Middle East Eye

🎥 A physical altercation took place among the crowd while Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir was delivering a speech during a memorial at a military cemetery in Ashdod. Ben Gvir was heckled at the ceremony and called “a criminal” by families of dead Israeli soldiers, triggering clashes among the audience. 🔴 Live updates: https://www.middleeasteye.net/live/gaza-live-israel-war-rafah-humanitarian-crisis?utm_source=telegram&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=social_traffic

📰 A US army officer has publicly resigned from the Department of Defence in protest against the Biden administration’s support for Israel’s war on Gaza. Major Harrison Mann said he resigned from the Department of Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA) over the “nearly unqualified support” the US has provided Israel “which has enabled and empowered the killing and starvation of tens of thousands of innocent Palestinians in Gaza". In a resignation letter posted on LinkedIn, Mann explained to colleagues the reason for his “abrupt departure” from the agency. “At some point…you’re either advancing a policy that enables [the] mass starvation of children, or you’re not,” he wrote. “I know that I did, in my small way, wittingly advance that policy.” 🔗Tap the link to read more: https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/army-officer-resigns-haunted-us-support-ethnic-cleansing-gaza?utm_source=telegram&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=social_traffic

📰 Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday that at least one thousand Palestinian civilians from Gaza are receiving treatment in Turkey. Erdogan made the comments during a joint address with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and initially said that one thousand “Hamas members” are being treated in hospitals. However, two Turkish sources with knowledge speaking to Middle East Eye said the president misspoke and in fact that number referred to Palestinian civilians from Gaza. In a press conference with his Greek counterpart, held in the Turkish capital of Ankara, Erdogan told reporters that he considered Hamas to be a “resistance organisation”. 🔗 Tap the link in our bio for live updates from Israel’s ongoing #WarOnGaza

📰 “As somebody who was on the ground and has spent a lot of time in hospitals in Gaza, including in Rafah, I saw the impact of this fighting on children’s bodies and it is horrific,” said Unicef spokesperson Tess Ingram in an interview with the US broadcaster, ABC. “I saw a nine-year-old girl who was clinging to life on a hospital bed in Rafah with major blast wounds down one side of her body, and when I met her, she had been that way 16 days because the medical ability in Gaza to repair those wounds was non-existent.” “We need to see an end to the fighting and the indiscriminate killing of civilians, especially children.” 🔴 Live updates: https://www.middleeasteye.net/live/gaza-live-israel-war-rafah-humanitarian-crisis?utm_source=telegram&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=social_traffic

🎥 Have you heard about #blockout2024? Social media users are blocking celebrities they believe haven’t used their platforms to shed light on important issues like Sudan, Gaza, Congo and beyond. Here’s what’s worth knowing about this mass blocking campaign.

📰 The ruler of Kuwait has dissolved the country’s parliament for up to four years in a move that analysts fear could threaten the country's unique semi-democratic political system. On Friday, Kuwaiti Emir Mishal al-Ahmed Al Sabah announced that the country’s National Assembly would be suspended, as well as several articles of the constitution, in order to review the “democratic process” potentially until 2028. Kuwait has the only elected parliament in the Gulf. The move comes after years of political deadlocks and reshuffles. “The recent turmoil in the Kuwaiti political scene has reached a stage where we cannot remain silent, so we must take all necessary measures to achieve the best interest of the country and its people,” Emir Mishal al-Ahmed said. 🔗Tap the link to read more: https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/kuwait-suspended-parliament-moving-towards-autocracy?utm_source=telegram&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=social_traffic

📰 Two Egyptian university students have been “forcibly disappeared” after security forces arrested them last week over their support for a new student movement for Palestine, according to Egyptian Network for Human Rights (ENHR). According to ENHR, security forces publicly detained medical student Mazen Ahmed in Mansoura, a city in northern Egypt. The group said Ahmed was detained because of his support and activism for Palestine and against the ongoing Israeli war on Gaza. He is due to take his end-of-year exams next week. A second student, Ziad Bassiouni, was also detained last week because of his pro-Palestine views, according to both his family and the ENHR. Bassiouni’s mother, the film critic Fayza Hendawi, said her son was violently detained on Thursday and has since disappeared. 🔗Tap the link to read more: https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/egypt-students-violently-detained-supporting-global-palestine-movement?utm_source=telegram&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=social_traffic

Tamir Hayman, the head of Israel’s Institute for National Security Studies and the former head of Israeli army intelligence, described Arab countries’ support for Israel in light of the ongoing conflict in Gaza as "unbelievable".

Unrwa vehicles, which were hit by Israeli gunfire and left riddled with bullet holes, are parked outside the emergency entrance of the European hospital in Gaza’s Khan Younis.

Carol Christ, the chancellor of the University of California, Berkeley, spoke about the “brutality of the violence in Gaza” during her graduation ceremony speech, expressing support for students protesting in Palestine solidarity encampments.