Israeli forces move in to break up a Palestinian demonstration in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of illegally occupied East Jerusalem on May 22, 2021. (Photo: Mostafa Alkharouf/Andalou Agency via Getty Images)
May 25, 2021
Human rights defenders on Tuesday continued to condemn the ongoing mass arrests of hundreds of Palestinian citizens of Israel who have participated in recent protests against forced displacement and settler attacks in occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank, as well as the Israeli bombardment of Gaza that killed 248 people.
"Apartheid inside Israel is when Jewish Israeli mobs chant 'Death to Arabs' and brutalize Palestinians in their neighborhoods, while the cops do nothing, only for those same cops to conduct mass arrests of Palestinian citizens two weeks later."
--Remi Kanazi,
poet and activist
According to Israeli police, 1,550 Palestinians have been arrested since May 9 during "Operation Law and Order," a campaign targeting majority Arab cities and towns in Israel. West Bank officials say Israeli forces have killed 25 Palestinians, including four under the age of 18, in the occupied territory since May 10. Israeli authorities claim five of the victims tried to attack Israeli security forces.
The Nation reports Israeli police say the arrests are meant to "settle the score" with Israel's Arab citizens by punishing those who have protested against ongoing state and state-sanctioned oppression. Palestinians and their advocates around the world condemned the arrests as hypocritical collective punishment and as another example of Israeli apartheid, noting that there have been no mass arrests of members of Jewish mobs that in recent weeks have brutally attacked Arab people and property throughout Israel.
\u201cWATCH: Israeli police launched a wave of mass arrests against Palestinian citizens of Israel just days after the ceasefire in Gaza, as part of an ongoing crackdown on protesters\u201d— Middle East Eye (@Middle East Eye) 1621962420
Israeli police have arrested Jewish suspects, including two men allegedly involved in the May 10 murder of Mousa Hassouna, a 32-year-old Palestinian citizen of Israel, and two men and a minor for alleged attempted murder and terrorism in connection with a May 12 mob attack on a Palestinian citizen of Israel that was broadcast on live television.
However, most Jews who have attacked Palestinians have done so with impunity. Remi Kanazi, a Palestinian-American poet and activist, tweeted Monday that "apartheid inside Israel is when Jewish Israeli mobs chant 'Death to Arabs' and brutalize Palestinians in their neighborhoods, while the cops do nothing, only for those same cops to conduct mass arrests of Palestinian citizens two weeks later."
\u201cReminding us that Pals inside Israel are also fighting a military system bent on oppressing them, Israel has launched a mass arrest campaign to pick up those who took to the street the past 2 weeks. Obvs, no similar arrests for Jewish mobs - their violence was state sanctioned.\u201d— Tareq Baconi \u0637\u0627\u0631\u0642 \u0628\u0642\u0639\u0648\u0646\u064a (@Tareq Baconi \u0637\u0627\u0631\u0642 \u0628\u0642\u0639\u0648\u0646\u064a) 1621850203
Hassan Jabareen, general director of Adalah - the Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, said in a statement that "the massive arrest campaign announced by Israeli police last night is a militarized war against Palestinian citizens of Israel."
"This is a war against Palestinian demonstrators, political activists, and minors, employing massive Israeli police forces to raid the homes of Palestinian citizens," Jabareen added.
\u201cIsraeli police arrest a 10 year old Palestinian boy in Jerualem and his sister is crying pleading for his release.\u201d— Salem Barahmeh (@Salem Barahmeh) 1621871269
On Sunday, Jewish settlers protected by Israeli security forces stormed the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, brutally assaulting worshippers and arresting numerous Palestinians there. Repeated attacks on Al-Aqsa--Islam's third-holiest site--and the imminent forced expulsion of Palestinians from the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of East Jerusalem sparked widespread protests in Haifa, Yafa, Lydd, Nazareth, and other cities and towns earlier this month.
The mass arrests come amid a fragile ceasefire between Israeli forces and Palestinian militants following 11 days of Israeli aerial and artillery bombardment that killed 248 Palestinians, including 66 children, while wounding around 1,900 others and displacing tens of thousands more. Thousands of rockets fired into Israel from Gaza by Palestinian fighters killed 13 people, including two children.
The arrests also coincide with a visit to Israel by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who faced widespread criticism during the Israeli onslaught for giving Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu what journalist Aaron Mate called "a green light... to continue massacring Palestinian civilians."
\u201cAs a form of collective punishment following Palestinian peaceful protests, Israeli police are planning to arrest 500 Palestinian citizens of Israel.\n\nIsrael's national police training academy, Policity, is partially owned by @G4S & @AlliedUniversal.\n\nhttps://t.co/onAeSGauKF\u201d— BDS movement (@BDS movement) 1621937407
Middle East Eye reports Palestinian citizens of Israel have taken to social media to warn others of the arrest threat. According to the outlet, one widely shared post reads: "This is a declaration of war, the Israelis will storm more than 500 homes to kidnap our children and youth."
"This is not just an attempt at intimidation, and it is not just a policy of intimidation," the post continues. "This is an unprecedented war on Palestinians at home, and it will be carried out under the cover of a humiliating silence. Our people must act now and immediately to thwart this war."
Majd Kayyal, a Haifa-based activist, told Al Jazeera that "the Israeli police lost their ability to frighten and terrorize the Palestinians. This is why they launched this campaign."
"They want to restore this feeling of terror in us, to teach us a lesson," added Kayyal. "But they also want to disrupt Palestinian unity, which is what this uprising is all about."
\u201cAt this moment, Palestinian citizens of Israel are living in terror as Israeli police conduct mass arrests. This is after recent weeks of police brutality, settler & mob violence, pogroms where Palestinians have had no protection. \n\nMore on that: https://t.co/7eZ1m4Qd0m\u201d— Simone Zimmerman \ud83d\udd25 (@Simone Zimmerman \ud83d\udd25) 1621900572
Other Palestinian citizens of Israel say the arrests are the latest demonstration of how Arabs are treated as second-class citizens or worse.
Although Israel claims its Arab citizens--who make up about 20% of the nation's population--enjoy equality under the law, the U.S. State Department has repeatedly accused Israel of practicing "institutional and societal discrimination" toward its Arab citizens, around 40% of whom live in poverty due largely to an inferior education system and other basic societal inequities.
Some prominent Palestinians called on the world to condemn Israel's mass arrests.
"There needs to be a global outcry, because the more that Palestinians stand up for their rights, the more they will be crushed," Berlin-based journalist Abir Kopty wrote in The Nation. "Following the news of the mass arrests, my partner asked me how Israel could pursue such a flagrant policy of abuse amid the rising global outrage over its actions in Gaza. I believe Israel is so intoxicated with power that it doesn't really care."
"This has long been the logic of the state: Everything can be solved with force, and if that doesn't work, then try more force," she continued. "None of this is about 'law and order.' Nor is this a story of a 'clash' between a state and its citizens. This is part of the continued aggression and suppression of Palestinians, everywhere."
\u201c"There needs to be a global outcry, because the more that Palestinians stand up for their rights, the more they will be crushed." \u2014 @AbirKopty on Israel's newly announced campaign of mass arrests https://t.co/Yccxfu9dr8\u201d— The Nation (@The Nation) 1621966804
"It is time that people stop talking about the condition of Palestinians within Israel as an 'internal' matter, a simple case of 'civic strife,'" Kopty added. "We are integral part of the struggle against colonialism. Denying our right to define our aspirations for justice will not change them."
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Human rights defenders on Tuesday continued to condemn the ongoing mass arrests of hundreds of Palestinian citizens of Israel who have participated in recent protests against forced displacement and settler attacks in occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank, as well as the Israeli bombardment of Gaza that killed 248 people.
"Apartheid inside Israel is when Jewish Israeli mobs chant 'Death to Arabs' and brutalize Palestinians in their neighborhoods, while the cops do nothing, only for those same cops to conduct mass arrests of Palestinian citizens two weeks later."
--Remi Kanazi,
poet and activist
According to Israeli police, 1,550 Palestinians have been arrested since May 9 during "Operation Law and Order," a campaign targeting majority Arab cities and towns in Israel. West Bank officials say Israeli forces have killed 25 Palestinians, including four under the age of 18, in the occupied territory since May 10. Israeli authorities claim five of the victims tried to attack Israeli security forces.
The Nation reports Israeli police say the arrests are meant to "settle the score" with Israel's Arab citizens by punishing those who have protested against ongoing state and state-sanctioned oppression. Palestinians and their advocates around the world condemned the arrests as hypocritical collective punishment and as another example of Israeli apartheid, noting that there have been no mass arrests of members of Jewish mobs that in recent weeks have brutally attacked Arab people and property throughout Israel.
\u201cWATCH: Israeli police launched a wave of mass arrests against Palestinian citizens of Israel just days after the ceasefire in Gaza, as part of an ongoing crackdown on protesters\u201d— Middle East Eye (@Middle East Eye) 1621962420
Israeli police have arrested Jewish suspects, including two men allegedly involved in the May 10 murder of Mousa Hassouna, a 32-year-old Palestinian citizen of Israel, and two men and a minor for alleged attempted murder and terrorism in connection with a May 12 mob attack on a Palestinian citizen of Israel that was broadcast on live television.
However, most Jews who have attacked Palestinians have done so with impunity. Remi Kanazi, a Palestinian-American poet and activist, tweeted Monday that "apartheid inside Israel is when Jewish Israeli mobs chant 'Death to Arabs' and brutalize Palestinians in their neighborhoods, while the cops do nothing, only for those same cops to conduct mass arrests of Palestinian citizens two weeks later."
\u201cReminding us that Pals inside Israel are also fighting a military system bent on oppressing them, Israel has launched a mass arrest campaign to pick up those who took to the street the past 2 weeks. Obvs, no similar arrests for Jewish mobs - their violence was state sanctioned.\u201d— Tareq Baconi \u0637\u0627\u0631\u0642 \u0628\u0642\u0639\u0648\u0646\u064a (@Tareq Baconi \u0637\u0627\u0631\u0642 \u0628\u0642\u0639\u0648\u0646\u064a) 1621850203
Hassan Jabareen, general director of Adalah - the Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, said in a statement that "the massive arrest campaign announced by Israeli police last night is a militarized war against Palestinian citizens of Israel."
"This is a war against Palestinian demonstrators, political activists, and minors, employing massive Israeli police forces to raid the homes of Palestinian citizens," Jabareen added.
\u201cIsraeli police arrest a 10 year old Palestinian boy in Jerualem and his sister is crying pleading for his release.\u201d— Salem Barahmeh (@Salem Barahmeh) 1621871269
On Sunday, Jewish settlers protected by Israeli security forces stormed the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, brutally assaulting worshippers and arresting numerous Palestinians there. Repeated attacks on Al-Aqsa--Islam's third-holiest site--and the imminent forced expulsion of Palestinians from the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of East Jerusalem sparked widespread protests in Haifa, Yafa, Lydd, Nazareth, and other cities and towns earlier this month.
The mass arrests come amid a fragile ceasefire between Israeli forces and Palestinian militants following 11 days of Israeli aerial and artillery bombardment that killed 248 Palestinians, including 66 children, while wounding around 1,900 others and displacing tens of thousands more. Thousands of rockets fired into Israel from Gaza by Palestinian fighters killed 13 people, including two children.
The arrests also coincide with a visit to Israel by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who faced widespread criticism during the Israeli onslaught for giving Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu what journalist Aaron Mate called "a green light... to continue massacring Palestinian civilians."
\u201cAs a form of collective punishment following Palestinian peaceful protests, Israeli police are planning to arrest 500 Palestinian citizens of Israel.\n\nIsrael's national police training academy, Policity, is partially owned by @G4S & @AlliedUniversal.\n\nhttps://t.co/onAeSGauKF\u201d— BDS movement (@BDS movement) 1621937407
Middle East Eye reports Palestinian citizens of Israel have taken to social media to warn others of the arrest threat. According to the outlet, one widely shared post reads: "This is a declaration of war, the Israelis will storm more than 500 homes to kidnap our children and youth."
"This is not just an attempt at intimidation, and it is not just a policy of intimidation," the post continues. "This is an unprecedented war on Palestinians at home, and it will be carried out under the cover of a humiliating silence. Our people must act now and immediately to thwart this war."
Majd Kayyal, a Haifa-based activist, told Al Jazeera that "the Israeli police lost their ability to frighten and terrorize the Palestinians. This is why they launched this campaign."
"They want to restore this feeling of terror in us, to teach us a lesson," added Kayyal. "But they also want to disrupt Palestinian unity, which is what this uprising is all about."
\u201cAt this moment, Palestinian citizens of Israel are living in terror as Israeli police conduct mass arrests. This is after recent weeks of police brutality, settler & mob violence, pogroms where Palestinians have had no protection. \n\nMore on that: https://t.co/7eZ1m4Qd0m\u201d— Simone Zimmerman \ud83d\udd25 (@Simone Zimmerman \ud83d\udd25) 1621900572
Other Palestinian citizens of Israel say the arrests are the latest demonstration of how Arabs are treated as second-class citizens or worse.
Although Israel claims its Arab citizens--who make up about 20% of the nation's population--enjoy equality under the law, the U.S. State Department has repeatedly accused Israel of practicing "institutional and societal discrimination" toward its Arab citizens, around 40% of whom live in poverty due largely to an inferior education system and other basic societal inequities.
Some prominent Palestinians called on the world to condemn Israel's mass arrests.
"There needs to be a global outcry, because the more that Palestinians stand up for their rights, the more they will be crushed," Berlin-based journalist Abir Kopty wrote in The Nation. "Following the news of the mass arrests, my partner asked me how Israel could pursue such a flagrant policy of abuse amid the rising global outrage over its actions in Gaza. I believe Israel is so intoxicated with power that it doesn't really care."
"This has long been the logic of the state: Everything can be solved with force, and if that doesn't work, then try more force," she continued. "None of this is about 'law and order.' Nor is this a story of a 'clash' between a state and its citizens. This is part of the continued aggression and suppression of Palestinians, everywhere."
\u201c"There needs to be a global outcry, because the more that Palestinians stand up for their rights, the more they will be crushed." \u2014 @AbirKopty on Israel's newly announced campaign of mass arrests https://t.co/Yccxfu9dr8\u201d— The Nation (@The Nation) 1621966804
"It is time that people stop talking about the condition of Palestinians within Israel as an 'internal' matter, a simple case of 'civic strife,'" Kopty added. "We are integral part of the struggle against colonialism. Denying our right to define our aspirations for justice will not change them."
Human rights defenders on Tuesday continued to condemn the ongoing mass arrests of hundreds of Palestinian citizens of Israel who have participated in recent protests against forced displacement and settler attacks in occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank, as well as the Israeli bombardment of Gaza that killed 248 people.
"Apartheid inside Israel is when Jewish Israeli mobs chant 'Death to Arabs' and brutalize Palestinians in their neighborhoods, while the cops do nothing, only for those same cops to conduct mass arrests of Palestinian citizens two weeks later."
--Remi Kanazi,
poet and activist
According to Israeli police, 1,550 Palestinians have been arrested since May 9 during "Operation Law and Order," a campaign targeting majority Arab cities and towns in Israel. West Bank officials say Israeli forces have killed 25 Palestinians, including four under the age of 18, in the occupied territory since May 10. Israeli authorities claim five of the victims tried to attack Israeli security forces.
The Nation reports Israeli police say the arrests are meant to "settle the score" with Israel's Arab citizens by punishing those who have protested against ongoing state and state-sanctioned oppression. Palestinians and their advocates around the world condemned the arrests as hypocritical collective punishment and as another example of Israeli apartheid, noting that there have been no mass arrests of members of Jewish mobs that in recent weeks have brutally attacked Arab people and property throughout Israel.
\u201cWATCH: Israeli police launched a wave of mass arrests against Palestinian citizens of Israel just days after the ceasefire in Gaza, as part of an ongoing crackdown on protesters\u201d— Middle East Eye (@Middle East Eye) 1621962420
Israeli police have arrested Jewish suspects, including two men allegedly involved in the May 10 murder of Mousa Hassouna, a 32-year-old Palestinian citizen of Israel, and two men and a minor for alleged attempted murder and terrorism in connection with a May 12 mob attack on a Palestinian citizen of Israel that was broadcast on live television.
However, most Jews who have attacked Palestinians have done so with impunity. Remi Kanazi, a Palestinian-American poet and activist, tweeted Monday that "apartheid inside Israel is when Jewish Israeli mobs chant 'Death to Arabs' and brutalize Palestinians in their neighborhoods, while the cops do nothing, only for those same cops to conduct mass arrests of Palestinian citizens two weeks later."
\u201cReminding us that Pals inside Israel are also fighting a military system bent on oppressing them, Israel has launched a mass arrest campaign to pick up those who took to the street the past 2 weeks. Obvs, no similar arrests for Jewish mobs - their violence was state sanctioned.\u201d— Tareq Baconi \u0637\u0627\u0631\u0642 \u0628\u0642\u0639\u0648\u0646\u064a (@Tareq Baconi \u0637\u0627\u0631\u0642 \u0628\u0642\u0639\u0648\u0646\u064a) 1621850203
Hassan Jabareen, general director of Adalah - the Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, said in a statement that "the massive arrest campaign announced by Israeli police last night is a militarized war against Palestinian citizens of Israel."
"This is a war against Palestinian demonstrators, political activists, and minors, employing massive Israeli police forces to raid the homes of Palestinian citizens," Jabareen added.
\u201cIsraeli police arrest a 10 year old Palestinian boy in Jerualem and his sister is crying pleading for his release.\u201d— Salem Barahmeh (@Salem Barahmeh) 1621871269
On Sunday, Jewish settlers protected by Israeli security forces stormed the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, brutally assaulting worshippers and arresting numerous Palestinians there. Repeated attacks on Al-Aqsa--Islam's third-holiest site--and the imminent forced expulsion of Palestinians from the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of East Jerusalem sparked widespread protests in Haifa, Yafa, Lydd, Nazareth, and other cities and towns earlier this month.
The mass arrests come amid a fragile ceasefire between Israeli forces and Palestinian militants following 11 days of Israeli aerial and artillery bombardment that killed 248 Palestinians, including 66 children, while wounding around 1,900 others and displacing tens of thousands more. Thousands of rockets fired into Israel from Gaza by Palestinian fighters killed 13 people, including two children.
The arrests also coincide with a visit to Israel by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who faced widespread criticism during the Israeli onslaught for giving Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu what journalist Aaron Mate called "a green light... to continue massacring Palestinian civilians."
\u201cAs a form of collective punishment following Palestinian peaceful protests, Israeli police are planning to arrest 500 Palestinian citizens of Israel.\n\nIsrael's national police training academy, Policity, is partially owned by @G4S & @AlliedUniversal.\n\nhttps://t.co/onAeSGauKF\u201d— BDS movement (@BDS movement) 1621937407
Middle East Eye reports Palestinian citizens of Israel have taken to social media to warn others of the arrest threat. According to the outlet, one widely shared post reads: "This is a declaration of war, the Israelis will storm more than 500 homes to kidnap our children and youth."
"This is not just an attempt at intimidation, and it is not just a policy of intimidation," the post continues. "This is an unprecedented war on Palestinians at home, and it will be carried out under the cover of a humiliating silence. Our people must act now and immediately to thwart this war."
Majd Kayyal, a Haifa-based activist, told Al Jazeera that "the Israeli police lost their ability to frighten and terrorize the Palestinians. This is why they launched this campaign."
"They want to restore this feeling of terror in us, to teach us a lesson," added Kayyal. "But they also want to disrupt Palestinian unity, which is what this uprising is all about."
\u201cAt this moment, Palestinian citizens of Israel are living in terror as Israeli police conduct mass arrests. This is after recent weeks of police brutality, settler & mob violence, pogroms where Palestinians have had no protection. \n\nMore on that: https://t.co/7eZ1m4Qd0m\u201d— Simone Zimmerman \ud83d\udd25 (@Simone Zimmerman \ud83d\udd25) 1621900572
Other Palestinian citizens of Israel say the arrests are the latest demonstration of how Arabs are treated as second-class citizens or worse.
Although Israel claims its Arab citizens--who make up about 20% of the nation's population--enjoy equality under the law, the U.S. State Department has repeatedly accused Israel of practicing "institutional and societal discrimination" toward its Arab citizens, around 40% of whom live in poverty due largely to an inferior education system and other basic societal inequities.
Some prominent Palestinians called on the world to condemn Israel's mass arrests.
"There needs to be a global outcry, because the more that Palestinians stand up for their rights, the more they will be crushed," Berlin-based journalist Abir Kopty wrote in The Nation. "Following the news of the mass arrests, my partner asked me how Israel could pursue such a flagrant policy of abuse amid the rising global outrage over its actions in Gaza. I believe Israel is so intoxicated with power that it doesn't really care."
"This has long been the logic of the state: Everything can be solved with force, and if that doesn't work, then try more force," she continued. "None of this is about 'law and order.' Nor is this a story of a 'clash' between a state and its citizens. This is part of the continued aggression and suppression of Palestinians, everywhere."
\u201c"There needs to be a global outcry, because the more that Palestinians stand up for their rights, the more they will be crushed." \u2014 @AbirKopty on Israel's newly announced campaign of mass arrests https://t.co/Yccxfu9dr8\u201d— The Nation (@The Nation) 1621966804
"It is time that people stop talking about the condition of Palestinians within Israel as an 'internal' matter, a simple case of 'civic strife,'" Kopty added. "We are integral part of the struggle against colonialism. Denying our right to define our aspirations for justice will not change them."
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LATEST NEWS
Entire UN Security Council Except US Says Gaza Famine 'Man-Made' as 10 More People Starve to Death
While acknowledging that "hunger is a real issue in Gaza," the US ambassador to the UN repeated a debunked claim that the world's leading authority on starvation lowered its standards to declare a famine.
Aug 27, 2025
Every member nation of the United Nations Security Council except the United States on Wednesday affirmed that Israel's engineered famine in Gaza is "man-made" as 10 more Palestinians died of starvation amid what UN experts warned is a worsening crisis.
Fourteen of the 15 Security Council members issued a joint statement calling for an immediate Gaza ceasefire, release of all remaining hostages held by Hamas, and lifting of all Israeli restrictions on aid delivery into the embattled strip, where hundreds of Palestinians have died from starvation and hundreds of thousands more are starving.
"Famine in Gaza must be stopped immediately," they said. "Time is of the essence. The humanitarian emergency must be addressed without delay and Israel must reverse course."
"We express our profound alarm and distress at the IPC data on Gaza, published last Friday. It clearly and unequivocally confirms famine," the statement said, referring to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification's declaration of Phase 5, or a famine "catastrophe," in the strip.
"We trust the IPC's work and methodology," the 14 countries declared. "This is the first time famine has been officially confirmed in the Middle East region. Every day, more persons are dying as a result of malnutrition, many of them children."
"This is a man-made crisis," the statement stresses. "The use of starvation as a weapon of war is clearly prohibited under international humanitarian law."
Israel, which is facing a genocide case at the UN's International Court of Justice, denies the existence of famine in Gaza. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant are wanted by the International Court of Justice for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity, including murder and forced starvation.
The 14 countries issuing the joint statement are: Algeria, China, Denmark, France, Greece, Guyana, Pakistan, Panama, the Republic of Korea, the Russian Federation, Sierra Leone, Slovenia, Somalia, and the United Kingdom.
While acknowledging that "hunger is a real issue in Gaza and that there are significant humanitarian needs which must be met," US Ambassador to the UN Dorothy Shea rejected the resolution and the IPC's findings.
"We can only solve problems with credibility and integrity," Shea told the Security Council. "Unfortunately, the recent report from the IPC doesn't pass the test on either."
Shea also repeated the debunked claim that the IPC's "normal standards were changed for [the IPC famine] declaration."
The Security Council's affirmation that the Gaza famine is man-made mirrors the findings of food experts who have accused Israel of orchestrating a carefully planned campaign of mass starvation in the strip.
The UN Palestinian Rights Bureau and UN humanitarian officials also warned Wednesday that the famine in Gaza is "only getting worse."
"Over half a million people currently face starvation, destitution, and death," the humanitarian experts said. "By the end of September, that number could exceed 640,000."
"Failure to act now will have irreversible consequences," they added.
Wednesday's UN actions came as Israel intensified Operation Gideon's Chariots 2, the campaign to conquer, occupy, and ethnically cleanse around 1 million Palestinians from Gaza, possibly into a reportedly proposed concentration camp that would be built over the ruins of the southern city of Rafah.
The Gaza Health Ministry (GHM) on Wednesday reported 10 more Palestinian deaths "due to famine and malnutrition" over the past 24 hours, including two children, bringing the number of famine victims to at least 313, 119 of them children.
All told, Israel's 691-day assault and siege on Gaza has left at least 230,000 Palestinians dead, maimed, or missing, according to the GHM.
Israeli Government Social Media Urges Europe to 'Remove' Muslims
"What would the reaction would be if an Arab state wrote this about synagogues and Jews?" asked one critic.
Aug 27, 2025
Israel faced backlash this week after its Arabic-language account on the social media site X published a message warning Europeans to take action against the proliferation of mosques and "remove" Muslims from their countries.
"In the year 1980, there were only fewer than a hundred mosques in Europe. As for today, there are more than 20,000 mosques. This is the true face of colonization," posted Israel, a settler-colonial state whose nearly 2 million Muslim citizens face widespread discrimination, and where Palestinians in the illegally occupied territories live under an apartheid regime.
"This is what is happening while Europe is oblivious and does not care about the danger," the post continues. "And the danger does not lie in the existence of mosques in and of themselves, for freedom of worship is one of the basic human rights, and every person has the right to believe and worship his Lord."
"The problem lies in the contents that are taught in some of these mosques, and they are not limited to piety and good deeds, but rather focus on encouraging escalating violence in the streets of Europe, and spreading hatred for the other and even for those who host them in their countries, and inciting against them instead of teaching love, harmony, and peace," Israel added. "Europe must wake up and remove this fifth column."
Referring to the far-right Alternative for Germany party, Berlin-based journalist James Jackson replied on X that "even the AfD don't tweet, 'Europe must wake up and remove this fifth column' over a map of mosques."
Other social media users called Israel's post "racist" and "Islamophobic," while some highlighted the stark contrast between the way Palestinians and Israelis treat Christian people and institutions.
Others noted that some of the map's fearmongering figures misleadingly showing a large number of mosques indicate countries whose populations are predominantly or significantly Muslim.
"Russia has 8,000 mosques? Who would've known a country with millions of Muslim Central Asians and Caucasians would need so many!" said one X user.
Israel's post came amid growing international outrage over its 691-day assault and siege on Gaza, which has left more than 230,000 Palestinians dead, maimed, or missing and hundreds of thousands more starving and facing ethnic cleansing as Operation Gideon's Chariots 2—a campaign to conquer, occupy, and "cleanse" the strip—ramps up amid a growing engineered famine that has already killed hundreds of people.
Israel is facing an ongoing genocide case at the International Court of Justice, while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant, his former defense minister, are fugitives form the International Criminal Court, where they are wanted for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity including murder and forced starvation.
European nations including Belgium, Ireland, and Spain are supporting the South Africa-led ICJ genocide case against Israel. Since October 2023, European countries including Belgium, France, Malta, Portugal, Slovenia, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Norway, and Spain have either formally recognized Palestinian statehood or announced their intention to do so.
'Evil': Critics Recoil as Trump DHS Moves to Bar Disaster Aid for Undocumented Immigrants
"This is unfathomable discrimination against immigrants that will cost our country lives," said Rep. Pramila Jayapal.
Aug 27, 2025
The Trump administration is reportedly putting new restrictions on nonprofit organizations that would bar them from helping undocumented immigrants affected by natural disasters.
The Washington Post reported on Wednesday that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is "now barring states and volunteer groups that receive government funds from helping undocumented immigrants" while also requiring these groups "to cooperate with immigration officials and enforcement operations."
Documents obtained by the paper reveal that all volunteer groups that receive government money to help in the wake of disasters must not "operate any program that benefits illegal immigrants or incentivizes illegal immigration." What's more, the groups are prohibited from "harboring, concealing, or shielding from detection illegal aliens" and must "provide access to detainees, such as when an immigration officer seeks to interview a person who might be a removable alien."
The order pertains to faith-based aid groups such as the Salvation Army and Red Cross that are normally on the front lines building shelters and providing assistance during disasters.
Scott Robinson, an emergency management expert who teaches at Arizona State University, told The Washington Post that there is no historical precedent for requiring disaster victims to prove proof of their legal status before receiving assistance.
"The notion that the federal government would use these operations for surveillance is entirely new territory," he said.
Many critics were quick to attack the administration for threatening to punish nonprofit groups that help undocumented immigrants during natural disasters.
Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) lashed out at the decision to bar certain people from receiving assistance during humanitarian emergencies.
"When disaster hits, we cannot only help those with certain legal status," she wrote in a social media post. "We have an obligation to help every single person in need. This is unfathomable discrimination against immigrants that will cost our country lives."
Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, senior fellow at the American Immigration Council, said that restrictions on faith-based groups such as the Salvation Army amounted to a violation of their First Amendment rights.
"Arguably the most anti-religious administration in history," he wrote. "Just nakedly hostile to those who wish to practice their faith."
Bloomberg columnist Erika Smith labeled the new DHS policy "truly cruel and crazy—even for this administration."
Author Charles Fishman also labeled the new policy "crazy" and said it looks like the Trump administration is "trying to crush even charity."
Catherine Rampell, a former columnist at The Washington Post, simply described the new DHS policy as "evil."
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