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War & Peace
As Prisoners and Hostages Released, Advocates Decry Continued Detention of Palestinian Doctor Abu Safiya
"There cannot be peace without justice, human rights, and dignity of ALL," said a top United Nations rights advocate. "Palestinian lives matter."
Oct 13, 2025
As families on Monday celebrated the return of about 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and 20 living Israeli hostages after the two-year Israeli bombardment that has killed more than 67,000 people and left rubble across Gaza, advocates demanded the return of Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, who was captured nearly a year ago and has reportedly been imprisoned in a detention center known for torturing detainees.
Middle East Eye reported Monday morning that according to Israeli media reports, Abu Safiya was on a list of Palestinian prisoners who would be released only "if the number of those released is not completed."
"The government has approved the creation of a reserve list of five prisoners from Gaza, who will be released if changes are made," according to Israeli media reports.
Palestinian writer and poet Mosab Abu Toha noted that "if he and the others are approved, they would replace five other Palestinian hostages who were previously set for release."
Abu Safiya was seized by the Israel Defense Forces in December 2024 after the IDF raided Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahia, where he was the medical director.
The IDF claimed without evidence that Kamal Adwan Hospital was a Hamas command center; it was the last major functioning health facility in northern Gaza when it was attacked.
As the exchange of hostages and prisoners neared over the weekend, advocates including healthcare professionals demanded that Abu Safiya be included in the exchange.
"I am a family doctor and public health practitioner. I have studied the impacts of settler colonialism on health, locally and abroad. I am demanding for the immediate and unconditional release of Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya who is being held captive by the Israeli military for fulfilling his duty and calling to protect his patients," said Dr. Yipeng Ge. "I am calling for protection of hospitals, patients, and health workers in Gaza."
Abu Safiya is one of more than 9,600 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons, according to Israeli human rights group B'Tselem.
The prisoners being released on Monday include 1,700 Palestinians who were detained after Israel began its bombardment of Gaza in retaliation for a Hamas-led attack on October 7, 2023.
At least 154 Palestinian prisoners freed on Monday were forced into exile by Israel and deported to third countries.
On Saturday, the Council on American-Islamic Relations called on the Trump administration to "demand that Israel release Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya and all other kidnapped medical professionals."
Francesca Albanese, United Nations rapporteur on human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories, suggested that the international acceptance of the continued detention of Abu Safiya and thousands of people in Israeli prisons, many of whom have been held without charges and were detained as minors, "says a lot about [the] peace that lays ahead, for the Palestinians."
"There cannot be peace without justice, human rights, and dignity of ALL," said Albanese. "Palestinian lives matter."
The prisoner-hostage exchange is a major part of the first phase of the 20-point peace plan proposed by President Donald Trump, with the next phases yet to be negotiated.
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'Boots on the Ground': Trump to Send 200 US Troops to Israel to Monitor Ceasefire
"Hamas was willing to gamble on Trump’s promise to prevent the Israelis from resuming the genocide once Israel had its prisoners back," wrote independent journalist Nicolas J.S. Davies.
Oct 10, 2025
The US is sending 200 troops to Israel to monitor the Gaza ceasefire agreement signed earlier this week, the Associated Press reported on Friday.
Several officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told the AP that the "US Central Command (CENTCOM) is going to establish a 'civil-military coordination center' in Israel that will help facilitate the flow of humanitarian aid as well as logistical and security assistance into the territory wracked by two years of war."
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed on social media that "up to 200 US personnel, who are already stationed at CENTCOM, will be tasked with monitoring the peace agreement in Israel, and they will work with other international forces on the ground."
Though the United States has provided $16.3 billion in direct military aid to Israel since its two-year campaign of genocide in Gaza began following Hamas' attacks on October 7, 2023, this will be the first time the US will directly have "boots on the ground" in the conflict, though the troops are not expected to be deployed within Gaza itself.
The military team will be overseen by Adm. Brad Cooper, the head of CENTCOM. One senior official said, "his role will be to oversee, observe, make sure there are no violations." The force is expected to also contain members of the armed forces of Egypt, Qatar, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates, with the AP reporting that it will also "coordinate with Israeli defense forces."
According to Axios, Hamas negotiators were reluctant to agree to the first phase of the ceasefire deal unless it received assurances from US President Donald Trump that Israel would not resume attacks once all of its captives were released. Israel had already unilaterally broken the previous ceasefire in March.
"Hamas was willing to gamble on Trump’s promise to prevent the Israelis from resuming the genocide once Israel had its prisoners back," wrote independent journalist Nicolas J.S. Davies in Common Dreams on Thursday. "Under Trump’s plan, Israel would agree to end its genocidal assault on Gaza and partially withdraw its forces, but only his word would prevent it from relaunching the genocide once it had the Israeli prisoners in Gaza safely back."
Within hours after the ceasefire deal was signed on Thursday, Israel had already launched attacks that killed at least nine Palestinians and injured dozens more at displaced people's shelters, homes, and gatherings.
But even if the ceasefire holds, many of the most contentious questions have yet to be resolved, and have instead been kicked down the road to the next round of talks.
Although it dropped its ask for Israel to totally withdraw from Gaza, Hamas has dubbed many of Trump's points in the so-called "peace plan," as nonstarters, including the demand that the militant group fully disarm and that it hand over control of the strip's governance to a "Board of Peace" headed by Trump and Tony Blair, a former UK prime minister and an architect of the Iraq War.
“The proposed plan fails to ensure that Palestinians fully and meaningfully participate in all decisions about the future of the [occupied Palestinian territories], its governance, and the exercise of their rights," said Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International’s secretary general. "A plan that repeats the mistakes and failures of past initiatives that ignored human rights and the root causes of injustice will fail to secure a just and sustainable future for all those living in Israel and the OPT."
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While Ripping Trump Authoritarianism, Over Half of Senate Dems Help GOP Pass $925 Billion Pentagon Bill
"Congress continues to expand military spending while denying investments in the programs that will truly build a safer, healthier future for working- and middle-class families," said Sen. Ed Markey, who voted no.
Oct 10, 2025
Senate Democrats are blasting President Donald Trump's increasingly authoritarian behavior and congressional Republicans for shutting down the US government to preserve devastating healthcare cuts, but over half of them voted with the GOP late Thursday to give nearly $1 trillion to the Pentagon, which has never passed an audit.
The final vote on the Senate's $925 billion version of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2026 was 77-20, with Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.), Ted Cruz (R-Texas), and Thom Tillis (R-NC) not voting. The passage tees up talks with leaders in the House of Representatives, where nearly all Republicans and 17 Democrats approved an NDAA last month.
Democratic Sens. Tammy Baldwin (Wis.), Cory Booker (NJ), Maria Cantwell (Wash.) Tammy Duckworth (Ill.), Dick Durbin (Ill.), Andy Kim (NJ), Ed Markey (Mass.), Jeff Merkley (Ore.), Chris Murphy (Conn.), Patty Murray (Wash.), Alex Padilla (Calif.), Brian Schatz (Hawaii), Adam Schiff (Calif.), Tina Smith (Minn.) Chris Van Hollen (Md.), Elizabeth Warren (Mass.), Peter Welch (Vt.), and Ron Wyden (Ore.) opposed the bill alongside Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who caucuses with Democrats, and Rand Paul (R-Ky).
"Yesterday, the Senate voted to give the Pentagon a trillion-dollar spending package while the Trump administration and MAGA Republicans play politics with troop pay and nuclear security and refuse to reopen the federal government," Markey said in a Friday statement. "All the while, they are stealing healthcare from American families to fund tax breaks for CEO billionaires. This isn't a budget that funds America's real security needs."
"The Senate voted to give the Pentagon a trillion-dollar spending package while the Trump administration and MAGA Republicans play politics with troop pay and nuclear security and refuse to reopen the federal government."
"Republicans rail that we need to cut government spending—for food assistance, for healthcare, for environmental protection—yet they are showering their defense contractor cronies with hundreds of billions for wasteful and destabilizing programs like Trump's Golden Dome space-based missile system," Markey continued. "Yet they decry that funding will soon dry up for paying military salaries and for essential nuclear security operations at the National Nuclear Security Administration."
"In their desperation to score cheap political points, Republicans are undermining vital national security missions," he added. "Year after year, Congress continues to expand military spending while denying investments in the programs that will truly build a safer, healthier future for working- and middle-class families. The cost of passing this bill in the form of denied rights and wasteful spending is simply too great."
In posts on Bluesky, journalist Erin Reed called out the Senate Democrats who helped pass the bill, given its attacks on LGBTQ+ Americans and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI)—common targets of congressional Republicans and the Trump administration.
"In 2024, the NDAA became the vehicle for one of the most consequential betrayals of transgender Americans by national Democrats in recent memory, after Democrats allowed provisions targeting trans military family members and dependents to stand when they had control of the Senate and White House," Reed noted.
"This year, history is repeating itself," she said. "Senate Democrats dropped key objections and allowed a vote to proceed on the bill—ultimately passing the Senate version of the bill, complete with anti-trans culture-war riders, an anti-DEI clause, and no limits on the domestic deployment of US troops."
Early Thursday afternoon, Duckworth, a veteran herself, said that she was blocking the NDAA until she secured a hearing to investigate the president's "gross abuse of our military" by sending soldiers into American cities. A few hours later—shortly before a federal judge temporarily blocked Trump's National Guard deployment in her state, Illinois—Duckworth announced that a hearing is planned.
Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), one of the Democrats who voted for the NDAA, secured sufficient bipartisan support for his amendment to end the authorizations for use of military force related to the 1991 Gulf War and 2003 invasion of Iraq. The Washington Post reported that "the House bill also includes a similar measure, bringing Congress to the precipice of repealing the laws."
Some other Democrat-proposed amendments weren't successful. According to The Hill:
Amendments that failed to pass included one from Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) who had hoped to block money for President Trump to retrofit a luxury Qatari jet he accepted as an intended replacement for Air Force One.
"Retrofitting this foreign-owned luxury jet to make it fully operational will cost hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars. That's money that shouldn't be wasted," Schumer said.
Still, Schumer ultimately voted for the NDAA—unlike Van Hollen, who proposed blocking Trump and governors from sending National Guard troops to another state if its governor or local leaders don't agree.
"Presidents and governors shouldn't be able to deploy National Guard troops from one state to another if that state's governor objects," the senator said on social media. "That is common sense, and yet Republicans just blocked my amendment to stop this blatant abuse of power. Another shameful abdication of duty."
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‘We Must Keep the Pressure On’: Humanitarians Say Ceasefire Doesn't Erase Gaza Genocide
"This much-needed and welcomed ceasefire does not change the simple fact that Israel has just committed a genocide in Gaza," wrote the co-founder of European Jews for Palestine.
Oct 09, 2025
After two years of destruction in the Gaza Strip, Israel signed a ceasefire agreement with Hamas on Thursday that is expected to take effect within the next day. But even as the world reacts with jubilation that the nonstop death and destruction may soon abate, skepticism abounds about whether the agreement will result in a just and lasting peace.
Israel is expected to withdraw troops to an agreed-upon line and to allow an influx of aid into Gaza, along with releasing Palestinian prisoners in exchange for Israeli hostages. Already, signs have emerged that the Israeli government may seek to collapse the fragile agreement, as happened earlier this year.
Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, pointed out that within hours after the deal was announced by US President Donald Trump on Wednesday, Israeli tanks were filmed firing at civilians attempting to return to their homes in Gaza City.
Middle East Eye reported: "Heavy airstrikes and artillery shelling were reported in Gaza City and Khan Younis overnight, according to local media. Israeli quadcopters were also reported to have dropped bombs on civilians in Gaza City. At least nine people were killed in the attacks since dawn, health officials said."
Albanese said: "Just hours after the deal—as in January—Israel shoots at Palestinians waiting to return home. Before any next step, member states must ensure that Israel honors the ceasefire."
Whether the ceasefire will even be finalized remains an open question, as two leading far-right figures in Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government—Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir—have come out in opposition to the deal's ratification and suggested that their parties may defect from Netanyahu's government if they don't get their way, which could be enough to collaose his narrow governing majority.
In a video at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound on Jerusalem's Temple Mount on Wednesday, Ben-Gvir said Israel must pursue "full victory in Gaza," a move seen as deeply provocative by the Arab world outside one of Islam's holiest sites, made only more so by his declaration that "we [Jewish Israelis] are the owners of [the] Temple Mount."
In recent months, Ben-Gvir and Smotrich have said this goal of "total victory" includes carrying out the forced expulsion of Palestinians from Gaza so they can be replaced with Israeli settlers.
Even if this ceasefire proves more durable than previous ones, human rights advocates say that simply halting the violence is not enough.
"We can breathe again, in relief for the end of the daily killing, the starvation, the human suffering beyond imagination, beyond words," wrote Yoav Shemer-Kunz, the co-founder of European Jews for Palestine in EUObserver. "This much-needed and welcomed ceasefire does not change the simple fact that Israel has just committed a genocide in Gaza."
Over the past two years, more than 10% of Gaza's population has been the casualties of Israeli attacks: At least 67,000 people—including over 20,000 children—have been killed, while at least 169,000 people have been injured, many with life-altering wounds, according to official estimates from the Gaza Health Ministry. Other studies suggest the death toll may be even higher when the effects of disease and starvation are taken into account.
Craig Mokhiber, a former United Nations human rights official, said that while Israel and the US had agreed to end the "military component of [the] genocide... they have not yet ended the food and medical components of the genocide."
Nearly 78% of the buildings, including over 9 in 10 homes, in Gaza have been damaged or destroyed, leaving its medical, water, and sanitation infrastructure in ruins.
And as a result of Israel's near-total blockade on humanitarian aid, Gaza is now the center of a historic famine. According to the United Nations-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), nearly a third of the population—641,000 people—is estimated to face catastrophic conditions of hunger, while 1 in 4 children suffers from acute malnutrition.
"A temporary pause or reduction in the scale of attacks and allowing a trickle of humanitarian aid into Gaza is not enough," said Agnès Callamard, the secretary general of Amnesty International.
"There must be a full cessation of hostilities and a total lifting of the blockade," she said. "Israel must allow the unhindered flow of basic supplies, including food, medicine, fuel, and reconstruction material, into all parts of the occupied Gaza Strip, as well as the restoration of essential services, to ensure the survival of a population reeling from starvation, repeated waves of mass forced displacement, and a campaign of annihilation."
Though the deal signed Thursday calls for 400 aid trucks to begin entering the strip each day, marking a massive surge from previous levels, it is still fewer than the 600 per day that were allowed to enter during January's ceasefire, which occurred when starvation was at a less critical point.
Though the ceasefire will require the withdrawal of some troops, Israel has said it will still control 53% of the Gaza Strip after it goes into effect and the prisoner exchange ends.
"This fragile ceasefire must be the beginning of a sustained and principled effort that leads to ending Israel's unlawful occupation and blockade," said Oxfam International. "It must be focused on restoring rights and rebuilding lives. Any political or reconstruction plan must not entrench the occupation or further undermine Palestinian sovereignty."
Others emphasized the importance not just of remedies to the suffering of Palestinians, but legal accountability for those in Israel's government, including Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, for whom the International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants for crimes against humanity.
"The current plan—the so-called 'Trump peace plan'—falls woefully short in this," said Callamard. "It fails to demand justice and reparations for victims of atrocity crimes or accountability for perpetrators. Stopping the cycle of suffering and atrocities requires an end to longstanding impunity at the heart of recurring violations in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories. States must uphold their obligations under international law to bring to justice those responsible for war crimes, crimes against humanity, or genocide."
Mokhiber said: "We must keep the pressure on until all perpetrators and complicit actors are held accountable for the genocide, the apartheid regime is dismantled, and Palestine is free."
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