Jewish Journalist Katie Halper Exposes Israel's Dark History

Katie Halper, a secular Jewish journalist and political commentator, dives deep into the untold history of Israel. From Zionism and antisemitism to media bias and Jewish colonization, she unpacks the uncomfortable truths that rarely make it into mainstream conversations. A bold, unfiltered look at power, identity, and the cost of speaking out.

Punished for Being an Anti-Zionist Jew | Dr. Maura Finkelstein

How Israel Used October 7 to Spread Propaganda

This video dives into a groundbreaking investigation by Al Jazeera’s Investigative Unit, exposing how fabricated stories about October 7 were used to justify mass violence — and how the Western media played along.

Netanyahu turning Israel into ‘banana republic’, says former PM

Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak says the Shin Bet affidavit reveals that Netanyahu is turning the country into a “banana republic”.

“This is the test of the Attorney General and the High Court. If a state of emergency is not declared, with the backing of the High Court, it could lead to civil war. This is also a test of the protest. Without hundreds of thousands in the streets, the High Court could stutter,” Barak wrote on X.

“If we don’t remove the dictator now, Israel is in existential danger,” he added.



Israeli politician says findings of Shin Bet affidavit ‘endanger’ unity of people

The chairman of the Yisrael Beiteinu party, Avigdor Liberman, says the Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar’s affidavit, which states Netanyahu asked him to provide details on anti-government protesters, “seriously harms the unity of the people and national resilience, and endangers our future and existence”.

“These are serious findings that require the establishment of a state commission of inquiry,” Liberman wrote on X.

However, he said that Bar’s revelations did not absolve Netanyahu or Bar from the security failures that led to Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,139 people.

Netanyahu says Shin Bet chief ‘falsely’ accused PM of demanding loyalty

Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu’s office says the chief of the domestic security service, also known as the Shin Bet, falsely accused the prime minister of demanding personal loyalty in a Supreme Court affidavit.

“Ronen Bar submitted a false affidavit to the Supreme Court today, which will be thoroughly refuted in due course,” Netanyahu’s office said in a statement.

Bar, who Israeli media reported would be resigning from his position in mid-May, has been at the centre of a dispute between Netanyahu and the Shin Bet after the prime minister said he no longer trusted Bar following the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack security failure.

Bar’s sacking last month triggered protests. His dismissal was later suspended by the Supreme Court.

Israeli cabinet to decide on next steps in Gaza war on Tuesday: Report

Israel’s cabinet is expected to hold a session on Tuesday to determine its next steps in Gaza after stalled negotiations for a ceasefire and the return of captives held in the enclave.

The Israel Hayom newspaper reported that the government was hoping increased attacks on Gaza and the blockade on humanitarian aid would make Hamas change its stance and accept US envoy Steve Witkoff’s proposal to extend the first stage of the ceasefire by several weeks in return for five captives.

According to the report, members of the government believe continuing military pressure is essential, but there are disagreements on the method.

Netanyahu and his Likud party ministers believe gradual pressure should continue in hopes that Hamas would accept the deal.

However, more far-right ministers, including Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, are pushing for a full-scale war to eliminate Hamas.

‘We will pursue Hamas wherever it is’

Israeli army spokesperson Effie Defrin has said the military will “pursue Hamas wherever it is, both in the north of the Gaza Strip, in the south of the Gaza Strip, and outside the Gaza Strip”, until all captives are released.

“We are operating in the northern Gaza Strip and in the southern Gaza Strip … we have cut off the Khan Younis area from the Rafah area,” Defrin said in a statement delivered from the buffer zone between the two cities that Israel refers to as the Morag Corridor.

“The purpose of the operation is to increase pressure on Hamas in order to bring the hostages home and to collapse the Hamas regime, the military wing of Hamas, the military and the government.”

Defrin said that the “ambiguity” surrounding Israel’s operations in Gaza was part of a strategy to keep surprising Hamas and that the army would open more fronts in the rest of Gaza now that it had completed a buffer zone in the south.

US ambassador to Israel calls on Hamas to accept ceasefire proposal for aid to enter Gaza

The new US ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, has called on Hamas to accept a proposed ceasefire to release captives in exchange for humanitarian aid to flow into the enclave, which Israel has blocked since early March.

“When that happens and hostages are released, which is an urgent matter for all of us, then we hope that the humanitarian aid will flow and flow freely, knowing it will be done without Hamas being able to confiscate and abuse their own people,” Huckabee said in a video statement on X.

The ambassador’s comments come after Hamas rejected the latest ceasefire proposal last week. The group’s chief negotiator said it rejected any “partial” agreements and sought a comprehensive deal including “halting the war” and an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.

A @WHO official called upon me to put pressure on Israel to bring more humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza. How about we put the pressure where it really belongs – on Hamas. pic.twitter.com/5AAv5Q63DD

— Ambassador Mike Huckabee (@USAmbIsrael) April 21, 2025

No the pressure really belongs on the USA at this point.

UN runs out of tents for people in Gaza on 50th day of total Israeli blockade

The spokesperson for United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said that today marks 50 days of Israel’s blockade on any aid into Gaza, and that the UN has run out of tents to house displaced Palestinians as the humanitarian situation continues to worsen.

“The [UN] Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs says that since early March, not a single truck carrying food, fuel, medicine or any other essentials have been allowed in, no matter how critical they are for people’s survival,” Stephane Dujarric told a news conference.

“Over the past 50 days, food stocks have run dangerously low. Rations have been cut. Critical medicines, vaccines and medical supplies are all running low. Ambulances have had to scale back life-saving services because there’s almost no fuel to power these ambulances. Cooking gas has disappeared from markets.

“Bakeries have been forced to shut down, and we… along with our humanitarian partners, have run out of tents to deliver to people who need them.”

_{Palestinians inspect the site of an Israeli attack on a tent camp sheltering displaced people in Gaza City}

Before he died, Pope Francis called for peace in Gaza. Will anyone listen?

Pope Francis died today at the age of 88 following a prolonged illness.

Just yesterday, in his Easter Sunday address at Saint Peter’s Square in Vatican City, the leader of the Roman Catholic Church chose to express his “closeness to the sufferings of Christians in Palestine and Israel, and to all the Israeli people and the Palestinian people”.

He went on to state that he was “think[ing] of the people of Gaza, and its Christian community in particular, where the terrible conflict continues to cause death and destruction and to create a dramatic and deplorable humanitarian situation” – a toned-down reference, of course, to Israel’s ongoing genocide in the Gaza Strip, which has officially killed more than 51,200 Palestinians since October 2023.

Overnight Israeli attacks on Gaza kill four

At least two people have been killed by overnight Israeli fire in the north of Rafah, southern Gaza, and the Nuseirat camp in the central Gaza Strip, our correspondent on the ground reported.

The Al-Aqsa TV news outlet also reported that two people were killed as a result of Israeli air strikes on the Bakr family home west of Gaza City.

At the same time, an Israeli drone attack on a tent housing displaced people in the al-Katiba neighbourhood of Khan Younis, south of the Gaza Strip, injured several people, including women and children.

Main events on April 21st

• Israeli attacks have killed at least 29 Palestinians, including three who were killed in an attack on a tent for displaced people at the Al Jazeera Sports Club in central Gaza City.
• Gaza’s Civil Defence has rejected the findings of an Israeli army inquiry into the killing of 15 unarmed medics and rescue workers in March.
• Palestinian Christians in Gaza are mourning the death of Pope Francis, who had maintained close and consistent video contact with the small Christian community in the territory throughout the ongoing war.
• Israel’s cabinet is expected to hold a session on Tuesday to determine its next steps in Gaza after stalled negotiations for a ceasefire and the return of captives held in the enclave.
• Netanyahu has pledged to deliver a “powerful response” to Yemen’s Houthis, as US strikes on Sanaa killed at least 12 people.
• The new US ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, has called on Hamas to accept a proposed ceasefire to release captives in exchange for humanitarian aid to flow into the enclave, which Israel has blocked since early March.

Norman Finkelstein Destroys the Israeli Narrative

Norman Finkelstein does in thirty minutes what most journalists and world leaders have failed to do for decades: he calls it what it is — genocide. He exposes what Israel is doing in Gaza, why it’s doing it, and how the media politely calls it “complex.” There’s no dancing around. Just facts. Brutal, documented, undeniable.

Albanese to Huckabee: ‘Withholding humanitarian aid is a war crime’

The UN’s special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territory has hit back at comments by the US ambassador to Israel, in which he called on Hamas to release Israeli captives held in Gaza in exchange for lifting the blockade on Gaza.

In a post on X, Francesa Albanese addressed Mike Huckabee and wrote:

“It is my duty to bring to Your Excellency’s attention Article 8(2)(b)(xxv) of the Rome Statute, which states that withholding humanitarian aid is a war crime.

“This action would further aggravate conditions of life calculated to destroy the Palestinian population of Gaza. No one benefits from this—not the Palestinians, not the Israelis, not the North Americans—none of us.

“Together, we can stop this monstrosity.”

Ambassador Huckabee:
It is my duty to bring to Your Excellency's attention Article 8(2)(b)(xxv) of the Rome Statute, which states that withholding humanitarian aid is a war crime. This action would further aggravate conditions of life calculated to destroy the Palestinian… https://t.co/R0ilEQ6iSX pic.twitter.com/cPQzrLB1Ow

— Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur oPt (@FranceskAlbs) April 21, 2025

Ex-Israeli envoy says Israel should not attend Pope Francis’s funeral

Israel’s former ambassador to Italy, Dror Eydar, has accused the late Pope Francis of anti-Semitism and called on the Israeli government not to attend the pontiff’s funeral.

Eydar, who held the envoy post from 2019-2022, made the comments in an interview with the Israeli news outlet Maariv.

The pope was “rivalled in the degree of his anti-Semitism only by Pius XII”, Eydar said, referring to the man who served as the head of the Catholic Church between 1939 and 1958, who he said “was silent” during the Holocaust.

The former diplomat said Francis “accused us of genocide” and talked about the “children in Gaza and not our children”.

Eydar added that the pope “is largely responsible for the rise in waves of anti-Semitism in the world”.

Israel’s former ambassador to the Vatican echoed some of that criticism.

Raphael Schutz, who served in the role from 2021-2024, told the Kan broadcaster that Francis “ignored” attacks against Israel and “caused suffering” with his defence of Palestinians in Gaza.

Israel should not be allowed to attend.

Israel’s Lapid calls for probe into spy chief’s allegations against Netanyahu

Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid has called for an investigation against Netanyahu after the head of the Israeli security agency told the Supreme Court that the Israeli prime minister’s bid to sack him followed his refusal to fulfil requests that included spying on Israeli protesters and disrupting the leader’s corruption trial.

Speaking with Israel’s’ Channel 13, Lapid also reiterated a warning of political violence if Netanyahu continues inciting hate against the head of the Shin Bet, Ronen Bar. The politician, who leads the centrist Yesh Atid party, warned that “there is intelligence material on the possibility of a political assassination, Netanyahu knows this and he can stop it”.

He also criticised Netanyahu’s handling of Israel’s war on Gaza.

“Netanyahu and [Finance Minister Bezalel] Smotrich and everyone are selling us a false equation as if it’s either winning the war or returning the kidnapped,” he said. “That’s not true. The government will not win the war. They don’t know how to win the war. They don’t know how to recruit enough soldiers and they don’t know how to say what will happen the day after.”

Israel releases names of 60 detained Palestinians from Gaza: Prisoners’ groups

The Israeli army has released the names of more than 60 Palestinians from Gaza who are held in Israeli prisons and camps, according to a joint statement by the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society and Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs.

The development comes after changes to Israel’s “Unlawful Combatant” law, the prisoners’ groups said on Telegram.

The statement said Israel still “deliberately” issues contradictory information and continues to commit “enforced disappearances” against Palestinians from Gaza.

As of April, Israel classifies at least 1,747 Gaza detainees as “unlawful combatants”, it said.

Lawyers and monitors from both organisations say detainees face systematic torture – particularly at the notorious Sde Teiman camp. Dozens of testimonies describe extreme abuse, with no indication of improvement.

Palestinian prisoner’s weight drops dramatically amid abuse: Report

The Palestinian Prisoner’s Society (PPS) has sounded an alarm over the sharp decline in the health of 25-year-old Hussam Zakarneh from the occupied West Bank’s Jenin, held by Israel without charge since August last year.

Zakarneh, detained in the notorious Megiddo Prison under “administrative detention”, was recently transferred to Afula Hospital after medical tests revealed a stomach tumour.

During a visit by his lawyer, PPS said, Zakarneh was “unable to drink water or even consume small bites of the food provided to prisoners”. He suffers from severe abdominal pain, persistent vomiting, and drastic weight loss – now down to 37kg (81 pounds).

“Zakarneh was unable to speak during the visit and showed signs of extreme exhaustion,” said his lawyer. “Israel only transfers Palestinian detainees for treatment when it’s too late,” PPS warned, raising fears for his survival.

As of April 2025, more than 9,900 Palestinians remain in Israeli prisons, including 3,498 held without trial under administrative detention.

Over half of cancer and blood disease medicines unavailable in Gaza: Report

Hospitals across Gaza are on the brink of collapse as medicine and supply stocks continue to dwindle under Israel’s full closure of border crossings, now in its seventh week.

More than 37 percent of essential medicines and 59 percent of medical disposables are no longer available, according to Alaa Hilles, who heads the hospital pharmacy department at Gaza’s Health Ministry.

He told Anadolu the shortages have disrupted care across all services, including oncology and haematology. “Fifty-four percent of medicines for cancer and blood diseases are unavailable,” Hilles said.

Dialysis patients are also at risk, with more than 24 percent of life-saving treatments currently missing. “We are seeking medical alternatives, but in many cases, switching drugs can put patients’ lives at risk,” he said.

On Monday, the UN marked 50 days since Israel sealed Gaza’s crossings. “Not a single truck has entered since early March – no matter how critical the supplies,” UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said.

At least 600,000 children at risk of ‘permanent paralysis’ in Gaza: Ministry

Gaza’s Health Ministry has warned that Israel’s continued blockade on medical supplies has prevented the entry of polio vaccines, putting more than half a million children at risk.

The ban has halted the implementation of Phase 4 of the ministry’s polio prevention campaign, a statement said, leaving 602,000 children vulnerable to “permanent paralysis and chronic disabilities”.

Officials say the health consequences could be catastrophic.

“Children in Gaza are at risk of serious and unprecedented health complications due to the lack of adequate nutrition and drinking water,” the ministry added.

Israel’s ongoing blockade has strangled the flow of medical aid into the besieged enclave since early March, with the United Nations warning of a deepening humanitarian collapse.

Israel uses Gaza aid as ‘weapon of war’: UNRWA chief

Philippe Lazzarini, the commissioner-general of the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, has issued a stark warning as Gaza endures 50 days of siege by Israeli forces, describing the blockade as “deliberate and man-made”.

“Gaza has become a land of desperation,” Lazzarini posted on X, warning that more than two million people – mostly women and children – are being collectively punished.

The UN official said vital aid, including nearly 3,000 trucks of UNRWA supplies, is stuck outside Gaza, unable to enter while food and medicine inside the Strip rot or run out.

“Hollow words of condemnation” must now turn into action, he said, calling for an immediate end to the siege, a return to the ceasefire, and the release of captives.

“Hunger is spreading,” he added. “Humanitarian aid is being used as a bargaining chip – a weapon of war.”

How much longer until hollow words of condemnation will translate into action to lift the siege, resume a ceasefire & save whatever is left of humanity?

It’s been 5️⃣0️⃣ days of siege on #Gaza imposed by the Israeli authorities.

Hunger is spreading & deepening, deliberate &…

— Philippe Lazzarini (@UNLazzarini) April 22, 2025

Israel lashes out at US senator for calling Gaza blockade ‘war crime’

Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz has hit back at US Senator Bernie Sanders, who labelled the Gaza aid blockade a “war crime” and called for an end to US military support for Israel.

“It’s been 51 days since any humanitarian aid has entered Gaza,” Sanders said on X on Monday, citing Katz’s previous statement that “no humanitarian aid will enter Gaza” as evidence of a “war crime”.

“We must end our complicity. No more military aid for Netanyahu’s war machine,” Sanders added.

In response, Katz claimed, “Israel is acting in full accordance with international law” and said Gaza’s humanitarian situation is being “constantly monitored”.

He called on international bodies to ensure aid “bypasses Hamas” and thanked Washington for its backing.

Israeli drone strikes car in Lebanon

An Israeli drone has targeted a car near the Lebanese town of Baaourta in the Chouf district of Mount Lebanon, according to our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic.

Lebanese social media accounts recently circulated scenes of a car on fire in Baaourta, coinciding with reports of the Israeli bombing. The scenes, verified by Al Jazeera’s Sanad fact-checking agency, showed rising columns of smoke and the burning car.

At least one person was killed in the attack, according to our colleagues.

Israel claims responsibility for killing of Lebanon’s al-Jamaa al-Islamiya leader

The Israeli military has claimed responsibility for a drone attack on a car near the Lebanese town of Baaouerta that killed Hussein Atwi, the leader of al-Jamaa al-Islamiya.

The military claimed that Atwi “was involved in planning and advancing terrorist activity from Lebanon into Israeli territory, in order to attack [Israeli] soldiers on the northern border”.

“Over the years, he carried out rocket attacks, coordinated terrorist infrastructure on the northern front, and advanced attempts to infiltrate into Israeli territory,” the statement added.

It also stated that Atwi, as the leader of al-Jamaa al-Islamiya, coordinated with Hamas in Lebanon.


Second Israeli drone attack kills 1 in southern Lebanon: Ministry

At least one person was killed in an Israeli drone attack on a car in Haniyeh town of Tyre district in southern Lebanon, according to the country’s Health Ministry.

It appears to be a different attack from the one that killed a leader of Lebanon’s al-Jamaa al-Islamiya.

Footage from a surveillance camera broadcast by a Lebanese social media account showed the moment an Israeli bombing targeted the vehicle. The video was verified by Al Jazeera’s fact-checking agency, Sanad.

Israeli forces pound Gaza, bombing homes, municipal vehicles and building

Our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic say Israeli forces have launched heavy strikes across the Gaza Strip in recent hours.

In the north of the enclave, Israeli forces carried out air attacks on eastern areas of Gaza City, including in the vicinity of Halimah al-Saadiyah School in the Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood.

A quadcopter attack was reported in the Zeitoun neighbourhood of Gaza City, while fighter jets bombed a building belonging to the Jabalia an-Nazla municipality to the north of the city.

Israeli forces also attacked bulldozers and vehicles belonging to the municipalities in North Gaza and southern Khan Younis, they said.

In the south, the soldiers launched heavy artillery attacks in the town of Abasan and the Qizan Rashwan area of Khan Younis, and continued to blow up houses in the city of Rafah, which they have surrounded and cut off from the rest of the Strip.

Rescuers extinguish fire at North Gaza warehouse after Israeli attack

Earlier, we reported that Israeli forces are carrying out attacks on bulldozers in northern and southern Gaza.

The Palestinian Civil Defence says its crews are now extinguishing a fire that broke out a warehouse containing the heavy machinery near the as-Saraya complex in Jabalia. The warehouse belonged to the Jabalia municipality.

A video of the incident, published online by the Quds News Network, showed clouds of smoke rising from the site of the attack.

Another Palestinian doctor killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza

Wafa and Quds News Network are reporting that Dr Majed Nasr Ismail was killed in an Israeli air attack on Deir el-Balah in central Gaza earlier this morning.

According to figures from the Palestinian Health Ministry, Israel has killed more than 1,060 healthcare workers in Gaza since launching its war in October of 2023.

Israeli attacks burn 11 to death in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis

Our correspondent on the ground in Gaza has sent an update on what happened in the enclave from midnight to this morning’s early hours:

Rescue workers pull charred bodies from al-Mawasi camp

An Israeli bombing on a cluster of tents in al-Mawasi has killed at least 10 people.

The coastal area was once an Israeli-designated safe zone, but since Israel resumed its Gaza bombing campaign on March 18, it has not marked any areas as protected.

Children among four killed in Nuseirat, Gaza City: Report

Two separate Israeli attacks have killed at least four Palestinians and wounded many others in central Gaza’s Nuseirat and Gaza City in the north, according to the Wafa news agency.

Medical sources speaking to Wafa confirmed three civilians, including two girls, were killed when Israeli warplanes targeted a group of people in the Nuseirat refugee camp.

Another person was killed after Israeli forces bombed a house in the Wadi al-Aris area of Gaza City’s Shujayea neighbourhood.