
All around the world
People are trying to tell
There's a genocide unfolding
Ringing alarm bells
But with such a powerful axis
And so many lucrative bids
They know who wants their money
Just like the Nazis did
There's so many decades of patronage
For the world's greatest empire
So many potential agreements
Were rejected by opening fire
They're crushing so many uprisings
Now they're making their ultimate bid
Pursuing their final solution
Just like the Nazis did
Just like the Nazis did
Just like the Nazis did
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Free Julian Assange
Immediate Repeated Action Needed to Free Assange
Please call your Congressional Representatives, the White House, and the DOJ. Calls are tallied—they do count. We are to believe we are represented in this country. This is a political case, so our efforts can change things politically as well. Please take this action as often as you can:
Find your representatives:
https://www.congress.gov/members/find-your-member
Leave each of your representatives a message individually to:
· Drop the charges against Julian Assange
· Speak out publicly against the indictment and
· Sign on to Rashida Tlaib's letter to the DOJ to drop the charges:
202-224-3121—Capitol Main Switchboard
Leave a message on the White House comment line to
Demand Julian Assange be pardoned:
202-456-1111
Tuesday–Thursday, 11:00 A.M.–3:00 P.M. EST
Call the DOJ and demand they drop the charges against Julian Assange:
202-353-1555—DOJ Comment Line
202-514-2000 Main Switchboard
Sign the petition:
https://dontextraditeassange.com/petition/
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Mumia Abu-Jamal is Innocent!
FREE HIM NOW!
Write to Mumia at:
Smart Communications/PADOC
Mumia Abu-Jamal #AM-8335
SCI Mahanoy
P.O. Box 33028
St. Petersburg, FL 33733
Join the Fight for Mumia's Life
Since September, Mumia Abu-Jamal's health has been declining at a concerning rate. He has lost weight, is anemic, has high blood pressure and an extreme flair up of his psoriasis, and his hair has fallen out. In April 2021 Mumia underwent open heart surgery. Since then, he has been denied cardiac rehabilitation care including a healthy diet and exercise.
Donate to Mumia Abu-Jamal's Emergency Legal and Medical Defense Fund, Official 2024
Mumia has instructed PrisonRadio to set up this fund. Gifts donated here are designated for the Mumia Abu-Jamal Medical and Legal Defense Fund. If you are writing a check or making a donation in another way, note this in the memo line.
Send to:
Mumia Medical and Legal Fund c/o Prison Radio
P.O. Box 411074, San Francisco, CA 94103
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Leonard Peltier Update—Experiencing the Onset of Blindness
Greetings Relatives,
Leonard is in trouble, physically. He is experiencing the onset of blindness. He is losing strength in his limbs. His blood sugar is testing erratically. This, on top of already severe conditions that have become dire. Leonard has not seen a dentist in ten years. His few remaining teeth are infected. He is locked down, in pain.
As always, Leonard’s fortitude remains astonishing. He is not scared of dying. He does not want to die in lockdown.
Our legal team has an emergency transfer underway. They are going to extraordinary lengths. We must get a top ophthalmologist to him. Thanks to your calls, the BOP did see him. They told him a specialist would be 8 - 10 weeks out.
Leonard does not have eight to ten weeks. He needs emergency care immediately.
If you can, please donate to this GoFundMe. Every penny matters. If you cannot, please share. If you are so inclined, go to www.freeleonardpeltiernow.org and contact the officials listed.
https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-leonard-peltier-get-medical-care-freedom?utm_campaign=p_cp+fundraiser-sidebar&utm_medium=copy_link_all&utm_source=customer
As always, thank you for your support.
Dawn Lawson
Personal Assistant Leonard Peltier
Executive Assistant Jenipher Jones, Esq.
Secretary Leonard Peltier Ad Hoc Committee
1-800-901-4413
dawn@allfiredup.blue
www.freeleonardpeltiernow.org
Leonard Peltier Update - Not One More Year
Coleman 1 has gone on permanent lockdown.
The inmates are supposed to be allowed out two hours a day. I have not heard from Leonard since the 18th.
The last time I talked to Leonard, he asked where his supporters were. He asked me if anyone cared about these lockdowns.
Leonard lives in a filthy, cold cell 22 to 24 hours a day. He has not seen a dentist in ten years. I asked him, “On a scale of 1 to 10, is your pain level at 13?” He said, “Something like that.” Leonard is a relentless truth-teller. He does not like it when I say things that do not make sense mathematically.
That is why Leonard remains imprisoned. He will not lie. He will not beg, grovel, or denounce his beliefs.
Please raise your voice. Ask your representatives why they have abdicated their responsibility to oversee the Bureau of Prisons and ensure they adhere to Constitutional law.
Uhuru, The African People’s Socialist Party, has stepped up for Leonard. NOT ONE MORE YEAR.
Fight for Free Speech – YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FM8GDeGv90E
Leonard should not have spent a day in prison. Click “LEARN” on our website to find out what really happened on that reservation:
www.freeleonardpeltiernow.org
Write to:
Leonard Peltier 89637-132
USP Coleman 1
P.O. Box 1033
Coleman, FL 33521
Note: Letters, address and return address must be in writing—no stickers—and on plain white paper.
Sign our petition urging President Biden to grant clemency to Leonard Peltier:
https://www.freeleonardpeltier.com/petition
Email: contact@whoisleonardpeltier.info
Address: 116 W. Osborne Ave. Tampa, Florida 33603
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Updates From Kevin Cooper
A Never-ending Constitutional Violation
A summary of the current status of Kevin Cooper’s case by the Kevin Cooper Defense Committee
On October 26, 2023, the law firm of Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe, LLP wrote a rebuttal in response to the Special Counsel's January 13, 2023 report upholding the conviction of their client Kevin Cooper. A focus of the rebuttal was that all law enforcement files were not turned over to the Special Counsel during their investigation, despite a request for them to the San Bernardino County District Attorney's office.
On October 29, 2023, Law Professors Lara Bazelon and Charlie Nelson Keever, who run the six member panel that reviews wrongful convictions for the San Francisco County District Attorney's office, published an OpEd in the San Francisco Chronicle calling the "Innocence Investigation” done by the Special Counsel in the Cooper case a “Sham Investigation” largely because Cooper has unsuccessfully fought for years to obtain the police and prosecutor files in his case. This is a Brady claim, named for the U.S. Supreme court’s 1963 case establishing the Constitutional rule that defendants are entitled to any information in police and prosecutor's possession that could weaken the state's case or point to innocence. Brady violations are a leading cause of wrongful convictions. The Special Counsel's report faults Cooper for not offering up evidence of his own despite the fact that the best evidence to prove or disprove Brady violations or other misconduct claims are in those files that the San Bernardino County District Attorney's office will not turn over to the Special Counsel or to Cooper's attorneys.
On December 14, 2023, the president of the American Bar Association (ABA), Mary Smith, sent Governor Gavin Newsom a three page letter on behalf of the ABA stating in part that Mr.Cooper's counsel objected to the state's failure to provide Special Counsel all documents in their possession relating to Mr.Cooper's conviction, and that concerns about missing information are not new. For nearly 40 years Mr.Cooper's attorneys have sought this same information from the state.
On December 19, 2023, Bob Egelko, a journalist for the San Francisco Chronicle wrote an article about the ABA letter to the Governor that the prosecutors apparently withheld evidence from the Governor's legal team in the Cooper case.
These are just a few recent examples concerning the ongoing failure of the San Bernardino County District Attorney to turn over to Cooper's attorney's the files that have been requested, even though under the law and especially the U.S. Constitution, the District Attorney of San Bernardino county is required to turn over to the defendant any and all material and or exculpatory evidence that they have in their files. Apparently, they must have something in their files because they refuse to turn them over to anyone.
The last time Cooper's attorney's received files from the state, in 2004, it wasn't from the D.A. but a Deputy Attorney General named Holly Wilkens in Judge Huff's courtroom. Cooper's attorneys discovered a never before revealed police report showing that a shirt was discovered that had blood on it and was connected to the murders for which Cooper was convicted, and that the shirt had disappeared. It had never been tested for blood. It was never turned over to Cooper's trial attorney, and no one knows where it is or what happened to it. Cooper's attorneys located the woman who found that shirt on the side of the road and reported it to the Sheriff's Department. She was called to Judge Huff's court to testify about finding and reporting that shirt to law enforcement. That shirt was the second shirt found that had blood on it that was not the victims’ blood. This was in 2004, 19 years after Cooper's conviction.
It appears that this ongoing constitutional violation that everyone—from the Special Counsel to the Governor's legal team to the Governor himself—seems to know about, but won't do anything about, is acceptable in order to uphold Cooper's conviction.
But this type of thing is supposed to be unacceptable in the United States of America where the Constitution is supposed to stand for something other than a piece of paper with writing on it. How can a Governor, his legal team, people who support and believe in him ignore a United States citizen’s Constitutional Rights being violated for 40 years in order to uphold a conviction?
This silence is betrayal of the Constitution. This permission and complicity by the Governor and his team is against everything that he and they claim to stand for as progressive politicians. They have accepted the Special Counsel's report even though the Special Counsel did not receive the files from the district attorney that may not only prove that Cooper is innocent, but that he was indeed framed by the Sheriff’s Department; and that evidence was purposely destroyed and tampered with, that certain witnesses were tampered with, or ignored if they had information that would have helped Cooper at trial, that evidence that the missing shirt was withheld from Cooper's trial attorney, and so much more.
Is the Governor going to get away with turning a blind eye to this injustice under his watch?
Are progressive people going to stay silent and turn their eyes blind in order to hopefully get him to end the death penalty for some while using Cooper as a sacrificial lamb?
An immediate act of solidarity we can all do right now is to write to Kevin and assure him of our continuing support in his fight for justice. Here’s his address:
Mr. Kevin Cooper
C-65304. 4-EB-82
San Quentin State Prison
San Quentin, CA 94974
Call California Governor Newsom:
1-(916) 445-2841
Press 1 for English or 2 for Spanish,
press 6 to speak with a representative and
wait for someone to answer
(Monday-Friday, 9:00 A.M. to 5:00 P.M. PST—12:00 P.M. to 8:00 P.M. EST)
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The writers' organization PEN America is circulating this petition on behalf of Jason Renard Walker, a Texas prisoner whose life is being threatened because of his exposés of the Texas prison system.
See his book, Reports from within the Belly of the Beast; available on Amazon at:
https://www.amazon.com/Reports-Within-Belly-Beast-Department-ebook/dp/B084656JDZ/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_top?ie=UTF8
Petition: https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/protect-whistleblowers-in-carceral-settings
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Tell Congress to Help #FreeDanielHale
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Resources for Resisting Federal Repression
https://www.nlg.org/federalrepressionresources/
Since June of 2020, activists have been subjected to an increasingly aggressive crackdown on protests by federal law enforcement. The federal response to the movement for Black Lives has included federal criminal charges for activists, door knocks by federal law enforcement agents, and increased use of federal troops to violently police protests.
The NLG National Office is releasing this resource page for activists who are resisting federal repression. It includes a link to our emergency hotline numbers, as well as our library of Know-Your-Rights materials, our recent federal repression webinar, and a list of some of our recommended resources for activists. We will continue to update this page.
Please visit the NLG Mass Defense Program page for general protest-related legal support hotlines run by NLG chapters.
Emergency Hotlines
If you are contacted by federal law enforcement, you should exercise all of your rights. It is always advisable to speak to an attorney before responding to federal authorities.
State and Local Hotlines
If you have been contacted by the FBI or other federal law enforcement, in one of the following areas, you may be able to get help or information from one of these local NLG hotlines for:
Portland, Oregon: (833) 680-1312
San Francisco, California: (415) 285-1041 or fbi_hotline@nlgsf.org
Seattle, Washington: (206) 658-7963
National Hotline
If you are located in an area with no hotline, you can call the following number:
National NLG Federal Defense Hotline: (212) 679-2811
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1) Assange Extradition On Hold Until U.S. Gives More Assurances
British judges asked the United States, which wants to try the WikiLeaks founder on espionage charges, for more guarantees about his treatment.
By Megan Specia, Reporting from London, March 26, 2024
Julian Assange’s wife, Stella Assange, speaking outside the High Court in London during a hearing in February. Credit...Carl Court/Getty Images
The High Court in London ruled on Tuesday that Julian Assange, the embattled WikiLeaks founder, cannot be immediately extradited to the United States, saying American authorities must offer assurances about his treatment first, including over his First Amendment rights and protection from the death penalty.
The decision had been highly anticipated as the moment the court would decide if Mr. Assange had exhausted his challenges within British courts. Instead, in a nuanced ruling, two judges determined that clarity on his fate would again be on hold.
The two High Court judges said that the court “will grant leave to appeal” on narrow grounds, “unless a satisfactory assurance is provided by the Government of the United States of America.”
The court has given the United States three weeks “to give satisfactory assurances” that Mr. Assange “is permitted to rely on the First Amendment to the United States Constitution (which protects free speech), that he is not prejudiced at trial (including sentence) by reason of his nationality, that he is afforded the same First Amendment protections as a United States citizen and that the death penalty is not imposed.”
If those assurances are not given by April 16, then Mr. Assange will be granted a full appeal hearing. If the United States does provide the requested assurances, there will be a further hearing on May 20 to decide if they “are satisfactory, and to make a final decision on leave to appeal.”
While the United States has already provided some assurances over the treatment of Mr. Assange if he was extradited, the High Court judges asked for additional guarantees.
The United States has sought the extradition of Mr. Assange since 2019, and the British government approved an extradition order in 2022, but he has fought his removal through the courts while detained in a high-security prison in southeast London.
Mr. Assange, 52, is accused of violating the U.S. Espionage Act with WikiLeaks’ 2010 publication of tens of thousands of classified military and diplomatic documents leaked by Chelsea Manning, an Army intelligence analyst.
Speaking outside the London court on Tuesday, Stella Assange, Mr. Assange’s wife, urged the U.S. government to drop the charges against her husband.
“The Biden administration should not offer assurances. They should drop this shameful case that should never have been brought,” she told reporters gathered outside the court. “Julian should never have been in prison for a single day. This is a shame on every democracy. Julian is a political prisoner.”
As Mr. Assange’s case has unfolded over the years, it has become highly charged politically, raising First Amendment issues and alarming advocates of media freedom. The United States, Britain, where his extradition case is being heard, and Australia — where Mr. Assange is a citizen — are all involved, and in recent months there have been calls for some political resolution to see the charges reduced or dismissed.
Jameel Jaffer, executive director of the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, said that Tuesday’s ruling “presents the U.S. government with another opportunity to do what it should have done long ago — drop the Espionage Act charges.”
“Prosecuting Assange for the publication of classified information would have profound implications for press freedom,” Mr. Jaffer said in a statement, “Because publishing classified information is what journalists and news organizations often need to do in order to expose wrongdoing by government.”
The U.S. Department of Justice declined to comment.
Here’s a brief history of the case against Julian Assange.
Mr. Assange moved to Britain in late 2010 from Sweden. The Swedish police issued an international arrest warrant for him later that year over sexual assault accusations.
In June 2012, he was granted political asylum in the Ecuadorean Embassy in London — where he stayed for the next seven years.
Sweden dropped its case against Mr. Assange. He was thrown out of the embassy in 2019, and shortly after, the United States announced an indictment against him, charging him with 18 counts of violating the Espionage Act by participating in a criminal hacking conspiracy and by encouraging hackers to steal secret material.
He was promptly arrested, and has been seeking to halt his removal to the United States through British courts ever since.
In 2021, a British judge denied the extradition request for Mr. Assange, ruling that he was at risk of suicide if sent to an American prison. But the High Court later reversed that decision based on assurances from the Biden administration that he would not be held in the United States’ highest-security facility and that, if convicted, he could serve his sentence in Australia.
By 2022, Priti Patel, who as Britain’s home secretary was responsible for the country’s borders and security, had approved the extradition request — and Mr. Assange’s legal team fought that as well.
When a lower-court judge denied their request that he be allowed to appeal, they asked the High Court to overturn that move.
Mr. Assange’s lawyers say that he could face up to 175 years in prison if convicted, although lawyers for the United States government have said that he was more likely to be sentenced to four to six years.
And here’s what happened at the most recent court hearings.
During a two-day hearing in the High Court in February, Mr. Assange’s lawyer Edward Fitzgerald told the judges, Victoria Sharp and Jeremy Johnson, that his client had been “exposing serious criminality” by publishing the leaked documents, and laid out nine grounds on which Mr. Assange hoped to appeal the extradition order.
In their ruling on Tuesday, the judges dismissed six of the nine grounds for appeal as unfounded.
But they said that Mr. Assange had a “real prospect of success” on three of the issues raised, including on the threat to his freedom of expression in the United States; that his trial might be prejudiced because as an Australian he might not be given the same rights as American citizens; and that there was nothing to prevent the death penalty from being imposed, which would violate British extradition policies.
The court decided that “unless satisfactory assurances are provided, the court will grant leave to appeal on those grounds.”
Mr. Assange did not appear in the courtroom, despite having been granted rare permission to do so for the first time since 2021. His lawyers told the court that he was not well enough to attend or even to attend via video link from prison.
At a news briefing in February, Ms. Assange had said that her husband’s legal team would “definitely and immediately file an application” with the European Court of Human Rights if blocked from further appeals in Britain, and that he would ask for an “injunction to stop the U.K. from extraditing him.”
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2) A 25-year-old was killed in Israel, while 7 were killed overnight in Lebanon.
By Cassandra Vinograd and Hwaida Saad, March 27, 2024
An emergency center in the town of al-Habbariyeh, Lebanon, was destroyed in an overnight attack, according to Lebanon’s official news agency. Credit...Mohammad Zaatari/Associated Press
Wednesday, killing at least one person in a barrage that it said was retaliation for an Israeli strike that the authorities said killed seven medics overnight in southern Lebanon.
For months, Hezbollah and Israel’s military have traded fire across the Israel-Lebanon border, raising fears that the war in Gaza between Israel and Hamas — an ally of Hezbollah — could spiral into a wider regional conflict. The violence has displaced tens of thousands of people from their homes.
The Israeli military said on Wednesday that it carried out an overnight strike targeting a “significant terrorist operative” and others who were with him near the town of al-Habbariyeh in southern Lebanon. Lebanon’s Ministry of Health said the strike hit an emergency medical center and killed seven paramedics, denouncing what it called an “unacceptable” attack on a health center.
Hezbollah’s response was swift: It launched the volley of rockets into northern Israel in retaliation against the Habbariyeh strike and to show solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza, the group said.
A direct hit on a building in the Israeli city of Kiryat Shmona killed a 25-year-old, according to Magen David Adom, Israel’s nonprofit emergency medical service.
Hezbollah is a key ally of Hamas, whose Oct. 7 attacks on Israel led to the war in Gaza. Since October, Hezbollah has been firing rockets into northern Israel on a near-daily basis. The Israeli military regularly responds with strikes against Hezbollah-linked targets inside Lebanon.
Both Hezbollah and Hamas are backed by Iran, and the clashes along Israel’s border with Lebanon have raised concerns that the war in Gaza could erupt into a wider regional conflict.
Some days, Hezbollah has fired as many as 100 short-range rockets. Israel, in turn, has struck targets as far as 60 miles inside Lebanon. Hezbollah’s attacks so far have been big enough to demonstrate the group’s solidarity with Hamas but measured enough to avoid provoking a war with Israel.
Kiryat Shmona, where the 25-year-old was killed on Wednesday, used to be home to about 24,000 people but only about 1,500 inhabitants remain. Many residents, now scattered among 220 hotels across Israel, did not even wait for the government’s order on Oct. 20 to evacuate.
Rawan Sheikh Ahmad and Isabel Kershner reporting.
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3) Gazan authorities say 12 people drowned trying to retrieve airdropped aid.
By Matthew Mpoke Bigg, March 27, 2024
Twelve people drowned trying to retrieve aid that was airdropped into the sea, according to Gazan authorities. Credit...Reuters (Screenshot)
The authorities in Gaza said late Tuesday that a total of 12 people had drowned while trying to retrieve airdropped aid that had fallen into the Mediterranean, calling for an end to the airdrops — a last resort to get urgently needed food and other supplies into the enclave — and an increase in deliveries by land.
People waded into the water from a beach in northern Gaza on Monday afternoon to get the aid packages, according to Ahmed Abu Qamar, a Gaza-based researcher for EuroMed Rights, a human rights group, who said he had spoken to witnesses. He also said that around a dozen people had drowned, saying that at least one had become entangled in a parachute.
It was not possible to confirm the details independently and it was not clear which country was responsible for the airdrop in question.
Three of approximately 80 aid bundles dropped by the United States on Monday “were reported to have had parachute malfunctions and landed in the water,” a Pentagon spokeswoman, Sabrina Singh, said at a news conference on Tuesday. However, she said that she could not confirm the reports of the drownings.
The aid was intentionally dropped over water and intended to be carried to land by wind drift, to mitigate potential harm in the event that the parachutes failed to deploy, Ms. Singh said.
The fatalities were not the first connected to aid drops. Earlier this month, the authorities in Gaza said that at least five Palestinians had been killed and several others wounded when airdropped aid packages fell on them in Gaza City. On Tuesday, the Gaza government media office said that six other people had died during what it characterized as stampedes as they tried to get aid that was airdropped in other locations.
The United Nations and other aid organizations say that trucks, rather than planes, are the cheapest, safest and most effective means of delivering aid to Gaza, a territory whose population of more than two million faces a hunger crisis that humanitarian organizations say borders on famine.
But several governments, including those of the United States, France, Jordan and Egypt, have in recent weeks used airdrops to supplement aid that arrives by land, while also calling on Israel to allow in more trucks.
Britain airdropped aid to Gaza for the first time on Monday, delivering over 10 tons of supplies along the northern coastline as part of a mission led by Jordan, the British defense ministry said in a statement.
Governments say that the drops are necessary because of a steep fall in the amount of aid entering Gaza since Oct. 7, when Hamas led a deadly attack on Israel. The number of aid trucks entering Gaza since then has fallen by around 75 percent, according to U.N. data. One charity, World Central Kitchen, delivered a bargeload of aid to Gaza earlier this month.
Governments and aid groups say Israel has slowed aid deliveries through stringent inspections of trucks. The authorities in Israel blame UNRWA, the United Nations aid agency that supports Palestinians, arguing that Israel can inspect and process aid trucks faster than humanitarian groups can distribute the aid inside the territory.
Abu Bakr Bashir , Adam Sella and Anushka Patil reporting.
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4) Israel Deploys Expansive Facial Recognition Program in Gaza
The experimental effort, which has not been disclosed, is being used to conduct mass surveillance of Palestinians in Gaza, according to military officials and others.
By Sheera Frenkel, Reporting from Tel Aviv, March 27, 2024
Displaced Palestinians arriving at a refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip this month. Israel has deployed facial recognition technology at checkpoints along roads in Gaza, according to military officials. Credit...Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Within minutes of walking through an Israeli military checkpoint along Gaza’s central highway on Nov. 19, the Palestinian poet Mosab Abu Toha was asked to step out of the crowd. He put down his 3-year-old son, whom he was carrying, and sat in front of a military jeep.
Half an hour later, Mr. Abu Toha heard his name called. Then he was blindfolded and led away for interrogation.
“I had no idea what was happening or how they could suddenly know my full legal name,” said the 31-year-old, who added that he had no ties to the militant group Hamas and had been trying to leave Gaza for Egypt.
It turned out Mr. Abu Toha had walked into the range of cameras embedded with facial recognition technology, according to three Israeli intelligence officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity. After his face was scanned and he was identified, an artificial intelligence program found that the poet was on an Israeli list of wanted persons, they said.
Mr. Abu Toha is one of hundreds of Palestinians who have been picked out by a previously undisclosed Israeli facial recognition program that was started in Gaza late last year. The expansive and experimental effort is being used to conduct mass surveillance there, collecting and cataloging the faces of Palestinians without their knowledge or consent, according to Israeli intelligence officers, military officials and soldiers.
The technology was initially used in Gaza to search for Israelis who were taken hostage by Hamas during the Oct. 7 cross-border raids, the intelligence officials said. After Israel embarked on a ground offensive in Gaza, it increasingly turned to the program to root out anyone with ties to Hamas or other militant groups. At times, the technology wrongly flagged civilians as wanted Hamas militants, one officer said.
The facial recognition program, which is run by Israel’s military intelligence unit, including the cyber-intelligence division Unit 8200, relies on technology from Corsight, a private Israeli company, four intelligence officers said. It also uses Google Photos, they said. Combined, the technologies enable Israel to pick faces out of crowds and grainy drone footage.
Three of the people with knowledge of the program said they were speaking out because of concerns that it was a misuse of time and resources by Israel.
An Israeli army spokesman declined to comment on activity in Gaza, but said the military “carries out necessary security and intelligence operations, while making significant efforts to minimize harm to the uninvolved population.” He added, “Naturally, we cannot refer to operational and intelligence capabilities in this context.”
Facial recognition technology has spread across the globe in recent years, fueled by increasingly sophisticated A.I. systems. While some countries use the technology to make air travel easier, China and Russia have deployed the technology against minority groups and to suppress dissent. Israel’s use of facial recognition in Gaza stands out as an application of the technology in a war.
Matt Mahmoudi, a researcher with Amnesty International, said Israel’s use of facial recognition was a concern because it could lead to “a complete dehumanization of Palestinians” where they were not seen as individuals. He added that Israeli soldiers were unlikely to question the technology when it identified a person as being part of a militant group, even though the technology makes mistakes.
Israel previously used facial recognition in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, according to an Amnesty report last year, but the effort in Gaza goes further.
In the West Bank and East Jerusalem, Israelis have a homegrown facial recognition system called Blue Wolf, according to the Amnesty report. At checkpoints in West Bank cities such as Hebron, Palestinians are scanned by high-resolution cameras before being permitted to pass. Soldiers also use smartphone apps to scan the faces of Palestinians and add them to a database, the report said.
In Gaza, which Israel withdrew from in 2005, no facial recognition technology was present. Surveillance of Hamas in Gaza was instead conducted by tapping phone lines, interrogating Palestinian prisoners, harvesting drone footage, getting access to private social media accounts and hacking into telecommunications systems, Israeli intelligence officers said.
After Oct. 7, Israeli intelligence officers in Unit 8200 turned to that surveillance for information on the Hamas gunmen who breached Israel’s borders. The unit also combed through footage of the attacks from security cameras, as well as videos uploaded by Hamas on social media, one officer said. He said the unit had been told to create a “hit list” of Hamas members who participated in the attack.
Corsight was then brought in to create a facial recognition program in Gaza, three Israeli intelligence officers said.
The company, with headquarters in Tel Aviv, says on its website that its technology requires less than 50 percent of a face to be visible for accurate recognition. Robert Watts, Corsight’s president, posted this month on LinkedIn that the facial recognition technology could work with “extreme angles, (even from drones,) darkness, poor quality.”
Corsight declined to comment.
Unit 8200 personnel soon found that Corsight’s technology struggled if footage was grainy and faces were obscured, one officer said. When the military tried identifying the bodies of Israelis killed on Oct. 7, the technology could not always work for people whose faces had been injured. There were also false positives, or cases when a person was mistakenly identified as being connected to Hamas, the officer said.
To supplement Corsight’s technology, Israeli officers used Google Photos, the free photo sharing and storage service from Google, three intelligence officers said. By uploading a database of known persons to Google Photos, Israeli officers could use the service’s photo search function to identify people.
Google’s ability to match faces and identify people even with only a small portion of their face visible was superior to other technology, one officer said. The military continued to use Corsight because it was customizable, the officers said.
A Google spokesman said Google Photos was a free consumer product that “does not provide identities for unknown people in photographs.”
The facial recognition program in Gaza grew as Israel expanded its military offensive there. Israeli soldiers entering Gaza were given cameras equipped with the technology. Soldiers also set up checkpoints along major roads that Palestinians were using to flee areas of heavy fighting, with cameras that scanned faces.
The program’s goals were to search for Israeli hostages, as well as Hamas fighters who could be detained for questioning, the Israeli intelligence officers said.
The guidelines of whom to stop were intentionally broad, one said. Palestinian prisoners were asked to name people from their communities who they believed were part of Hamas. Israel would then search for those people, hoping they would yield more intelligence.
Mr. Abu Toha, the Palestinian poet, was named as a Hamas operative by someone in the northern Gaza town of Beit Lahia, where he lived with his family, the Israeli intelligence officers said. The officers said there was no specific intelligence attached to his file explaining a connection to Hamas.
In an interview, Mr. Abu Toha, who wrote “Things You May Find Hidden in My Ear: Poems From Gaza,” said he has no connection to Hamas.
When he and his family were stopped at the military checkpoint on Nov. 19 as they tried leaving for Egypt, he said he had not shown any identification when he was asked to step out of the crowd.
After he was handcuffed and taken to sit under a tent with several dozen men, he heard someone say the Israeli army had used a “new technology” on the group. Within 30 minutes, Israeli soldiers called him by his full legal name.
Mr. Abu Toha said he was beaten and interrogated in an Israeli detention center for two days before being returned to Gaza with no explanation. He wrote about his experience in The New Yorker, where he is a contributor. He credited his release to a campaign led by journalists at The New Yorker and other publications.
Upon his release, Israeli soldiers told him his interrogation had been a “mistake,” he said.
In a statement at the time, the Israeli military said Mr. Abu Toha was taken for questioning because of “intelligence indicating a number of interactions between several civilians and terror organizations inside the Gaza Strip.”
Mr. Abu Toha, who is now in Cairo with his family, said he was not aware of any facial recognition program in Gaza.
“I did not know Israel was capturing or recording my face,” he said. But Israel has “been watching us for years from the sky with their drones. They have been watching us gardening and going to schools and kissing our wives. I feel like I have been watched for so long.”
Kashmir Hill contributed reporting.
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5) Aid organizations sound the alarm for patients at embattled hospitals.
By Hiba Yazbek reporting from Jerusalem, March 28, 2024
Smoke rising from the area around Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City last week. Credit...Dawoud Abu Alkas/Reuters
The Israeli military said on Thursday that it was carrying out raids in and around two hospitals in Gaza, as the United Nations and aid groups expressed alarm for patients and medical workers there and warned of the rapidly deteriorating state of Gaza’s health care system.
Fierce battles have been raging in and around Al-Shifa Hospital, the largest in the strip, since an Israeli assault there began 10 days ago.
The renewed fighting around the hospital, which Israel first raided in November, underscores the problems Israel has had in maintaining control of parts of Gaza its forces have supposedly captured. So far, the Israeli government, led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, has not agreed on a detailed plan for governing the enclave.
The Israeli military said in a statement that nearly 200 people whom it called “terrorists” had been killed in the area and that its troops had taken fire from militants inside and outside one of the hospital’s buildings. Gazan authorities said that over the course of the raid, more than 200 civilians had been killed and another 1,000 had been detained. Neither claim could be independently verified.
Israel maintains that Hamas, the armed group that led an attack into southern Israel on Oct. 7, is using hospitals in Gaza for military purposes, a claim that Hamas and hospital administrators have denied.
Witnesses have described days of fear as fighting has continued at the Al-Shifa complex, with several patients dying as a result of the assault.
“We are constantly hearing strikes and gunfire day and night and seeing smoke rising from buildings,” said Ezzeldine al-Dali, who lives less than a mile from Al-Shifa. He said that several homes in the area were set on fire by Israeli forces after their occupants evacuated. That claim could not be independently verified.
“The scale of destruction around us is indescribable,” said Mr. al-Dali, 22, in a voice message on Thursday. “The homes that have not been reduced to rubble have been burned,” he added.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the head of the World Health Organization, said on Thursday that Gaza’s health system was “barely surviving.” He called for “an immediate end to attacks on hospitals” and for the protection of medical staff, patients and civilians.
Israel initially raided Al-Shifa Hospital in November, and struggled to prove its early claim that Hamas maintained a command and control center beneath the site. Evidence examined by The New York Times suggests Hamas has used the hospital for cover, stored weapons inside it and maintained a hardened tunnel beneath the complex.
The fact that the Israeli military’s operation at the hospital and in the neighborhood has lasted longer than its previous raid there in November suggests that Hamas and allied groups have returned and have built up a significant force there, perhaps in recent weeks, military analysts say.
That in turn suggests that Israel’s strategy in north Gaza involves repeated raids in places where Hamas or other groups have reasserted themselves after Israeli forces have tried to clear them, according to military analysts.
But the problems Israel has faced in securing the hospital and its vicinity also raise the question of how easily Israel’s military could eliminate the threat from Hamas without a long term-presence in Gaza or an alternative governing structure in the territory.
Israel has withdrawn most of its forces from the north and its current strategy involves raids, according to Yaakov Amidror, a retired major general who served as national security adviser to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel in an earlier government.
He described the operations as “mopping up” and “cleaning up the area” and said they would unfold over months based on information gathered not least through interrogations of detainees.
“In the north, whenever we go into places based on intelligence we fight both on and under the ground,” he said in an interview with reference to a network of tunnels built by Hamas.
At least six Palestinian militias have participated in recent attacks targeting Israeli forces in and around Al-Shifa, and there have been more than 70 such attacks since the raid began on March 18, according to an analysis by the Institute for the Study of War, a research group based in Washington.
“This high rate of attack indicates that Palestinian militias retain a significant degree of combat effectiveness in the area, despite continued Israeli clearing efforts around Gaza City,” according to the analysis, which did not elaborate on the nature of each attack.
The Israeli military said that its forces were also continuing to operate around Al-Amal Hospital and the town of Al-Qarara, in the Khan Younis area of southern Gaza, and had killed dozens that it said were terrorists.
Al-Amal went out of service on Monday night after Israeli forces besieged it a day earlier and forced everyone inside to leave before closing off its entrances with earthen barriers, according to the Palestine Red Crescent Society, which runs the hospital.
“The loss of Al-Amal is another blow to an already collapsing health system,” the International Committee of the Red Cross said on Thursday. It added that thousands of people in need of medical treatment were not able to receive it.
Cassandra Vinograd contributed reporting from Jerusalem, and Matthew Mpoke Bigg from London.
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6) Ireland will intervene in South Africa’s genocide case against Israel at the top U.N. court.
By Megan Specia, March 28, 2024
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A march in support of Palestine in Dublin in November. Credit...Clodagh Kilcoyne/Reuters
Ireland plans to file an argument in South Africa’s genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice, according to the Irish government, a move that comes as the country has strongly condemned Israel’s actions against civilians in Gaza.
South Africa has brought a case against Israel in the United Nations court, arguing that Israel is committing genocide, a claim Israel has denied. Ireland did not outline the argument it planned to advance, but the country’s lawmakers have made repeated calls to prioritize the protection of civilians in Gaza.
The United Nations allows countries to “intervene” in proceedings if they are parties to the United Nations’ 1948 Genocide Convention. Micheál Martin, the Republic of Ireland’s foreign minister and deputy leader, said that officials were working on a so-called “declaration of intervention” in the case that, if approved by the Irish government, would be filed with the court in The Hague.
“It is for the Court to determine whether genocide is being committed,” Mr. Martin said on Wednesday. “But I want to be clear in reiterating what I have said many times in the last few months: What we saw on 7 October in Israel, and what we are seeing in Gaza now, represents the blatant violation of international humanitarian law on a mass scale.”
He urged Israel to call a cease-fire, and then listed a number of pressing issues, including “the purposeful withholding of humanitarian assistance to civilians,” “the targeting of civilians and of civilian infrastructure” and “the collective punishment of an entire population.”
“The list goes on,” he said. “It has to stop. The view of the international community is clear. Enough is enough.”
Irish lawmakers were among the first in Europe to call for the protection of people in Gaza last year, a reflection of Ireland’s longstanding support for Palestinian civilians, rooted in part in a shared history of British colonialism. Ireland’s own experience with a seemingly intractable and traumatic sectarian conflict — The Troubles, which came to a close with the 1998 Good Friday Agreement — has also driven that affinity.
The decision to file a declaration of intervention was made in consultation with several partners, including South Africa, Mr. Martin said. The Irish government does not plan to take a side in the dispute, the government told a number of Irish news outlets.
Germany in January became the first country to announce that it would intervene in the case, saying that there was “no basis whatsoever” to South Africa’s claim that Israel was committing genocide in the war. The United States has called the case meritless, and several European countries have rejected it, too.
Irish politicians have made repeated calls for Israel to prioritize the protection of civilians in Gaza over their military aims. Mr. Martin said that the intention is that its declaration would be filed once South Africa has filed its written arguments, a process that is likely to take months.
The allegation that Israel has carried out genocide in Gaza — one of the most serious crimes a country can be accused of — is particularly significant in Israel, which was founded after millions of Jewish people were murdered during the Holocaust.
The U.N. genocide convention, to which Israel is a signatory, defines the crime as one with a proven intent on the part of perpetrators to physically destroy a national, ethnic, racial or religious group.
The South African government maintains that it is pursuing its case to stop a genocide, but analysts say it is also motivated by longstanding domestic support for the Palestinian cause. Israeli leaders have said that South Africa’s allegations pervert the meaning of genocide and the purpose of the 1948 genocide convention.
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7) The United States and Britain impose sanctions on a Gazan news outlet over ties to Hamas.
By Alan Rappeport Reporting from Washington, March 28, 2024
A woman carrying three infants in the Gaza Strip on March 21, 2024, after fleeing the Al-Shifa medical complex.
The United States and Britain imposed sanctions Wednesday on Gaza Now, a news organization based in the enclave that the allies accused of raising money for Hamas and helping to finance its terrorist activities.
The Treasury Department said that Gaza Now started a fund-raising effort in support of Hamas following its attack on Israel in October. The measures also target the founder of Gaza Now and two companies that donated thousands of dollars to the news outlet.
The sanctions are the latest attempt to disrupt the flow of funds to Hamas since the Oct. 7 attack. The United States estimates that Hamas controls $500 million worth of assets that it uses to finance terrorism, and the Biden administration has been working with American allies to crack down on sanctions evasion.
“Treasury remains committed to degrading Hamas’ ability to finance its terrorist activities, including through online fund-raising campaigns that seek to funnel money directly to the group,” Brian E. Nelson, the Treasury’s under secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, said in a statement.
The sanctions freeze any Gaza Now assets held in the United States or Britain and cut its backers off from much of the global financial system.
Gaza Now operates a website and broadcasts television coverage and commentary over a satellite channel and on social media platforms.
Media organizations are not common targets of U.S. sanctions, but the Treasury Department did in 2022 impose financial restrictions on Russian outlets that were spreading disinformation.
Although the Biden administration has been trying to curtail the finances of Hamas, it has also been using sanctions to curb violence by Israelis accused of attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank.
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8) A majority of Americans disapprove of Israel’s actions in Gaza, a new poll shows.
By Anushka Patil, March 28, 2024
Protesters at the New York Public Library in December called for a cease-fire in Gaza. Credit...Andres Kudacki for The New York Times
A majority of Americans disapprove of Israel’s military actions in Gaza, in a pronounced shift from November, according to a new poll released by Gallup on Wednesday.
In a survey conducted from March 1-20, 55 percent of U.S. adults said they disapproved of Israel’s military actions — a jump of 10 percentage points from four months earlier, Gallup found.
Americans’ approval of Israel’s conduct in the war dropped by an even starker margin, from 50 percent in November, a month after the war began, to 36 percent in March, while the proportion of Americans who said they had no opinion on the subject rose slightly to 9 percent from 4 percent.
The findings are the latest evidence of growing American discontent with Israel over the course of the five months in which it has killed more than 32,000 Palestinians in Gaza, including nearly 14,000 children, according to local health officials and the United Nations. Israeli officials say roughly 1,200 people were killed in Israel during the Hamas-led attack on Oct. 7.
The Gallup poll found that American approval of Israel’s military actions dropped across the political spectrum: While a majority of Republicans still said they approved, that figure dropped from 71 percent in November to 64 percent in March. Independents’ approval dropped to 29 percent from 47 percent, and Democrats’ approval dropped to just 18 percent from 36 percent.
An AP-NORC poll conducted in late January found that half of U.S. adults felt Israel’s military response in Gaza had “gone too far,” up from four in 10 in November. That poll also showed a rise in public disapproval across political parties, by some 15 percentage points for Republicans, 13 for independents and five for Democrats.
Another recent survey from the Pew Research Center — which, like Gallup and AP-NORC, is a well-regarded leader in the polling industry — found notable schisms in public opinion along generational and religious lines. Younger adults and Muslim Americans were significantly more likely than older adults and Jewish Americans to say that the way Israel was carrying out its response to Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack was unacceptable, according to the poll conducted from mid-to-late February.
It oversampled Muslim and Jewish Americans, weighted to reflect their respective proportion of the overall population, to more reliably and separately analyze their views.
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9) Health Concerns Mount for Migrant Children at Outdoor Holding Sites
A federal judge is expected to rule soon on whether the government must provide shelter, food and medical care to minors while they await processing.
By Emily Baumgaertner reported from five migrant camps along the U.S.-Mexico border wall in California, March 28, 2024
“A Federal District Court judge in California could rule as early as Friday on whether the government is legally required to shelter and feed the children as they wait.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/28/health/children-migrants-border-health.html
A young asylum seeker from Georgia who has breached the border wall near Tijuana waiting to be apprehended by Border Patrol agents in San Ysidro, Calif. Credit...Ariana Drehsler for The New York Times
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