ONE more Palestinian journalist, along with several members of her family, have been killed in an Israeli airstrike in the Gaza Strip, as Israel’s genocidal war on the besieged coastal sliver continues unabated and is in fact being stepped up.
Local media outlets reported that correspondent and photojournalist Fatima Hassouna and several family members lost their lives early on Wednesday in an air raid on their home in Gaza City.
Earlier this month, Hamas issued a strong denunciation of the intentional targeting of Palestinian journalists by Israeli forces, characterising it as a blatant breach of international and humanitarian law.
The resistance group correctly asserted that the murder of journalists is a component of the larger genocidal campaign conducted by Israeli forces against the Palestinian population in Gaza.
The movement highlighted that the deaths of over 200 Palestinian journalists in Gaza — many of whom were killed alongside their families and children — due to Israeli airstrikes, shelling, and gunfire, demonstrate the occupying regime’s intentional and vengeful attempt to suppress the media and discourage journalists from revealing the realities of the situation in the area.
It also called upon international media organisations and press freedom institutions to condemn these acts and to ramp up initiatives aimed at boycotting and isolating Israel due to its ongoing attacks on journalists and media personnel.
Meanwhile, the Israeli National Security Minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, stormed the Ibrahimi Mosque in Al-Khalil in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday, amid tight security measures and a large escort that accompanied his convoy, as Israeli occupation forces (IOF) closed the Mosque to Muslim worshippers.
The far-right Israeli minister delivered a speech to the crowds of settlers storming the Ibrahimi Mosque, and performed Talmudic dances in the courtyards of the Mosque.
However, the Palestinian message is getting through. US authorities have detained a second Palestinian student at Columbia University in New York City due to his views on the Israeli genocidal war in Gaza. Attorney Luna Droubi stated that her client, Mohsen Mihdawi, was arrested during the reviewing of his immigration status for US citizenship procedures.
Droubi said that Mihdawi’s arrest during the naturalisation process is illegal and represents a violation of his constitutional right to freedom of expression. The urgent appeal submitted by Droubi to the federal court in Vermont stated that her client had publicly criticised Israeli occupation attacks on Gaza until March 2024 and had been an activist and organiser in student protests on the Columbia University campus, although he later withdrew from participation.
However, NBC 5 reported that federal judge William Sessions in Vermont issued a temporary order on Monday preventing Mihdawi from being deported out of the state or the country, based on the request submitted to the court.
On March 9, US authorities arrested Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil, who led solidarity protests at Columbia University last year in condemnation of the genocide in Gaza. Pro-Palestine protests, which began at Columbia University, have spread to over 50 universities across the country, with police detaining more than 3,100 individuals, mostly students and faculty members.
Also, the president of Harvard University has refrained from complying with a new list of demands from the US administration to maintain access to federal funding as part of Washington’s crackdown on pro-Palestine academic protests.
Alan Garber announced in a message to the Harvard community on Monday that the university officials would not yield to US President Donald Trump’s administration’s litany of ‘unprecedented’ demands and pressure campaign over the funding.
Harvard University professors have now filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration in an attempt to block its review of nearly $9 billion in federal contracts and grants awarded to the Ivy League school.
Meanwhile, with full US support, Israel has continued to commit genocide in Gaza since October 7, 2023, resulting in approximately 167,000 Palestinian martyrs and injured, most of whom are women and children, in addition to over 11,000 missing persons.
The US working class and students have begun to move forward in support of the Palestinian people and their revolution. It is time for the TUC UK trade unions to take action! They must call a general strike in support of Palestine to bring in a Workers Government in the UK, that will play a full role in liberating Palestine from the grip of the Zionists!