April 3rd, 2025 March 30th marks Eid al-Fitr for Muslims in Palestine and Israel. This three-day feast marks the end of Ramadan and is usually celebrated with joy, prayers, and festivities. In Palestine, many Palestinians will try to cross Israeli checkpoints to visit Al Aqsa Mosque and in Gaza, people are concluding the Holy Month of Ramadan with the fear of bombardment and death ever since Israel resumed its strikes.  God of Mercy, you are the One who opens paths where there are none. You

This was always Israels plan – Mark Israel has launched a heavy bombardment on Beirut for the first time since entering a ceasefire with the militant group Hezbollah.The attack came hours after Israel issued evacuation warnings for a Beirut suburb, vowing to retaliate against strikes it said came from Lebanon.What’s next?French President Emmanuel Macron has vowed to speak with US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about maintaining the ceasefire.Israel’s air force has launched an attack on the Lebanese capital city of

Better than nothing – Mark The additional funding comes as Israel continues a blockade on all goods entering Gaza, prompting warnings of international law violations.Two children carry a bucket of water with people around a truck delivering aid in the backgroundIsrael has cut off all humanitarian goods from entering Gaza. Source: Getty / Ashraf AmraKey PointsAustralia will provide an additional $11 million in aid for Gaza.Foreign Minister Penny Wong says humanitarian aid must be sustained in the region.A further $15 million will go towards vulnerable

(The Age, SMH, 27/3/2025) Thank God – never should have been arrested – Mark Jerusaluem: Israeli authorities have released a Palestinian director of an Oscar-winning documentary who was detained overnight, after what he and witnesses said was an attack by Israeli settlers in the West Bank.Police said the filmmaker, Hamdan Ballal, one of the directors of the documentary, No Other Land, was questioned along with two other Palestinians on suspicion of hurling stones, property damage and “endangering regional security.” All three deny the accusations, their

  Palestinian Citizens of Israel by Jonathan Kuttab   One of the key strategic elements to Israel’s control over Palestinians has been the establishment of a focused system of fragmentation of the Palestinian community. Palestinians have been forcefully divided into distinctly separate categories, each with a different legal system, economic system, leadership, and community-specific concerns. These include: Israeli Citizens, East Jerusalemites, West Bankers, Gazans, and the Diaspora (lacking any status whatsoever). Israel adamantly refuses to interact with the Palestinian people as a unified entity and

Disgraceful – Mark Jerusalem: Israeli settlers assaulted one of the Palestinian co-directors of the Oscar-winning documentary No Other Land on Monday in the occupied West Bank before he was detained by the Israeli military, according to two of his fellow directors and other witnesses.Filmmaker Hamdan Ballal was one of three Palestinians detained in the village of Susiya, according to attorney Lea Tsemel. Police told her they were being held at a military base for medical treatment. She said she had not been able to speak

This so shocking and heartbreaking – Mark The United Nations will start pulling its workers out of Gaza as the conflict with Israel claims a growing number of aid workers, medical personnel and journalists, including two reporters killed in strikes on Monday.UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the organisation had made the “difficult” decision to withdraw a third of its international workers, after repeated Israeli strikes on its facilities in Gaza. A Red Cross building was also hit in Gaza on Monday, in what Israel said

Shameful – Mark This picture taken from Nablus on March 23, 2025 shows east of the city the new expansion of the Israeli settlement of Elon Moreh in the occupied West Bank. (AFP) JERUSALEM/RAMALLAH: The Palestinian foreign ministry and an anti-settlement watchdog group on Sunday condemned an Israeli decision to recognize more than a dozen new settlements in the occupied West Bank, upgrading existing neighborhoods to independent settlement status. Israel’s Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich earlier announced that the security cabinet approved a plan to separate 13