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Thousands of Israelis stage nationwide protests to demand release of hostages in Gaza: Report

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This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Protesters gather in Tel Aviv on June 28, 2025. [Mostafa Alkharouf – Anadolu Agency]

Tens of thousands of people rallied across Israel on Saturday, calling for the release of hostages held in the Gaza Strip, according to local media reports, Anadolu reported.

Demonstrations were held in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and other cities, according to the Haaretz newspaper.

Protests followed a 12‑day conflict between Israel and Iran, which erupted June 13 when Tel Aviv launched airstrikes on Iranian military, nuclear and civilian sites, killing at least 606 victims and injuring 5,332, according to the Iranian Health Ministry.

Tehran launched retaliatory missile and drone strikes, killing at least 29 people and wounding more than 3,400 in Israel, according to figures released by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

The conflict came to a halt under a US-sponsored ceasefire that took effect June 24.

On the heels of getting Tel Aviv and Tehran to sing a deal, US President Donald Trump said Friday that a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip will be reached soon.

“I think it’s close,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office when asked how close his administration is to a deal on a Gaza ceasefire.

READ: Trump says he thinks Gaza ceasefire to be reached ‘within the next week’

Israeli officials expressed surprise Saturday at those remarks, affirming there are no indications of any change in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s positions, according to the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper.

Hamas has repeatedly affirmed its readiness to release Israeli hostages “all at once” in exchange for an end to Israel’s genocidal war, the withdrawal of the Israeli army from Gaza and the release of Palestinian prisoners.

But Netanyahu, who is wanted by international justice officials, insists on partial deals and evades signing a deal by imposing new conditions, including the disarmament of Palestinian factions.

According to the Israeli opposition, Netanyahu currently insists on reoccupying Gaza to serve his political interests, particularly maintaining his hold on power.

Israeli officials estimate that Trump seeks to leverage the momentum following the end of the Israel-Iran confrontation to achieve an additional political accomplishment.

In May, the US president’s special envoy Steve Witkoff presented a proposal to Hamas that included the release of half of the living Israeli hostages and half of those killed within seven days of the start of a potential agreement, in exchange for a 60-day ceasefire.

Tel Aviv estimates that there are 50 Israeli hostages in Gaza, including 20 alive. There are more than 10,400 Palestinians being held in Israeli prisons, suffering from torture, starvation and medical neglect, which has resulted in many deaths, according to Palestinian and Israeli human rights and media reports.

Rejecting international calls for a ceasefire, the Israeli army has pursued a brutal offensive against Gaza since October 2023, killing more than 56,400 Palestinians, most of them women and children.

Last November, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.

Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on the enclave.

READ: Nearly 100,000 Palestinians killed in Gaza amid Israeli war: Haaretz

This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Continue ReadingThousands of Israelis stage nationwide protests to demand release of hostages in Gaza: Report

Microsoft’s Role in Gaza Goes Way Beyond the ICC Email Lockout

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Original article by Robert Inlakesh republished from MPN under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 International License.

Last week, headlines lit up with a staggering development: Microsoft locked the world’s top war crimes prosecutor out of his email. Karim Khan, chief of the International Criminal Court (ICC), had dared to go after Israeli officials for war crimes and was instantly digitally silenced. His accounts were frozen. His name smeared. His power stripped.

It looked like petty revenge. But it wasn’t just that. It was the latest move in a coordinated campaign, backed by Washington, Tel Aviv, and Silicon Valley, to destroy the one court willing to challenge Israeli impunity.

And Microsoft is at the center of it.

While the press obsessed over the email lockout, few paid attention to what came before: a U.S.-Israeli information war against the ICC.

After the court announced arrest warrants against both Hamas and Israeli officials for war crimes in Gaza, U.S. officials went into overdrive. Biden called the decision “outrageous.” Lawmakers threatened sanctions. Netanyahu smeared the court as “antisemitic.”

Despite the outrage, the warrants reflected a 3-to-2 ratio: Yahya Sinwar, Ismail Haniyeh, and Mohammed al-Deif of Hamas; Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and Prime Minister Netanyahu.

All three Palestinian leaders have since been killed. The Israeli officials remain untouched.

Then came the kicker: the U.S. government sanctioned Khan himself. His bank accounts were frozen, and his allies were warned: help him and face criminal charges.

It wasn’t the first time, either. In 2002, Congress passed the American Service-Members’ Protection Act, better known as the Hague Invasion Act. It authorizes the president to send troops into the Netherlands if any American or allied official is detained by the court.

But while the U.S. handled the threats and the muscle, Microsoft played a more subtle role. According to Khan, the company blocked him from his official ICC email account just as he was formalizing charges against top Israeli leaders. The timing, to many, wasn’t a coincidence—it was a message.

Following October 7, Microsoft signed $10 million in new contracts with the Israeli military. Through a secretive program called “Project Azure,” the company provided infrastructure for Israeli intelligence and air force units, including Unit 8200 and Unit 81. These are the same units compiling “kill lists” in Gaza.

The company stayed quiet until recently, when it admitted to providing “emergency support” to Israel. But insisted that there was “no evidence” its tech harmed civilians.

That’s not all. Microsoft previously poured $78 million into the Israeli surveillance firm AnyVision, whose facial recognition tech was deployed across the West Bank. It also powered an app developed by the Israeli military—“Al Munaseq”—which spies on Palestinian permit-holders. Its cloud systems processed their private phone data.

Worse still, Microsoft has been stacking its upper ranks with veterans of Israel’s Unit 8200, effectively embedding a foreign intelligence agency into the core of one of America’s most powerful corporations and building its next data centers in Israel.

While the ICC is being sabotaged from the top, resistance is brewing from within. On April 4, two Microsoft employees, one a whistleblower, disrupted the company’s 50th anniversary celebration, accusing it of complicity in genocide. Both were fired.

Then, at the Build 2025 conference, Palestinian engineer Joe Lopez interrupted CEO Satya Nadella mid-speech: “My people are suffering!” Security dragged him out. A day later, another protester shouted down a separate keynote: “No Azure for Apartheid!” Protesters outside waved Palestinian flags and demanded answers.

These demonstrations were organized by the group No Azure for Apartheid, which has been documenting how Microsoft’s tools are helping Israel wage war. Inside the company, those who speak out face retaliation.

Meanwhile, Netanyahu is gloating. “The prosecutor should be worried about his status,” he said after the warrants were announced. That threat has aged well.

Many critics of Microsoft’s outsized role in Israel’s war argue that when a foreign state and its allies in Silicon Valley can paralyze an international court with the click of a button, it’s not just Gaza under siege, it’s in our institutions, our tech, and our sovereignty.

Feature photo | An Israeli officer wears Microsoft’s HoloLens headset during military testing in Ramat Gan, Israel. Stefanie J’rkel | AP

Original article by Robert Inlakesh republished from MPN under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 International License.

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Continue ReadingMicrosoft’s Role in Gaza Goes Way Beyond the ICC Email Lockout

Hostage Families in Tel Aviv: ‘Starting Tomorrow, the Country Will Tremble’

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Original article by Common Dreams Staff republished from Common Dreams under a CC licence.

Israeli people, holding Israeli flags and banners, stage a demonstration demanding hostage swap deal and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government to sign a ceasefire in Gaza, on August 31, 2024, in Tel Aviv, Israel. (Photo by Mostafa Alkharouf/Anadolu via Getty Images.

‘Starting tomorrow, the country will tremble. We call on the public to prepare. The country will grind to a halt. The abandonment is over.’

Tens of thousands rallied across Israel on Saturday night, demanding a hostage deal and against the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

In Tel Aviv, tens of thousands of demonstrators, including relatives of those held hostage in Gaza, gathered at the Hostages Square for a rally demanding their loved ones’ return and pled with the prime minister and negotiating team to reach an agreement before time runs out. Roving groups of right-wing activists cursed and spat on the demonstrators.

Along with the mass demonstration in Tel Aviv, large protests were held in cities nationwide, drawing thousands of demonstrators.

Later Saturday night, the Israeli Defense Force announced it had located several bodies in the Gaza Strip, which might be the remains of Israeli hostages. “At this stage, the forces are still operating in the area and carrying out a process to extract and identify the bodies, which will last several hours,” the military says.

After the IDF says it has found bodies in Gaza that possibly are of hostages, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum issued a statement calling on the public to prepare to hold sweeping protests tomorrow.

“Netanyahu abandoned the hostages. It is now a fact. Starting tomorrow, the country will tremble. We call on the public to prepare. The country will grind to a halt. The abandonment is over.”

The Forum says it will provide further details tomorrow morning.

Original article by Common Dreams Staff republished from Common Dreams under a CC licence.

Continue ReadingHostage Families in Tel Aviv: ‘Starting Tomorrow, the Country Will Tremble’

Yemen’s Ansar Allah declares attacks will continue until genocide in Gaza ends

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Original article by Aseel Saleh republished from peoples dispatch under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-SA) license.

The spokesperson of the Yemeni Armed Forces, Brigadier General Yahya Saree giving a press conference.

The Yemeni Support Front is escalating its attacks on Israeli “primary targets” in solidarity with the Palestinian people, until the aggression on Gaza is halted and the siege is lifted

A drone struck the Israeli city of Tel Aviv on Friday, July 19, killing at least one person and injuring 10 others. The drone exploded hundreds of meters away from the United States Embassy, at the intersection of Shalom Aleichem and Ben Yehuda Streets.

A few hours after the attack, Ansar Allah-led Yemeni Armed Forces claimed responsibility for the attack, in a televised speech delivered by its spokesperson, Brigadier-General Yahya Sare’e. During his speech, Sare’e clarified that Ansar Allah fired a “new drone called Yafa, which is capable of bypassing the enemy’s interception systems”. He also declared Tel Aviv an “unsafe area” and a “primary target” for Ansar Allah’s weapons. Saree asserted that the attack was launched in solidarity with the oppressed Palestinian people and in retaliation of the massacres committed by the Zionist enemy against the Palestinian people in Gaza.

The drone that hit an apartment building in Tel Aviv was an Iranian manufactured craft called Samad-3, which was modified to extend its range, the spokesperson of the Israeli Occupation Forces, Daniel Hagari, said in a televised statement on Friday. He also mentioned that the IOF was investigating what went wrong, as the drone was detected by the Israeli air defenses, but an “error” occurred and “there was no interception.“

Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronot quoted an unnamed Israeli officials saying “Israel will respond to the Houthi drone strike. The option of an attack on Yemeni soil is on the table and we cannot rule out a response in Yemen.” Moreover, the newspaper said it was told by the officials that the attack on Tel Aviv is assessed to be targeting the Embassy of the United States there. It is the first time for Tel Aviv, which is considered the commercial hub for the Israeli entity, to be struck by a drone according to media reports.

A second explosion was heard in Tel Aviv later on Friday, reportedly leaving two casualties. Israeli media said that the incident occurred because an oxygen cylinder exploded inside an apartment in Yosef Zinman Street in east Tel Aviv.

Additionally, the Yemeni Armed Forces struck Singapore-flagged container ship, Lobivia, with ballistic missiles in the gulf of Aden on Friday, for violating entry ban to Israeli ports. Claiming the responsibility for striking the ship, Brigadier-General Yahya Saree reiterated, in another televised speech on Friday, that Ansar Allah’s operations will continue until the war on Gaza stops and the siege imposed on it is lifted.

Original article by Aseel Saleh republished from peoples dispatch under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-SA) license.

Continue ReadingYemen’s Ansar Allah declares attacks will continue until genocide in Gaza ends

Israeli police attack Communist Party’s Nazareth HQ on eve of May Day

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Original article by Zo HaDerekh republished from People’s World under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/

Activists with the Communist Party of Israel and Hadash made ceasefire and an end to occupation the central demands of their May Day 2024 actions. | Photo via Hadash

NAZARETH—Determined to derail a planned May Day rally centered on ceasefire and anti-occupation demands, heavily-armed police forces raided the office of the Nazareth branches of the Hadash coalition (Democratic Front for Peace and Equality) and Communist Party of Israel (CPI) on Friday evening. April 26.

Israeli police raid the Nazareth branch office of Hadash, the Communist Party of Israel, and Zo Haderekh newspaper. This photo is a screengrab from a video taken by a member of Hadash during the raid. | @hadash.front via Instagram

When police stormed the building, activists from Hadash, the CPI, and the Young Communist League were involved in preparations for the central May Day demonstration being organized by Hadash and the CPI. At least two activists were arrested.

“We won’t let the fascists silence us!” declared Ofer Cassif, the CPI parliamentarian that the government has repeatedly attempted to suppress.

“Come to the demonstration, to raise a loud and clear voice against the criminal massacre in Gaza, against the ethnic cleansing of the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, against the raging tide of fascism and in support of justice for all, before it’s too late!” he continued.

“The order of the day: Unite against fascism!”

Several rallies against the deadly war in Gaza and the occupation of the Palestinian territories will be held across Israel for May Day—in Tel Aviv, Nazareth, Kufr Yassif, Western Galilee, Jerusalem, and other locations.

This is the third assault on the branch in Nazareth in the past year. Police raided the office on Nov. 10, tearing down political posters and spray-painting over murals. “The Ben-Gvir police continues its political persecution and attempts to intimidate and silence the Arab public and other forces opposing the war,” Hadash said in a statement, referring to Itamar Ben-Gvir, Netanyahu’s national security minister.

“We will not put up with these provocations. We will continue to lead the joint Arab-Jewish struggle against fascism, war and persecution,” Hadash said.

A year ago, on April 28, 2023, just before the May Day demonstration in the city, in another raid police took down the red flags and the Palestinian flag at the Nazareth branch and arrested the secretary of the Communist Party in the city.

Original article by Zo HaDerekh republished from People’s World under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/

Continue ReadingIsraeli police attack Communist Party’s Nazareth HQ on eve of May Day