Praying for the worst 🙏

And for the first time in our lives as Palestinians, we hear a voice that is louder than their voices and their bombs.

Link to the IG reel

Statement: Student organizations in the Gaza Strip in solidarity with the Student Intifada in the United States

In the name of God, the most gracious, the most merciful… We, the students of Gaza, salute the students of Columbia University, Yale University, New York University, Rutgers University, the University of Michigan, and dozens of universities across the United States who are rising up in solidarity with Gaza and to put an end to the Zionist-U.S. genocide against our people in Gaza. As we remain under the bombs of occupation, resisting Nazi genocide, grieving for our martyred colleagues and faculty, and witnessing the destruction of our universities, we welcome the examples of solidarity offered by students facing arrest, police violence, suspension, eviction, and expulsion in order to demand that their universities end their complicity in the Zionist-U.S. genocide and renounce their support for the occupation and the war profiteers that arm it. We have seen hundreds of students arrested across the United States as they work to transform their universities into “Popular Universities for Gaza.” Students, faculty, and staff are disrupting university operations and making clear that while universities in Gaza are being bombed, university business cannot continue as usual in the United States. These actions come as university administrations collaborate with members of Congress to discredit conscientious student activists and faculty, expel students, ban events, shut down student organizations such as Students for Justice in Palestine, and condemn activists working to end the Nazi genocide. At the same time, these same universities invest in the same companies that profit from the continued sale of weapons to the Zionist regime to continue its genocidal offensive. Our students – and our educational system as a whole – in occupied Palestine are subjected to ongoing genocidal aggression: our universities destroyed and bombed, our student organizations banned, and our student leaders subjected to torture, assassination and mass imprisonment. However, in Palestine and around the world, the student movement has always been a driving force of our struggle for liberation. When we see videos and images from American universities today, we are reminded of our history of student struggle as well as the student uprisings of 1968, which challenged imperialism from Vietnam to Palestine and reshaped the face of Europe and the United States. Now, in 2024, the student movement is once again leading the way. From here in Gaza, we see you and salute you. Your actions and activism matter, especially in the heart of the empire, in the United States. As members of Congress agree to provide $26 billion in additional weapons to bomb our people and continue the Zionist-U.S. genocide, you are taking meaningful action to shut down the war machine on your campuses. It is clear that a new generation is rising that will no longer accept Zionism, racism and genocide, and that stands with Palestine and our liberation from the river to the sea. Your global student solidarity is breaking boundaries, and it is time to smash the US imperialist war machine. From Gaza to Columbia, to Ann Arbor and Berkeley, our hands are joined to end Nazi genocide and achieve our collective liberation.

Every Friday, Yemenis gather by the millions to protest the genocide in Gaza. This Friday, they chose to honor college students protesting the Gaza genocide with slogans like: "Stand your ground! Yemen stands with you! For a free Palestine!"

Blinken has changed his mind about sanctioning an IDF unit with a long history of human rights abuse.

Mind you the only reason the state department was planning on sanctioning the unit is because his own staffers leaked to the media that he was refusing to move forward with their recommendations to sanction the IDF

A unit of the Israel Defense Forces is facing US sanctions over its treatment of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, even as Congress voted for $26bn in new emergency aid to Israel. According to reports in the Israeli media, US state department officials have confirmed they are preparing to impose sanctions on the IDF’s Netzah Yehuda battalion, which has been accused of serious human rights violations against Palestinians. The highly significant move, which would be the first time the US government has targeted an IDF unit, prompted immediate anger among Israeli political leaders who vowed to oppose it. The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported on Sunday that the US was also considering similar moves against other police and military units. In a statement, the IDF said it was unaware of any sanctions in force against any of its units and added: “If a decision is made on the matter, it will be reviewed.”

Hussein Alezzi, the Deputy Foreign Minister of Yemen

The Israeli army is likely to carry out a fresh massacre in the northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Lahia, initiating a new round of forced evacuation orders against its estimated 50,000 citizens who remained in the area. The UN and other international parties need to take immediate action to protect Palestinian civilians. After declaring the town of Beit Lahia to be a "dangerous combat zone" and threatening to "act with extreme force," the Israeli army started to launch heavy air and artillery attacks on the town, followed by fresh evacuation orders. The Israeli army set up shelters for the town of Beit Lahia's residents to evacuate towards known shelters in blocks number 1770, 1766, but these were originally destroyed areas that are unfit for any form of life and lack water supply as well as functioning sewage systems. The two designated evacuation points are unsafe areas and, like all areas of the town of Beit Lahia in particular, and the northern Gaza Strip in general, have previously been subjected to widespread destruction, including shelter centres and public facilities, as a result of the ongoing Israeli military attack since October 7. In light of the ongoing crimes of genocide and forced displacement policy in the Gaza Strip, every area designated by the Israeli army as a military operation area is completely destroyed, subjected to a strict and oppressive siege, and horrifically massacred, as the remaining residents have nowhere safe to flee. In the absence of strong international accountability mechanisms and any swift international action to put an end to these crimes, which have been going on for six months, the military operation that the Israeli army launched in the town of Beit Lahia will result in more serious crimes and violations of international humanitarian law and international human rights law. The town of Beit Lahia was the scene of multiple large-scale military operations by the Israeli army during the previous seven months of its military assault on the Gaza Strip. One such operation occurred at the end of December last year, which resulted in extensive damage to homes, infrastructure, and civil and service facilities, with the town's buildings and infrastructure being destroyed to the tune of approximately 90%. The Israeli army's Beit Lahia military operation is taking place on the 200th day of the massive military assault on the Gaza Strip, which has had horrific consequences due to its direct and deliberate targeting of Palestinian civilians amid the shameful international inaction to oblige Israel to abide by international humanitarian law and the orders of the International Court of Justice to stop its genocide crime.

Dont forget Palestinian students

Top Israeli and Egyptian officials held a secret meeting in Cairo on 24 April, aimed at discussing Tel Aviv’s plans for an invasion of Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah. Three senior Israeli officials told Axios on Wednesday that Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar and Israeli army chief Herzi Halevi met with the head of Egyptian intelligence, Abbas Kamel, and Egypt’s army chief Osama Askar. The report came the same day that an Israeli defense official said that Israel will launch the operation in Rafah as soon as it gets government approval. Israel is “moving ahead” with the operation, a spokesman for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, but gave no specific time frame.

US and Israeli officials held a virtual meeting last week to discuss plans for Rafah. The decision to launch the operation is “conditions-based and not time-based, and connected to the humanitarian situation on the ground,” Tel Aviv emphasized to Washington during the meeting, according to US officials. The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported on 23 April, citing Egyptian officials, that Israel’s evacuation plans for Rafah are near complete. The plan will take two to three weeks and will be carried out in cooperation with Washington, Cairo, and other Arab states, including the UAE. Egyptian forces have deployed in the northern Sinai and along the Gaza border, and are at “full readiness” after being briefed by Israel on plans for Rafah, Al-Araby Al-Jadeed reported on 18 April.

Israel’s evacuation plan involves moving Rafah’s civilian population upwards towards the southern city of Khan Yunis, as well as other areas of the strip, the report states, adding that shelters with tents, food supplies, and medical facilities will be set up. Recently published satellite images show a large tent compound in Khan Yunis and Israeli troop gatherings at army bases and outposts near the strip – signaling that the invasion of Rafah may be imminent.