Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced the measures July 24 following a clashthat day that left four Palestinians and two Israeli settlers dead at the village of Tal, near Nablus. Mosques, farmland and vehicles were set afire during the settler attacks that sparked the clash.

Netanyahu ordered the establishment of new settler “outposts” and announced a process to “legalize” several existing outposts. He simultaneously announced new Israeli military operations on the West Bank. Hundreds have since been arrested in sweeps of Palestinian villages.

Guterres reiterated that all settlements, including so-called outposts, “have no legal validity and constitute a flagrant violation of international law,” calling them a major obstacle to achieving the two-state solution and a just, lasting and comprehensive peace. Israel disputes the international position that its West Bank settlements are illegal, maintaining that most are legal under its own domestic law.

In a separate statement, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) voiced alarm over escalating violence across the West Bank. Since July 23, at least eight Palestinians, including a child, have been killed and many others injured. At least 10 Palestinian families have been displaced.

OCHA also reported that Israeli forces have tightened restrictions on Palestinian movement across many areas of the West Bank, preventing thousands from accessing emergency medical care and other essential services. Since January, OCHA has documented more than 1,330 incidents involving Israeli settlers that resulted in casualties, property damage, or both. According to OCHA, Israeli forces or settlers killed 77 Palestinians this year as of July 25, of whom 18 were children, while three Israelis had been killed by Palestinians in the same period.

The UN, the International Court of Justice, and most of the international community consider Israeli settlements in the West Bank unlawful under international law. In a July 2024 advisory opinion, the ICJ ruled that Israel’s settlements breach the Fourth Geneva Convention and that Israel’s continued presence in the occupied Palestinian territory is unlawful.

Guterres issued a similar warning in February after Israel announced a package of measures expanding Israeli authority in the West Bank, including the resumption of land registration; and in June, six governments announced sanctions targeting individuals enabling settler violence, following a similar move by the European Union. Human Rights Watch on July 24 also decried the settler violence at Tal. The UN and its partners have called for the urgent protection of civilians, strict respect for international humanitarian law, and accountability for perpetrators.

From JURIST, July 28. Used with permission.

Photo: Wikipedia

The 131-page complaint, filed under the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871, names among many defendants senior presidential advisor Stephen Miller, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, former Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, and State Department official John Armstrong, along with the Heritage Foundation and two online surveillance or “doxxing” groups, Canary Mission and Betar, as well as individual leaders of each organization.

According to the complaint, the Heritage Foundation launched Project Esther in October 2024. This project was a plan to identify and target non-citizen students and scholars who advocated for Palestinian rights for arrest and deportation through a “public-private partnership” with a “willing Administration” in the White House. Canary Mission and Betar would select the targets. An Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) official testified in separate federal proceedings brought by the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) that roughly 75% of the names of student activists his agency investigated came from Canary Mission.

Khalil, a lawful permanent resident married to a US citizen, was arrested by ICE agents on March 8, 2025. He spent 104 days in immigration detention in Louisiana, missing the birth of his first child. His lawsuit seeks compensatory and punitive damages, and an injunction barring the defendants from continuing to pursue his removal.

“This case is about far more than what was done to me,” Khalil said in a press release. “It’s about a coordinated, ongoing campaign to punish, silence, and intimidate anyone who dares to speak out for Palestinian liberation.”

From JURIST, July 15. Used with permission. Internal links added.

See our last reports on Mahmoud Khalil and the pro-Israel doxxing operation.

Photo: Office of Rep. Jim McGovern via Wikimedia Commons

The statement warned that AI systems embedded in kill chains are accelerating the speed and scale of military assaults in ways that undermine foundational principles of humanitarian law, including distinction, proportionality and precaution. The signatories said that claimed safeguards such as “human in the loop” mechanisms cannot prevent the lethal consequences of AI-accelerated targeting, but instead risk becoming a means of “rubber-stamping” killing at greatly accelerated speed and scale.

The coalition pointed to US strikes on Iran earlier this year as an example, noting that AI tools for target generation enabled strikes on nearly 2,000 targets within the first 48 hours of the campaign. In Gaza, Israel deployed AI targeting tools including Lavender, Gospel and Where’s Daddy, which the statement said may “contribute to the obfuscation of international crimes behind a veneer of perceived algorithmic objectivity.”

The statement named several major technology companies. OpenAI has agreed to provide AI services to the US Department of Defense (DoD), and Google has contracted with the DoD to develop prototype frontier AI capabilities for war-fighting. Anthropic’s Claude large language model has reportedly played a role in supporting US attacks on Iran. The statement noted a standoff between Anthropic and the US government over the military use, as well as an open letter signed by more than 560 Google employees in April urging the company to refuse classified military AI use.

The signatories urged tech companies to refrain from contracts with agencies that commit violations of international law, and to halt AI decision-support systems for targeting. They called on states to end AI use in military targeting and to provide transparency on how it is currently being deployed in combat. The statement noted that Amnesty International wrote to both OpenAI and Anthropic on their human rights policies regarding generative AI in military contexts; only OpenAI had responded at the time of publication.

From JURIST, June 15. Used with permission. Internal links added.

Image: Andrew West via Pixabay

WFP confirmed the data breach on June 2. “WFP recently detected unauthorized access of its self-registration application (SRA) for Palestine, where individuals are able to register to receive food and cash assistance after verification,” a spokesperson said in a statement responding to questions from The New Humanitarian. “WFP took immediate action to shut down the platform, contain the intrusion, and strengthen its security controls to prevent further exposure.”

More than 2 million people in Gaza have submitted their personal information to WFP’s self-registration application, known as People Portal, which the WFP credits for cutting registration red tape and response times. The spokesperson said the compromised data is “isolated to the SRA application used only in Palestine.”

An investigation is under way, and no party has claimed responsibility, WFP said.

WFP said the cyber-attack occurred on May 14. The Telegram message to affected Gazans was sent 17 days later.

Digital security experts say aid groups are increasingly the target of sophisticated hacks and cyber-attacks. In one of the largest previously known breaches of humanitarian data, sensitive personal information belonging to 515,000 people was exposed in a 2022 hack targeting the International Committee of the Red Cross. The following year, the Norwegian Refugee Council said a cyber-attack hit a database containing info on thousands of project participants in one country. In the past, the UN has also come under fire for failing to disclose cyber-attacks.

The Gaza breach also spotlights data practices at WFP, which is consistently the world’s largest humanitarian agency, based on volume of funding.

The agency has long sought to grow its global beneficiary ID management programme, known as SCOPE. A 2021 audit noted that 63.8 million “identities” were registered in SCOPE, including some 20 million beneficiaries that were “actively managed.” At the time, SCOPE was used in 80% of the countries where WFP had a presence. An earlier 2017 audit said the agency needed major improvement in how it safeguarded beneficiary data.

WFP has previously said it intended a full rollout of SCOPE in Palestine in 2026. The agency said the May data breach did not affect SCOPE or other data management systems.

WFP has also come under fire for its relationship with Palantir, the US military contractor and big data analytics firm that is also highlighted in the “economy of genocide” UN rights report naming companies accused of sustaining Israel’s occupation of Palestine. Humanitarian organizations risk losing their protection under international law by partnering with military-linked technology companies, according to Access Now, a digital rights advocacy group that has documented the WFP-Palantir relationship.

WFP says its Palantir partnership backstops DOTS, a platform that combines data across systems.

A 2022 audit of WFP’s Palestine operations said risks related to personal data collection had not been assessed or mitigated due to limited internal technical capacity.

From The New Humanitarian, June 2, condensed.

Photo: Mohammed Nateel/UNICEF via UN News

Israeli leaders have repeatedly voiced their intent to remove the vast majority of the Palestinian population from Gaza. Last October’s ceasefire agreement left Israel directly in control of 53% of the enclave’s territory and called for the creation of an International Stabilization Force (ISF) to pave the way for the withdrawal of Israeli forces. But implementation of all aspects of the agreement has stalled. As global attention has shifted elsewhere, Israel has created its own facts on the ground by progressively inching forward the so-called “yellow line” demarcating its area of control. More than 60% of Gaza’s territory currently falls within this line, and the Israeli military regularly kills and injures Palestinians in the vicinity of the shifting boundary.

From The New Humanitarian, May 29

See our last reports on Israel’s annexation agenda, and accusations of genocide.

Photo: Jaber Jehad Badwan via Wikimedia Commons

This marks the latest in a wave of backlash after Israel’s Public Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir posted a video of himself taunting bound and kneeling detained activists. The activists were part of the Global Sumud Flotilla, an international coalition sailing to Gaza to deliver food and medicine, as well as attempt to break the Israeli blockade of the territory. Forty-five vessels of the most recent convoy were intercepted by the Israel Defense Forces from May 18 to 19 in the territorial waters of Cyprus. The activists were detained without charge, with allegations circulating of beatings and mistreatment in custody. Of the hundreds of detained activists, 12 were Canadian. Nine were returned to Canada last weekend, two are en route elsewhere, and one is in Turkey receiving “urgent medical care” following “appalling abuse.”

Canada’s Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand summoned the Israeli ambassador last week, and called the aforementioned video “deeply troubling” and “unacceptable.” Canada has previously sanctioned Itamar Ben-Gvir over incitement of hatred and support for illegal settlement expansions. However, Ottawa has not yet announced any new measures regarding the recent abuses of the flotilla activists and Canadian citizens.

Multiple Canadians have been killed by Israel without tangible diplomatic responses from the Canadian government. Famously, Jacob Flickinger, a Canadian veteran and humanitarian aid worker, was killed in by an Israeli strike in Gaza in April 2024, and last month Canadian citizen Mohammad Hassan Haidar was killed by an Israeli strike in Lebanon. Neither case resulted in diplomatic penalties against Israel; however, Canada urged Israeli officials to conduct investigations into the killings. IDF officials have apologized for the killing of Flickinger, but this apology was rejected by Flickinger’s family, who called for an independent investigation.

Prime Minister Carney concluded his statement by reaffirming his commitment to international law and a “negotiated two-state solution” in Palestine, as well as his “unwavering commitment” to supporting Israel’s national security.

From JURIST, May 26. Used with permission. Internal links added.

See our last report on the Global Sumud Flotilla.

Photo: FreeGaza via Wikimedia Commons

The scandal centers on leaked audio recordings obtained by the outlet Diario Red, which allegedly capture conversations between JOH, current Honduran President Nasry Asfura, and Vice President María Antionieta Mejía discussing a plan to undermine progressive governments in the region through a media disinformation campaign. The recordings appear to indicate that Israel played a direct role in the scheme.

JOH—who had been sentenced to 45 years in US federal prison on drug trafficking charges before being pardoned by Trump in late November, a move widely interpreted as interventionin Honduras’ elections—apparently claimed that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu helped secure his release. The scheme reportedly sought to create a JOH-led media channel to spread fake news against left-wing leaders in the region while opening up Honduran land to foreign investment. Argentina’s far-right President Javier Milei, who has described himself as “the most Zionist president in the world,” was also allegedly involved.

The scandal unfolded just as Herzog embarked on a highly successful diplomatic tour of Central America. After stopping in Panama, Herzog attended last week’s inauguration of Costa Rican President Laura Fernández, whose right-wing government appears poised to deepen ties to Israel. Fernández held the first official meeting of her presidency with Herzog and pledged to move Costa Rica’s embassy to Jerusalem, crossing a long-standing diplomatic red-line given that much of the city remains occupied territory and is not internationally recognized as Israel’s capital. Herzog also met in Costa Rica with Chilean President José Antonio Kast, who vowed to restore diplomatic ties with Israel after his predecessor Gabriel Boric recalled Chile’s ambassador in protest of the war in Gaza. Herzog likewise met in Costa Rica with Asfura, an ardent Zionist of Palestinian descent who has already visited Israel and affirmed his intention to strengthen diplomatic ties with Israel.

The trip underscored a broader regional shift. In the immediate aftermath of Israel’s genocidal response to the October 7 attacks, Latin America’s progressive governments emerged as some of the strongest international critics of the Israeli state. Leaders from Brazil, Colombia, Bolivia, Honduras and Chile either withdrew their ambassadors from Israel or suspended diplomatic ties entirely. But many of the region’s new right-wing governments are now reversing those measures, weakening what had been a significant international front of opposition to Israel’s war.

At the same time, Israel’s violence continues to reverberate directly in the region. Brazilian activist Thiago Ávila, one of the leaders of the Global Sumud Flotilla, was detained by Israeli forces after participating in a humanitarian aid mission bound for Gaza. The flotilla set sail from Spain weeks ago, but after 22 boats were stopped near Crete on April 30, Israeli forces transferred 168 activists to Greece while taking Ávila and the Spanish activist Saif Abu Keshek to Israel for further interrogation. Both men were released last week after investigations into alleged ties with terrorist organizations, but they claim they were tortured during their detention—and described the far worse conditions faced by Palestinian prisoners. Israel’s treatment of Ávila reignited calls within Brazil for President Luiz Inácio “Lula” da Silva to move beyond critical rhetoric to a fully sever ties with Israel. As Israel deepens relations with Latin America’s ascendant right wing, accountability for the ongoing destruction in Gaza appears increasingly out of reach.

From NACLA Update, May 15. Lightly edited, internal links added.

Map: Perry-Castañeda Library

The $334 million plan was adopted on April 17, foreseeing full development by 2030. The government purports to make the small town of Katzrin the Golan’s “first city,” by bringing in 3,000 new Israeli settler families. Funds are allocated for infrastructure, housing, public services, and academic facilities.

Hiba Zayadin, senior Syria researcher at HRW, discussed the international legal aspects, declaring:

Israel’s cabinet has put public money behind a war crime in Syria at the same time as it is turbocharging settlement expansion in the West Bank alongside continued impunity for violence against Palestinians there. A permanent population transfer into Syrian territory violates international norms with grave implications for long-displaced Syrians.

Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention prohibits the transfer by an occupying power of any of its own civilian population into territory it occupies. Article 8 of the Rome Statute, which established the International Criminal Court (ICC), defines such transfers as war crimes.

Occupied by Israel in 1967, the Golan Heights has since been declared unilaterally annexed.

HRW has documented serious abuses by Israeli forces during further expansions into southern Syria, beginning in 2024, including holding families at gunpoint, razing homes with bulldozers, and cutting off access to traditional farmlands. The occupation also bars displaced Syrians from returning to their homes, which they have a right to under customary international law.

Zayadin also drew attention to US denial of “the reality that the Golan is occupied Syrian territory.” In 2019, Donald Trump declared that the Golan Heights are part of the State of Israel. No other state nor international body recognizes this declaration.

The UN affirmed the Golan Heights as Syrian in UN Security Council resolution 497, which was adopted unanimously in December 1981. The resolution declares that “the Israeli decision to impose its laws, jurisdiction and administration in the occupied Syrian Golan Heights is null and void and without international effect.” The UN General Assembly has consistently reaffirmed this, including in a December 2025 resolution which called for Israel to withdraw from the territory.

The Golan Heights is fertile land with vital water sources feeding into the Jordan River, located about 40 miles south of Syria’s capital, Damascus. During the Six-Day War in 1967, Israel occupied most of the territory. The UN Secretary General reported in 2025 that there were 35 Israeli settlements, making up a population of over 31,000 Israeli settlers. Prior to 1967, approximately 140,000 Syrians lived in the Golan, while only about 20,000 members of the Druze community now remain. Syria has never ceded the territory, but has had no success in efforts to take it back.

From JURIST, April 30. Used with permission.

Photo: Freedom’s Falcon via Wikimedia Commons

Two Palestinian water delivery truck drivers were killed by Israeli fire in the Gaza Strip on April 17, prompting aid groups to halt activities in the area. The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) warned that the attack threatens vital humanitarian operations supplying clean water to hundreds of thousands of people.

Early that morning, two men were killed by Israeli fire at the Mansoura water filling port in northern Gaza. The attack, which occurred during routine water trucking operations, also left two others injured. The Mansoura site is the only operational truck filling port for the Mekorot water supply line serving Gaza City.

UNICEF released a statement saying that the attack occurred during routine water trucking operations, with no changes in movement or procedures. The water plant is used by UNICEF and other humanitarian organizations multiple times a day to sustain critical water trucking operations for hundreds of thousands of people. Because of the attack, UNICEF contractors have been told to suspend on-site activities until the security situation in the area is restored.

The agency called on Israeli authorities to “immediately investigate this incident, and ensure full accountability.”

Moreover, the organization stressed that “humanitarian workers, essential service providers, and civilian infrastructure, including critical water facilities, must never be targeted. The protection of civilians and those delivering life-saving assistance is an obligation under international humanitarian law.”

Wafa News Agency, on the same day as the attack, reported that an Israeli drone targeted a water desalination plant in the Shuja’iyya neighborhood east of Gaza City. The attack killed one civilian and injured two others.

UN experts last year said that Israel uses “thirst as a weapon to kill Palestinians.” The experts noted that since October 2023, Israel’s military operations have repeatedly targeted water facilities, wells, pipelines, desalination units, and sewage systems. As of July 2025, 89% of Gaza’s water and sanitation infrastructure had been damaged or destroyed by Israeli forces, leaving 90% of households water insecure.

From JURIST, April 20. Used with permission.

See our last report on genocide accusations against Israel.

Photo: Mohammed Nateel/UNICEF via UN News

Featured speaker on April 3 was a ski-masked “Captain Marcos,” presumably the same charismatic spokesman once known as “Subcommander Marcos.” He delivered an exegesis entitled: “A Peephole into the Storm in the World: Nation-States Under Attack” (Una mirilla a la Tormenta en el Mundo: Los Estados-Nación bajo ataque). Marcos portrayed a supra-national imperialism under Donald Trump, in which “the nation-state has no decision-making power.” Marcos decried the “kidnapping” of Nicolás Maduro from Venezuela, and the US oil blockade on Cuba, especially noting that Mexico has been effectively barred from shipping oil to the Caribbean island nation. He hailed the tenacious resistance of the Cubans and Palestinians.

Marcos asserted that in the US-Israeli war against Iran, the big oil companies are the ones who benefit, as the price of oil has dramatically risen. “That’s what needs to be discussed: who is profiting from these wars?” (La Jornada via Mexico Solidarity Media)

Image: Enlace Zapatista