Palestinian Refugees

COGAT also said that it has coordinated pick-up at various hours, expanded routes to improve traffic to the crossings, set up a tactical pause along the route

We must avoid the temptation to see Indian indifference to Palestine as usual "enemy's (Muslim) enemy (Jew) is my friend". Reason is the changed reality of Islamic world & India's equation with it

Police used tear gas and water cannons to disperse violent demonstrators in Rome as tens of thousands of pro-Palestinian protesters took to the streets in major European cities and around the globe Saturday to call for a cease-fire as the first anniversary of the Hamas attacks on Israel approached. Huge rallies were held in several European cities, with gatherings expected to continue over the weekend and peak on Monday, the date of the anniversary. In Rome, several thousands demonstrated peacefully Saturday afternoon until a smaller group tried to push the rally toward the center of the city, in spite of a ban by local authorities who refused to authorize protests, citing security concerns. Some protesters, dressed in black and with their faces covered threw stones, bottles and paper bombs at the police, who responded with tear gas and water cannons, eventually dispersing the crowd. At least 30 law enforcement officers and three demonstrators were injured in the clashes, local medi

At dawn in mid-May, Sayyed Ayyed and dozens of other unemployed Palestinian men gathered at the foot of the towering wall of concrete and barbed wire dividing the occupied West Bank from Israel. A smuggler was there with a ladder and ropes. Each man handed over the equivalent of $100. Ayyed waited his turn as others clambered over. The 30-year-old father of two young daughters hadn't found work for a year. Debts were mounting. Rent had to be paid. On the Israeli side, there was the lure of work on a construction site. He just had to get over the wall. When we reach the point where you see that your children do not have food, he said, the barrier of fear is broken. A year of war in Gaza has reverberated across the West Bank, where the World Bank warns the economy is at risk of collapse because of Israeli restrictions barring Palestinian laborers from entering the country for work, and the biggest wave of violence in decades. Unemployment has skyrocketed, reaching 30% from around 12

The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed a PIL seeking a direction to the Centre to stop the export of arms and military equipments to Israel which is fighting a war in Gaza, saying the court cannot enter into the domain of the nation's foreign policy. A bench comprising Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra said the Indian firms, involved in the export of arms, equipments to Israel, may be sued for breach of contractual obligations and hence they cannot be stopped from supplying. "We cannot enter into the nation's foreign policy domain," the bench said. "Can we direct that under the UN's genocide convention you ban the export to Israel...why this restraint. This is because it impacts the foreign policy and we do not know what the impact will be," the CJI said. A PIL was filed by Ashok Kumar Sharma and others through lawyer Prashant Bhushan seeking a direction to the Centre to cancel licences and not to grant new ones to Indian firms exporting arms an

Palestinian officials say Israeli airstrikes across the Gaza Strip have killed at least 14 people, half of them children. The Civil Defense, first responders who operate under the Hamas-run government, said three children and their mother were killed in an airstrike late Monday in the Tufah neighborhood of Gaza City. It said three other people were missing after the strike. Another strike late Monday hit a building in downtown Gaza City, killing a child, three women and a man, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. In southern Gaza, a strike on a home early Tuesday killed five people, including a man, his three children as young as 3 years old and a woman, according to a casualty list provided by Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, where the bodies were taken. Palestinian health officials do not say whether those killed in Israeli strikes are civilians or fighters. Israel says it tries to avoid harming civilians and accuses Hamas of putting them in danger by fighting in residential ar

Leaders of an Uncommitted movement, which garnered hundreds of thousands of votes in Democratic primaries across the nation in protest of the Israel-Hamas war, have been negotiating for weeks to secure a speaking slot for a Palestinian American at the Democratic National Convention this week. The negotiations stalled late Wednesday when leaders with the Uncommitted National Movement say a Democratic National Committee official called and delivered a firm response: The answer is no. The leader, Abbas Alawieh, an Uncommitted delegate to the convention and co-founder of the movement, described the call as shocking after weeks of talks that he felt were positive. In response, he and other delegates decided to stage a sit-in outside Chicago's United Center, where the convention is being held. They spent the night on the sidewalk on Wednesday, and vowed to remain until their request was granted or the convention ended Thursday night. When we ran out of options doing everything we can and

International mediators were set to hold a new round of talks Thursday aimed at halting the Israel-Hamas war and securing the release of scores of hostages, with a potential deal seen as the best hope of heading off an even larger regional conflict. The United States, Qatar and Egypt were to meet with an Israeli delegation in Qatar as the Palestinian death toll from the 10-month-old war nears 40,000. Hamas has not said whether it will participate, accusing Israel of adding new demands to an evolving proposal that had US and international support. A cease-fire in Gaza would likely calm tensions across the region and may persuade Iran and Lebanon's Hezbollah to refrain from retaliatory strikes on Israel after the killing of a top Hezbollah commander in an Israeli airstrike and of Hamas' top political leader in an explosion in Iran's capital. The mediators have spent months trying to hammer out a three-phase plan in which Hamas would release scores of hostages captured in the October 7

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan hosted Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas for talks that focused on the conflict in Gaza, Erdogan's office said, ahead of a planned address to parliament Thursday. Erdogan's office said late Wednesday that the two discussed the massacres committed by Israel in Palestinian territories and the steps that need to be taken for a permanent cease-fire and peace at the presidential palace in Ankara. The statement, released on the social media platform X, said Erdogan pledged continued support to Palestine's just cause and to work to increase the pressure on Israel by the international community especially the Islamic world to deliver humanitarian aid and bring peace. Abbas arrived Wednesday for a visit that comes as the threat of Iranian retaliation against Israel over the assassination of Hamas official Ismail Haniyeh fueled concerns of the war spreading across the Middle East. Erdogan, a prominent supporter of Hamas and the wider Palestinian cause, .

San Francisco prosecutors have charged 26 protesters who blocked the Golden Gate Bridge for hours in April to demand a cease-fire in Gaza. The protest on April 15 was one of many held by pro-Palestinian demonstrators who blocked roadways around the country, causing traffic jams and temporarily shutting down travel into some of the nation's most heavily used airports. The protesters were charged with felony conspiracy, false imprisonment, trespassing to interfere with a business, obstruction of a thoroughfare, unlawful assembly, refusal to disperse at a riot, and failure to obey the lawful order of a uniformed officer, the San Francisco District Attorney's Office announced Saturday. Traffic snarled for hours after demonstrators blocked lanes with vehicles, shutting down all vehicle, pedestrian and bike traffic on the Golden Gate Bridge. The demonstration was part of coordinated protests across the country to demand an immediate cease-fire in Gaza and an end to military aid to ...

Currently Hamas runs Gaza and Fatah forms the backbone of the Palestinian Authority, which has limited control in the Israeli-occupied West Bank

Gaza health officials said Israeli military strikes since Monday killed at least 80 Palestinians in the Khan Younis area - adding to a death toll of more than 39,000 in nearly 10 months of warfare

Students at a growing number of US colleges are gathering in protest encampments with a unified demand of their schools: Stop doing business with Israel or any companies that empower its ongoing war in Gaza. The demand has its roots in a decades-old campaign against Israel's policies toward the Palestinians. The movement has taken on new strength as the Israel-Hamas war surpasses the six-month mark and stories of suffering in Gaza have sparked international calls for a cease-fire. Inspired by ongoing protests and the arrests last week of more than 100 students at Columbia University, students from Massachusetts to California are now gathering by the hundreds on campuses, setting up tent camps and pledging to stay put until their demands are met. We want to be visible, said Columbia protest leader Mahmoud Khalil, who noted that students at the university have been pushing for divestment from Israel since 2002. The university should do something about what we're asking for, about the

The head of the UN agency that has helped millions of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank for decades urged the Security Council on Wednesday to ensure its survival as Israel again demanded its dissolution, accusing the agency of becoming part of Hamas' terror war machine. Philippe Lazzarini told the council that dismantling the agency known as UNRWA would deepen Gaza's humanitarian crisis and speed up the onset of famine. International experts have warned of imminent famine in northern Gaza and said half the territory's 2.3 million people could be pushed to the brink of starvation if the six-month Israeli-Hamas war intensifies. Lazzarini said ending the agency's operations also would have other lasting repercussions on Gaza, leaving a half million children without education and fuelling anger, resentment and endless cycles of violence. In addition, it would jeopardise the transition when the war ends by depriving Gaza's population of essential services, including health care, foo

Pro-Palestinian demonstrators blocked roadways in Illinois, California, New York and the Pacific Northwest on Monday, temporarily shutting down travel into some of the nation's most heavily used airports, onto the Golden Gate and Brooklyn bridges and on a busy West Coast highway. In Chicago, protesters linked arms and blocked lanes of Interstate 190 leading into O'Hare International Airport around 7 am in a demonstration they said was part of a global economic blockade to free Palestine, according to Rifqa Falaneh, one of the organizers. Traffic in the San Francisco Bay Area was snarled for hours as demonstrators shut down all vehicle, pedestrian and bike traffic on the Golden Gate Bridge and chained themselves to 55-gallon drums filled with cement across Interstate 880 in Oakland. Protesters marching into Brooklyn blocked Manhattan-bound traffic on the Brooklyn Bridge. In Eugene, Oregon, protesters blocked Interstate 5, shutting down traffic on the major highway for about 45 ...

Muslims around the world are welcoming the arrival of Ramadan, a month of dawn-to-dusk fasting, intense prayer, charity and feasts. But as they savour the traditions of their own diverse communities from holiday treats to evening diversions the tribulations faced by fellow Muslims are never far from anyone's mind. This year, war and starvation in the Gaza Strip casts an especially dark shadow on the festivities. Many are also struggling to buy food as inflation remains high in many countries and has worsened in some. Still, even Muslims who are struggling economically or otherwise look forward to what are widely seen as the true blessings of the holy month prayer and reflection, nurtured by the daylong fast, and time spent with loved ones. IN PAKISTAN, A CITY THAT DOESN'T SLEEP No one does Ramadan better than the people of Karachi, at least according to Maulana Tanveer Ul Haq Thanvi, an Islamic scholar in the city in southern Pakistan. The congregation at his family-run mosque

Another top donor to the UN agency aiding Palestinians said on Saturday that it would resume funding, weeks after more than a dozen countries halted hundreds of millions of dollars in support in response to Israeli allegations against the organisation. Sweden's reversal came as a ship bearing tons of humanitarian aid was making preparations to leave Cyprus for Gaza after international donors launched a sea corridor to supply the besieged territory facing widespread hunger after five months of war. Sweden's decision followed similar ones by the European Union and Canada as the UN agency known as UNRWA warns that it could collapse and leave Gaza's already desperate population of more than 2 million people with even less medical and other assistance. The humanitarian situation in Gaza is devastating and the needs are acute, development minister Johan Forssell said in Sweden's announcement, adding that UNRWA had agreed to increased transparency and stricter oversight and controls. Swede

India can afford to bide its time in normalising relations

More than 100 Palestinians were killed in Israeli strikes on the Gaza Strip over a 24-hour period, the Health Ministry in the Hamas-run territory said Friday. Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh held talks with Egyptian officials about a possible cease-fire in Gaza and an exchange of hostages held by the militants for Palestinians imprisoned in Israel, according to a Hamas statement Friday morning. During Hamas' Oct 7 attack on southern Israel, militants killed about 1,200 people and took some 250 hostages. Roughly half of the hostages were released during a weeklong cease-fire in November. About 100 hostages remain in captivity, in addition to the bodies of 30 others who were killed on Oct 7 or died in captivity. Israel's subsequent offensive in Gaza has killed more than 29,000 Palestinians and driven some 80% of the territory's 2.3 million people from their homes. Most heeded Israeli orders to flee south, and around 1.5 million are packed into Rafah near the border with ...

Israel's foreign minister said on Monday that Brazil's president would not be welcome in Israel until he apologises for comments he made comparing Israel's war in Gaza to the Holocaust, accusing him of a very serious antisemitic attack. On Sunday, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said that what is happening in the Gaza Strip and to the Palestinian people hasn't been seen in any other moment in history. Actually, it did when Hitler decided to kill the Jews. Lula made the comments while speaking to reporters at the African Union summit in Ethiopia. Foreign Minister Israel Katz summoned the Brazilian ambassador to Israel's national Holocaust museum in Jerusalem on Monday for a reprimand. The things that Lula said when he compared the righteous war of the State of Israel against Hamas, which murdered and massacred the Jews, and Hitler and the Nazis is shameful and unacceptable, Katz said. On Monday evening, Lula recalled Brazil's ambassador to Israel, Frederico Meyer, to the country