French dock workers blocking shipment of military material bound for Israel
The CGT trade union has said the workers at the Fos-sur-Mer port outside of Marseille have refused to load crates of links used to assist the rapid fire of bullets onto a cargo ship.
Christophe Claret, the leader of the dock workers at the port, told the AFP news agency they had been notified that the ship was due to be loaded on Thursday with the material.
“We managed to identify it and set it aside,” he told AFP, emphasising that once dockers refuse to load a shipment, no one else can do it for them. The other containers for the ship will all be loaded, he said.
The CGT said the move made clear its refusal to “participate in the ongoing genocide orchestrated by the Israeli government.”
A cargo ship moored at Fos-sur-Mer in southern France
While Macron keeps dragging his feet, French dock workers are awesome.
Press freedom groups renew calls for access to Gaza
More than 130 news outlets and press freedom groups have called for Israel to grant foreign journalists access to Gaza.
An open letter shared by the Committee to Protect Journalists and Reporters Without Borders called Israel’s near-total restrictions on press access to Gaza “a situation that is without precedent in modern warfare”.
The letter also draws attention to the enormous toll faced by Palestinian reporters who have sought to document events and conditions inside the Strip while faced with persistent Israeli attacks.
“Local journalists, those best positioned to tell the truth, face displacement and starvation,” the letter reads.
“To date, nearly 200 journalists have been killed by the Israeli military. Many more have been injured and face constant threats to their lives for doing their jobs: bearing witness.”
BBC says reporting team detained by Israeli forces in Syria
The British Broadcasting Company has said that a group of its reporters were held at gunpoint by Israeli forces occupying southern Syria in an incident that took place on May 9.
BBC Arabic correspondent Feras Kilani said that a team of seven people were approached by Israeli soldiers who pointed their guns at the reporters, ordered them out of the car, and confiscated their phones and reporting equipment, despite the team identifying themselves as reporters for the BBC.
The team included Kilani, a British citizen, two Iraqi BBC staff, and four Syrians, including three freelancers and one BBC cameraman, he said.
Kilani also said that he was forced to strip to his underwear as he was searched by soldiers while his team was tied up and blindfolded. He says that the BBC complained to Israel, but has yet to receive any response.
