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A view of the archaeological site in Sebastia, which dates back 5 thousand years in Nablus, West Bank.
Israeli forces seized ancient stone columns on Thursday after raiding a hilly area in the town of Al-Mazra’a Al-Sharqiya, east of Ramallah, in the central occupied West Bank.
Witnesses told Anadolu Agency that Israeli troops, accompanied by teams from the Israeli Civil Administration, raided a mountainous area in Al-Mazra’a Al-Sharqiya and took around five columns from an archaeological site dating back to the Byzantine era.
In previous periods, various areas of the West Bank have seen Israeli forces looting archaeological sites from ancient historical periods.
Israel claimed it recovered dozens of artefacts from a site where Palestinians had built a structure in its centre, which allegedly damaged the remaining historical remains, according to Hebrew media.
The Hebrew site i24 reported that “the Civil Administration forces, on Thursday, worked through the monitoring unit of the Israeli Defence Forces and under the supervision of the archaeology unit, to recover archaeological findings from the Lasana Tower site in Area B.”
It added that “this came after Palestinians built a structure in the middle of the site, causing damage to the remaining archaeological remains,” according to the report.
On Thursday, Palestinian Minister of Tourism and Antiquities Hani Al-Hayek said that Israel had completely or partially destroyed more than 316 archaeological sites in Gaza and the West Bank during its war on the Gaza Strip, warning of what he described as a “systematic targeting” of Palestinian historical sites.
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Orcas discuss Genocide-supporting and complicit Zionists. Donald Trump, Keith Starmer, David Lammy, Rachel Reeves, Angela Rayner and Wes Streeting are acknowledged as evil genocide-complicit and supporting cnuts.Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza’s hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.UK Labour Party government ministers Keir Starmer, Angela Rayner and Rachel Reeves explain that they are partners complicit in Israel’s Gaza genocide. The UK has provided Israel with arms, military and air force support. They explain that they don’t do gas chambers but do do forced marches, starvation, destroy hospitals, mass-murders of journalists and healthcare workers.
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United States President Donald Trump (R) hosts Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (L) in the White House in Washington DC., United States on February 04, 2025. [Avi Ohayon (GPO) /Handout – Anadolu Agency]
The Hebrew newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth reported that the comments made by Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, on Thursday evening were intended to convince US President Donald Trump that he is being persecuted during his trial, in order to push Trump to increase his efforts to grant him a pardon.
On Thursday evening, Netanyahu posted a video on his page on the platform X, speaking in English and claiming that his trial is political, began six years ago, and could continue for another four years.
In the video, he said: “It’s a political trial. They [the prosecutors] are not interested in justice; they are interested in getting me out of office.”
Netanyahu also tried to explain the reasons for his trial, claiming that the investigators told him they were looking into a suspicion of corruption related to two incidents. The first is that his son received a Bugs Bunny toy as a gift 29 years ago, and the second is that he accepted a cigar as a gift from a friend.
According to Yedioth Ahronoth, political sources said that “Netanyahu’s statements in English aim”to convince the American public that he is being persecuted.”
The paper added that Netanyahu is trying to “shape public opinion in the US and pressure President Trump to increase his actions” to grant him a pardon.
Commenting on this, Benny Gantz, the leader of the Blue and White Party, said that Netanyahu is placing his personal interest above the interest of the country.
This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Orcas discuss Genocide-supporting and complicit Zionists. Donald Trump, Keith Starmer, David Lammy, Rachel Reeves, Angela Rayner and Wes Streeting are acknowledged as evil genocide-complicit and supporting cnuts.Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza’s hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves discuss wasting money including David Lammy spending £1MILLION on private jets.
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Palestinians held a solidarity demonstration with the participation of national and Islamic groups and local community leaders in support of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) for Palestinian refugees on November 4, 2025, in Khan Yunis, Gaza. [Abed Rahim Khatib – Anadolu Agency]
The UN General Assembly on Friday adopted a resolution to renew the mandate of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), Anadolu reports.
During a vote held at the General Assembly, the resolution received 151 votes in favor, 10 against, and 14 abstentions.
Welcoming the decision to renew its mandate, UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini said on US social media company X that the decision “reflects the broad solidarity of people across the world with Palestine Refugees.”
“It is also an acknowledgement of the international community’s responsibility to support the humanitarian + human development needs of Palestinian refugees pending a just & lasting solution to their decades-long plight,” he said.
Lazzarini also urged that the decision “be translated into a genuine commitment & matching resources to ensure the mandate is fulfilled.”
UNRWA was established by the UN General Assembly more than 70 years ago to assist Palestinians who were forcibly displaced from their land.
The UN agency has been facing severe financial difficulties since Israel launched a defamation campaign against UNRWA, claiming that staff members were involved in the Oct. 7 attacks.
Despite UNRWA’s requests that the Israeli government provide information and evidence to back up the allegations, the agency has received no response. Following Israel’s accusations, several key donor nations, including the US, suspended or paused funding.
This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Orcas discuss Genocide-supporting and complicit Zionists. Donald Trump, Keith Starmer, David Lammy, Rachel Reeves, Angela Rayner and Wes Streeting are acknowledged as evil genocide-complicit and supporting cnuts.Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza’s hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.Vote Labour for Genocide.
Young Palestinian men create channels in the sand to direct the rain at a makeshift camp housing displaced Palestinians in Gaza City, Palestine, on November 25, 2025. (Photo by Majdi Fathi/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
“The design of these proposed cities mirrors the historical model of ghettos,” said the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor, which said the US plans to cram 25,000 people into areas smaller than a square kilometer.
A prominent international human rights organization is warning that the United States’ plan for postwar Gaza will impose “unlawful collective imprisonment” on the Palestinian civilians who have survived two years of genocide.
In November, several news outlets reported on the Trump administration’s plan to carve Gaza in two: a so-called “green zone” controlled by Israel and a “red zone” controlled by the militant group Hamas.
The US would construct what it called “Alternative Safe Communities” for Palestinians to live in the Israeli-controlled portion of Gaza, which is over half of the territory under the current “ceasefire” agreement.
The New York Timesdescribed these communities as “compounds” of 20,000 to 25,000 people, where Israeli officials reportedly argued they should not be allowed to leave.
The initial reporting raised fears that the US and Israel were constructing what would amount to a “concentration camp,” where Palestinians would be forced to live in squalid conditions without freedom of movement.
On Wednesday, the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor released new details on how Palestinians, currently facing mass displacement from their homes in the portion of the strip not occupied by Israel, would be corralled into the green zone under the US proposal.
The Geneva-based group issued a stark warning about the plan, which it said carried “grave risks, including the effective displacement of Palestinians from their homes and the transformation of large parts of Gaza into closed military zones under the direct control of the Israeli army.”
“Entry and exit would be permitted only through security screening, effectively converting these sites into overcrowded detention camps that impose severe restrictions on residents’ freedom of movement and daily life.”
Euro-Med’s report explains that the transfer of Palestinians would be carried out using “various pressure tactics.”
“This is done by creating a coercive environment in the red zone and making access to relative protection and basic services conditional on relocating to designated areas within the green zone, following extensive security screening and vetting,” the report says. “This removes any genuine element of consent and places the process squarely within the scope of forced displacement prohibited under international humanitarian law.”
It also provides new details on the conditions Palestinians would be subject to once they’ve arrived: “The plan includes the establishment of ‘cities’ of prefabricated container homes (caravans) in the green zone, each housing around 25,000 people within an area of no more than one square kilometer and enclosed by walls and checkpoints.”
This means these Palestinian cantons would be over three times as densely populated as the Tel Aviv District, the most crowded in Israel, which has about 8,130 people per square kilometer.
“Entry and exit would be permitted only through security screening, effectively converting these sites into overcrowded detention camps that impose severe restrictions on residents’ freedom of movement and daily life,” the report continues.
This is not the first proposal to use the promise of safety to lure Palestinians into an enclosed space without the right to leave.
Earlier this year, following US President Donald Trump’s call for the people of Palestine to be forcibly removed from the Gaza Strip, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz proposed the creation of a massive “humanitarian city” built on the ruins of Rafah that would be used as part of an “emigration plan” for hundreds of thousands of displaced people.
Under that plan, Palestinians would have been given “security screenings” and once inside would not be allowed to leave. Humanitarian organizations, including those inside Israel, roundly condemned the plan as essentially a “concentration camp.”
Euro-Med said that the design laid out in the new US plan “mirrors the historical model of ghettos, in which colonial and racist regimes confined specific groups to sealed areas surrounded by walls and guard posts, with movement and resources controlled externally, as seen in Europe during World War II and in other colonial contexts.”
Orcas discuss Genocide-supporting and complicit Zionists. Donald Trump, Keith Starmer, David Lammy, Rachel Reeves, Angela Rayner and Wes Streeting are acknowledged as evil genocide-complicit and supporting cnuts.Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza’s hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.Vote Labour for Genocide.
Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza’s hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.Orcas discuss Genocide-supporting and complicit Zionists. Donald Trump, Keith Starmer, David Lammy, Rachel Reeves, Angela Rayner and Wes Streeting are acknowledged as evil genocide-complicit and supporting cnuts.Vote Labour for Genocide.
