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

In Iran, approximately 2,345 people have been arrested on charges related to “national security.” Many of these, as well as more arbitrarily arrested during the January protests, are being held in harsh conditions and incommunicado detention. The state has also cut internet access to prevent external sharing of information. Three protesters were publicly hanged in March after being convicted of “waging war against God” based on “confessions” obtained under torture. Many more are at imminent risk of execution.

Diana Eltahawy, Amnesty International’s deputy regional director for the Middle East and North Africa, issued a statement stressing the grave nature of this situation:

It is unconscionable that even as the population is reeling from conflict and mass bereavement amid the ongoing aerial bombardment by Israel and the USA, the authorities of the Islamic Republic of Iran continue to weaponize the death penalty to eradicate dissenting voices and further terrify people.

The wave of repression and arbitrary detentions extends across the Midlle East. In Bahrain, activist Sayed Mohammed al-Mousawi died in custody in March after suspected torture. Human Rights Watch has also decried Bahrain’s blanket ban on protests.

In Qatar and the UAE, authorities have announced hundreds of detentions for sharing information showing the impact of strikes. In Kuwait, authorities imposed a new decree of imprisonment and steep fines for anyone who “undermine[s] the prestige of the military” or works toward eroding public trust in the armed forces. In Jordan, at least four government critics have been arrested. For example, Omar Awad was taken from the streets by security forces without explanation and has been denied contact with his family and lawyers.

In Palestine, Türk warned of similar trends. Israeli authorities have detained 200 Palestinians on the occupied West Bank since the US-Israeli war on Iran began, including for posting on social media, or on suspicion of “incitement” or “glorifying the enemy.” Rights groups have also reported a rise in direct violence by Israeli forces and settlers. One school principal in Dura, outside Hebron, was physically assaulted and had his home vandalized by Israeli authorities in response to a post he reportedly published in support of Iran. Israel has also recently passed legislation providing for a death penalty to apply selectively to Palestinians for particular crimes.

Türk summarized the increased restrictions on rights, stating:

We are witnessing a sharp securitisation of civic space across the region, with severe restrictions imposed by governments on people exercising their rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly. Waves of arrests and broad clampdowns, mostly on vaguely defined accusations, have had a deeply chilling effect on people, many of whom are already living with uncertainty, fear and anxiety.

Türk called on states to respect their obligations under international human rights law related to freedom of expression and assembly, ensuring access to legal counsel, due process, and a fair trial.

From JURIST, April 2. Used with permission. Internal links added.

Image: Pixabay

Órlaith Roe, the ICJP’s public affairs and communications officer, spoke critically of the proposed legislation, stating:

Israel’s targeted killing of Palestinians is part of a longstanding and deeply disturbing pattern. The death penalty bill contravenes the very foundations of international law and marks a draconian escalation in Israel’s codification of ethnic cleansing policies against Palestinians. It not only constitutes a direct assault on the right to life, but does so in a manner that is both openly discriminatory and grossly disproportionate.

The Knesset has recently debated two related controversial bills. One would expand death penalty sentencing to the occupied West Bank by amending the Israeli Penal Law 5737-1977 and relevant military regulations. The other would introduce special provisions and create a special military court to prosecute those accused of involvement in the October 7, 2023 attacks in southern Israel. In both cases, death by hanging is mandated.

The proposed legislation would impose the death penalty as a mandatory sentence for any person who willfully or negligently causes the death of an Israeli citizen out of a motive of “racism or hostility toward the public,” aiming to “harm the state of Israel” or the “revival of the Jewish people in its homeland.” The sentencing provision would only apply in military courts that oversee cases involving West Bank Palestinians, while Israeli citizens accused of similar acts would likely face lower sentencing standards.

Human rights organizations in January this year warned that the proposed bills may constitute some of the most extreme and dangerous legislative measures ever employed by Israel against Palestinians.

Although several provisions of Israeli law allow for the imposition of the death penalty, both within Israel and on the West Bank, Israel has become a de facto abolitionist state with respect to capital punishment, having not carried out an execution since 1962. However, if brought to the floor, passage of the “Death Penalty for Terrorists Bill” is highly likely given broad political support across both coalition and opposition parties.

From JURIST, March 31. Used with permission.

Update: The bill mandating the death penalty for West Bank Palestinians convicted in “terrorist” attacks was passed by the Knesset on March 30. The bill to retroactively impose the death penalty for those accused in the October 7 attacks remains pending. (ToI)

Photo: RJA1988 via Jurist

The report stated: “The displacement in the occupied West Bank…at the hands of the Israeli military appears to indicate a concerted Israeli policy of mass forcible transfer throughout the occupied territory, aimed at permanent displacement, raising concerns of ethnic cleansing.”

The report charged that the military has enabled the drastic escalation in settler violence on the West Bank: “Settler violence continued in a coordinated, strategic and largely unchallenged manner, with Israeli authorities playing the central role in directing, participating in or enabling this conduct.”

The pervasive and persistent impunity prevents the implementation of an effective solution to reduce settler violence, the report stated. “Israeli measures to formally and informally support the militarization of the settler movement both amplified the severity of settler violence against Palestinians and rendered it extremely difficult to distinguish between instances of settler violence and instances of State violence.”

In addition, Israeli authorities are implementing policies to render their annexation of West Bank territory irreversible.

The report found that the Israeli military’s transfer of power to civilian settler authorities and measures taken to confiscate Palestinian lands for settlement expansion “amounted to an institutionalised regime of systematic discrimination, oppression and violence by Israel against Palestinians,” violating the international prohibition on racial segregation and apartheid.

According to the report, UN member states’ efforts to end and prevent Israeli settler violence through sanctions remained largely ineffective:

Sanctions previously imposed by the United States of America were rescinded on 20 January 2025, while sanctions by other States have primarily targeted individual settlers rather than affiliated entities or organizations, lessening the capacity of such measures to combat widespread, concerted settler violence. Sanctioned individuals have frequently circumvented restrictions by transferring assets or receiving financial support from pro-settlement networks.

In October 2025, a total of 42 settler attacks resulted in 131 injured Palestinians, the highest number recorded in a single month since 2006. The report also found that gender-based violence was a contributing factor triggering displacement. “Other attacks led to family separation, in which women and children were forced to leave, while male family members remained to attempt to retain possession of lands and properties.”

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk called on Israel “to immediately and completely cease and reverse the establishment and expansion of settlements, for the evacuation of all settlers, and an end to the occupation of Palestinian territory.”

From JURIST, March 19. Used with permission.

Photo: B’Tselem