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Solidarity rally held in Gaza in support of Palestinian prisoners

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A group of Palestinian prisoners released by Israeli forces arrive in Deir al-Balah, Gaza, Palestine, through the International Committee of the Red Cross, on May 27, 2026. [Khalil Ramzi Alkahlut – Anadolu Agency]

Dozens of Palestinians gathered on Monday outside the headquarters of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Gaza City to express solidarity with Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli prisons and to protest conditions inside detention facilities.

According to Anadolu Agency, the rally was organized by the Prisoners’ Committee of the National and Islamic Forces and was attended by former prisoners, representatives of Palestinian factions, activists, and relatives of detainees.

Participants carried photographs of prisoners and banners calling on the international community to intervene and address conditions inside Israeli prisons.

Demonstrators also raised Palestinian flags and chanted slogans calling for the release of prisoners. Participants stressed that the prisoners’ issue remains a central concern despite the ongoing war in the Gaza Strip.

Former prisoner Abdel-Moati Abdel-Rabbu told Anadolu Agency that Palestinians continue to hold weekly solidarity gatherings every Monday outside the Red Cross headquarters in support of prisoners.

According to Abdel-Rabbu, prisoners are facing what he described as an unprecedented campaign inside Israeli prisons. He said that female prisoners are subjected to “humiliating strip searches,” sleep deprivation, and restrictions affecting food and medical care.

Abdel-Rabbu stated that “every prisoner, male and female, has a heartbreaking story of suffering.”

READ: Egypt warns of wider regional escalation amid Israeli escalations in Jerusalem, the West Bank and Lebanon

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Keir Starmer explains that UK is actively supporting Israel's genocidal expansion and repeats his previous quotation that he supports Zionism "without qualification". Keir Starmer said “I said it loud and clear – and meant it – that I support Zionism without qualification.” here: https://www.jewishnews.co.uk/keir-starmer-interview-i-will-work-to-eradicate-antisemitism-from-day-one/ — Keir Starmer explains that UK is actively supporting Israel’s genocidal expansion and repeats his previous quotation that he supports Zionism “without qualification”. Keir Starmer said “I said it loud and clear – and meant it – that I support Zionism without qualification.” here: https://www.jewishnews.co.uk/keir-starmer-interview-i-will-work-to-eradicate-antisemitism-from-day-one/

Donald Trump sings and dances, says that it's fun to kill everyone ... unless he gets distracted or falls asleep. — Donald Trump sings and dances, says that it’s fun to kill everyone … unless he gets distracted or falls asleep.

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Post published:3 June 2026
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Despite Trump’s ceasefire talk, Netanyahu says Israeli forces will continue offensive in southern Lebanon

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A plume of smoke rises over the town of Kfar Tebnit in southern Lebanon following an Israeli airstrike carried out despite a ceasefire agreement in Nabatieh, Lebanon on June 01, 2026. [Ramiz Dallah – Anadolu Agency]

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday that army troops will continue ongoing offensive in southern Lebanon, despite US President Donald Trump’s talk of a ceasefire between Tel Aviv and Hezbollah, Anadolu reports.

“I spoke this evening with President Trump and told him that if Hezbollah does not stop attacking our cities and citizens, Israel will strike terror targets in Beirut,” he said in comments carried by the daily Yedioth Ahronoth.

“Our position remains unchanged. At the same time, the army will continue to operate as planned in southern Lebanon,” he added.

Trump said early Monday that Israel and Hezbollah had reached an understanding to cease attacks against each other.

Israeli media earlier said that Netanyahu and Trump spoke over the phone to discuss the situation in Lebanon and Iran.

It came amid Israeli military escalation in Lebanon and hours after Netanyahu ordered the army to carry out airstrikes in the Lebanese capital Beirut.

Iranian media earlier reported that Tehran halted the exchanges of messages with Washington over the Israeli escalation in Lebanon.

Israel’s public broadcaster KAN said Israel had planned to attack Beirut’s southern suburbs on Monday morning, but decided to postpone the bombardment due to US intervention.

Tensions in the Middle East have escalated since the US and Israel launched strikes on Iran in February. Tehran retaliated with attacks targeting Israel and US allies in the Gulf, alongside the closure of the Strait of Hormuz.

A ceasefire took effect on April 8 through Pakistani mediation, but subsequent talks in Islamabad failed to produce a lasting agreement. Efforts for a solution, however, have continued since.

READ: Negotiations with Israel ‘need time,’ Lebanese president says

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Orcas discuss rotting brain, front Orca says Sundown Syndrome is a dead givaway and he wishes someone would Lock Him Up

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Post published:2 June 2026
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UN: Israeli air strike hits UN school in Gaza

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Smoke rises following an Israeli strike targeting Palestinian homes near the “Yellow Line” in the eastern areas of Jabalia Refugee Camp in northern Gaza, Palestine on June 1, 2026. [Ramez Habboub – Anadolu Agency]

The United Nations said on Monday that an Israeli air strike hit a UN school building sheltering displaced families in the Gaza Strip.

Speaking at his daily press briefing in New York, UN Secretary-General spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric discussed the latest developments in the Middle East.

Dujarric said: “yesterday, an air strike hit the rooftop of a UN school building in Nuseirat, in Gaza, which is used to shelter displaced families, resulting in damage.”

He added: “Fortunately, we have received no reports of injuries resulting from this attack.”

Dujarric also shared recent reports from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) on developments in the occupied West Bank.

In this context, he said: “a Palestinian trying to cross the Israeli Barrier into East Jerusalem — reportedly in search of job opportunities — was shot and killed.

The UN spokesperson said the incident was part of a series of developments following Israel’s decision in October 2023 to cancel or suspend most permits allowing Palestinians to enter East Jerusalem or Israel for work and other purposes.

READ: Hamas accuses Mladenov of inciting against Gaza, urges adherence to war-ending pla

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Post published:2 June 2026
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‘A 1-2 Punch Against Trump’s Corruption’: Judge Blocks Renaming, Closure of Kennedy Center

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Article by Brett Wilkins republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).

Workers add President Donald Trump’s name to the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC on December 19, 2025. (Photo by Heather Diehl/Getty Images)

“Congress gave the Kennedy Center its name, and only Congress can change it.”

A federal judge ruled Friday that President Donald Trump’s renaming of the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts after himself is illegal and temporarily barred the president from shuttering the Washington, DC cultural institution for renovations.

Trump’s effort to rename the iconic Kennedy Center the Trump-Kennedy Center came after the president used his authority to purge the institution’s board and appoint new trustees. In an unprecedented move, the trustees then voted to make Trump the center’s board chair. Last December, the board voted unanimously to rename the institution—a move that violated federal law.

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Congresswoman Joyce Beatty (D-Ohio), an ex officio member of the Kennedy Center board, sued over the name change, which outraged many Americans and, along with Trump’s addition of his name to the US Institute of Peace, sparked legislation aimed at banning the naming or renaming of federal assets after sitting presidents.

“May the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts be renamed absent Congressional authorization? The answer, plain from the face of the statute, is no,” US District Judge Christopher Cooper wrote in his ruling on Beatty’s suit. “Nor can any other individual be memorialized on the front portico of the building.”

Originally called the National Cultural Center, the Kennedy Center was renamed via an act of Congress following former President John F. Kennedy’s 1963 assassination.

“It is hard to imagine a more intentional legislative effort to call the Center by its chosen name,” Cooper—an appointee of former President Barack Obama—wrote. “The organic statute also takes pains to ensure that the Kennedy Center’s public spaces honor President Kennedy and President Kennedy alone… The prohibition is unambiguous.”

“Congress gave the Kennedy Center its name, and only Congress can change it,” the judge added.

Cooper also temporarily blocked Trump’s planned two-year closure of the Kennedy Center for renovations.

“In ratifying President Trump’s closure announcement, the Board was derelict in discharging the full range of its responsibilities to the Center,” he wrote. “More specifically, the Board based its decision on an insufficient, one-sided presentation of information and
neglected to consider the full range of its statutory obligations and potential adverse consequences of closure on programming and memorial functions.”

While Trump claimed the decision to shutter the Kennedy Center was based on input from a group of “many Highly Respected experts,” who said the center was “tired, broken, and dilapidated,” critics including John F. Kennedy’s descendants pointed to artists not wanting to perform there after the president’s takeover and purge, which resulted in programming including the world premier of a documentary film about his wife panned by one critic as “a scowling void of pure nothingness.”

Cooper said that the Kennedy Center could be allowed to close “after independently balancing its multiple obligations to the Center in a prudent fashion.”

Beatty welcomed Cooper’s ruling, which she said “rightly affirms that this administration’s efforts to rename and close the Center have no basis in law.”

“The Kennedy Center is an institution that belongs to the American people, not to Donald Trump,” she added. “He has desecrated this sacred memorial for his own vanity. I am proud to have fought for the rule of law and to protect this sacred institution.”

Trump, meanwhile, took to his Truth Social network to rail against Cooper, “a Judge appointed by Barack Hussein Obama.”

“Cooper ruled that The Kennedy Center, which was going to close in early July for largescale renovations and construction due to years of neglect, decay, and poor maintenance, and which was to be transformed by the Trump Administration into the Finest Facility of its kind, anywhere in the World, is not allowed to close for these renovations, which would not be possible to properly do without such a closure,” the president wrote.

“Additionally, Judge Cooper ruled that the 36 Member Board of Trustees, which unanimously voted to add the name ‘TRUMP’ onto the former Kennedy Center, making it The Trump Kennedy Center, did not have the right to do such an addition, and the name, ‘TRUMP,’ must be removed,” Trump’s screed continued.

“I took great pride in taking over a losing Institution, and looked forward to making it into a Great and Prestigious WINNER for Washington, D.C., and indeed, the United States of America,” he continued. “Unfortunately, Judge Cooper and the Radical Left would rather see it DIE than have President Trump transform it into something that everyone could be proud of, much as I have done, in many cases, throughout my life.”

“Therefore, based on the fact that the Radical Left Democrats care more about opposing your favorite President, ME, than saving a dying Performing Arts Center, almost all of which lose large amounts of money throughout the Country, we are going to be working with Congress to transfer this failing Institution back to them so they can make a determination as to what to do with it,” Trump said.

“Judge Cooper should be ashamed of himself! I cannot be involved with a situation where danger to the Public is allowed to flourish in plain and open sight,” the president wrote. “Unless I am free to do what I do better than anyone else, bring this Institution back, physically, financially, and artistically, I have no interest in continuing what could only be a hopeless journey into ‘NEVER NEVER LAND.’”

“There has never been a President of the United States who has been treated so unfairly by the Courts as I,” he added, “but, that’s OK, I will continue to do, what is considered to be, a great job for the wonderful people of our Country.”

Article by Brett Wilkins republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).