(The Age, 20/1/2025) Why don’t the media ask how come there are tens of thousands of Palestinian prisoners to release against 100 Israeli’s – Mark A small crowd came together in Melbourne’s north – sharing plates of food and dancing to Palestinian music – to celebrate the moment the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas was due to come into effect. They cried hopeful tears as the deadline arrived at 5.30pm on Sunday (AEDT), but the truce was delayed by almost three hours because of an eleventh-hour dispute.

(The Age, 20/1/2025) Please God all sides stick to it – Mark Three Israeli hostages released from Gaza have been handed over to Israeli forces in the first test of a fragile ceasefire deal that has halted fighting between Israel and Hamas. Live television pictures showed three female hostages leaving a vehicle surrounded by armed Hamas men. The hostages got into vehicles belonging to the International Committee of the Red Cross as the crowd of fighters chanted the name of the armed wing of Hamas. An Israeli

ABC | Riley Stuart & Orly Halpern | 19 January 2025 Just shows how evil Netanyahu is – kill as many innocents as possible until forced to behave like a human – Mark Amer al-Sultan is showing off images of his smiling relatives on his phone. Sitting on a bench in Deir Al-Balah, in Gaza’s south, he explains who they are and where they fit on his family tree. He stops swiping when a montage of multiple faces fills the screen. “That’s a picture of all

The Age (& SMH) / AP | Samy Magdy | 19 January 2025 Please God all sides stick to it – Mark Israel’s cabinet approved a deal early on Saturday for a ceasefire in Gaza and the release of dozens of hostages that will pause the 15-month war with Hamas for six weeks. The deal brings Israel and Hamas a step closer to ending their deadliest and most destructive fighting ever. The ceasefire – just the second achieved during the war – is expected to begin

Ceasefire is Not The Endby Jonathan Kuttab It looks as if there will finally be a ceasefire and hostage deal, set to begin this Sunday. Every decent person in the world, I am sure, is breathing a sigh of relief at the cessation—at least temporarily—of the horrible nightmare in Gaza. This nightmare has been torturing us daily with news of 50-100 new victims every single day and our incapacity to do anything to truly stop it, in addition to the suffering of the captives on both

ABC / Reuters | Matthew Doran | 15 January 2025 Please God – Mark Israel wants 33 hostages held by Hamas in Gaza to be released in the first phase of a ceasefire and hostage deal, and is prepared to release hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails in the process. Final talks have been underway for a number of hours in Doha, with senior members of Israel’s security and intelligence establishment and Hamas’ organisation present. Qatari officials have described the negotiations as being at the

Genocide Denial and the Gaza Holocaust by Jonathan Kuttab   In the past, I used to wonder why “Holocaust denial” was listed as a criminal offense by many European countries and considered such a moral outrage everywhere else. Clearly, the Holocaust occurred and the grizzly material evidence of its horrific extent is incontestable. Anyone who would deny it is clearly an ignorant fool, similar to anyone who still believes the earth to be flat, to be ridiculed and pitied. The issue is one of fact, case

Jan 16th, 2025 Sabeel is hosting two international delegations this month and is anticipating 1-2 delegations each month for the coming year. The delegations to be planned are comprised of a diverse variety of activists, professionals, and leaders. Like past pilgrimages and delegations in 2024, Sabeel’s goals with international delegations are to shed light on the current reality in the Holy Land and to encourage participants in creative advocacy for justice and peace.  Lord of justice and truth, we lift Sabeel’s upcoming delegations, praying for safe