A year after the ‘ceasefire’ in Gaza, this is what our lives look like: no privacy, no peace. I look at myself and my neighbours queueing for water, and dream of a lost normality. We are now strangers even to ourselves

Two girls walk past collapsed buildings in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip on 25 August 2026. Photograph: Bashar Taleb/AFP/Getty Images

Gaza

Tue 27 Oct 2026

Akram Al-Sourani

Every morning, I look at myself and my neighbours standing in the queue for water, and remember how each of us once had a life of our own, our privacy, our own toothbrush, our own home and our own bathroom. How we used to wash our faces and drink clean water without ever imagining that a day would come when these simple routines would become a battle with ourselves and with every drop of water. Even standing beneath a hot shower has become a dream postponed until further notice.

A year has passed since the announcement of the “ceasefire” in Gaza, yet the spectre of war, bombardment and death has never left our lives.

War is not simply the bombing of buildings or the evacuation of a residential neighbourhood. There are small wars inside this one enormous war. The tent is a war. The surveillance drone – the zannana, as we call it, for its incessant buzzing – is a war. Queueing for water is a war. Waiting to use the toilet is a war. The death of privacy is a war. Thirty people crammed into a single room is a war.

Every morning, the same question follows me: what will happen today? Will my children return from what remains of their school to what remains of our home, having walked along what remains of a street, when bombardment could take them from me at any moment?

They walk long distances because transport is difficult and expensive amid fuel shortages, repeated border crossing closures and the trickle of essential supplies into Gaza. It is as though life itself is being rationed to us, drop by drop.

In Gaza, waking up alive is not enough. You must also make sure that the place where you slept is still somewhere you can spend the following night. You must hope that your children can dream of an ordinary day – one in which obtaining a loaf of bread, an education or medical treatment is not an achievement worthy of celebration.

It is as though the ceasefire never happened. The sounds of bombardment, explosions and surveillance drones have continued to accompany our days and nights. What remains of our homes and tents trembles – and so do our hearts.

In Gaza, to be alive is to live on the edge of death... READ MORE  https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/oct/27/gaza-peace-lives-year-ceasefire-water

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AI [artificial intelligence] weapons systems are already here. Algorithms must not decide who lives and dies. Israel’s conduct in Gaza shows the danger of using AI in warfare. Humans must remain at the center of wartime decisions

 AI (artificial intelligence) in The Guardian

‘When AI is used for targeting, it brings a similar feigned omniscience to killing.’ Photograph: Alaa Badarneh/EPA

Fri 2 Oct 2026

Kenneth Roth

As tech leaders warn about the threats of artificial intelligence, most conjure up images of AI agents running amok, such as hacking systems used to run our critical infrastructure, banks or even militaries. Yet one serious danger is mentioned less frequently – the threat posed by AI–empowered lethal weapons. Fully autonomous versions of these weapons are colloquially known as killer robots.

Israel’s conduct in Gaza shows that, in an important respect, such AI weapon systems are already here. An algorithm has been deciding who lives and who dies.

For more than a decade, governments have been meeting in Geneva to stop the development of autonomous AI weapons. In early September, 128 governments met to approve a report that could serve as the foundation for a binding treaty.

But a collection of lawyers sent by Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin teamed up to water it down. Notably, they weakened a provision that requires humans to review military targets developed by AI before a strike.

Fully autonomous weapons remain the focus; the use of AI to determine targets for conventional weapons is not. At risk is the longstanding quest to maintain a “human in the loop” – that is, meaningful or effective “human control” of AI-empowered weaponry.

For many people, talk of killer robots conjures up images of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s The Terminator. I have often thought about the problem in the context of the Tahrir Square uprising at the height of the Arab spring that led to the ouster of the Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak.

Mubarak’s fate was sealed when the Egyptian army made clear it would refuse to fire on Egyptian protesters. But killer robots would have had no such qualms. If Mubarak had been able to deploy them, he might have stayed in power.

The negotiators in Geneva are not even addressing this problem. The Trump-Putin lawyers made sure that the agreed report referred only to war, not repression.

Today, amid the drone warfare in eastern Ukraine, Russian and Ukrainian troops are experimenting with fully autonomous weapons to overcome jamming of the signals used to control drones. We can expect these nascent deployments to expand.

Yet the “killer robot” metaphor is deceptive. If we look at targeting decisions more expansively, AI has already taken over. In Gaza, the Israeli military is using AI to target Palestinians.

Israel has long monitored phone communications in that territory... READ MORE  https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/oct/02/ai-weapons-systems-algorithms-war

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They see them, then kill them: Israeli quadcopters track, deliberately target civilians in Gaza

An Israeli quadcopter drops bombs on tents housing displaced Palestinians in Jabalia refugee camp, northern Gaza Strip. 20 October 2024 (Al Jazeera).

  12 Sep 2026 

Geneva - The Israeli military continues to use armed quadcopter drones to carry out deliberate killings of Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip. Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor has documented the killing of at least 60 civilians by gunfire from these drones or by munitions dropped by them since the ceasefire took effect on 10 October 2025 through early September 2026.

The repeated occurrence of these incidents after the ceasefire, and the targeting of children, displaced people, farmers, shepherds, and people returning to check on their homes, reveals a continuing pattern of the deliberate killing of Palestinian civilians, in which Israel employs military technology capable of identifying specific individuals, tracking their movements, and striking them with precision, despite the clear civilian status of those targeted and their non-participation in hostilities or posing of any imminent threat to Israeli forces or others.

Quadcopters are small, multi-rotor tactical drones, some systems of which can be operated by a single soldier. They can be equipped with daytime and thermal cameras, target-identification and tracking systems, and weapon stabilization systems. Depending on the mission, some models can also be fitted with 5.56mm and 7.62mm weapons or 40mm explosive munitions, enabling the operator to closely monitor individuals, track their movements, and then fire at them or drop munitions toward them with a high degree of accuracy.

These technical capabilities give the operator the ability to observe the targeted person, verify their identity, and track their movements before opening fire. This greatly narrows the margin for error in target identification and heightens the obligation to refrain from an attack when the civilian nature of the target becomes apparent or when there is any doubt as to their status. The repeated killing of children, displaced people, farmers, and shepherds by direct gunfire or munitions dropped from these drones, despite their clear civilian status and absence of any direct participation in hostilities or imminent threat, therefore provides, taken together, strong evidence that civilians themselves were intentionally selected as targets of attack, rather than being killed as a result of mistaken identification or accidentally struck. Such attacks are prohibited in themselves and cannot be justified by military necessity or subjected to a proportionality assessment, since a direct attack against a civilian is prohibited from the outset and cannot be made lawful by invoking military necessity or the rules of proportionality.

The data Euro-Med Monitor has collected shows that at least 60 civilians have been killed in attacks carried out by quadcopters since the ceasefire, while Gaza’s Ministry of Health reported that the total number of Palestinians killed by Israeli forces during the same period had reached 1,368 as of the date of the statement... READ MORE  https://euromedmonitor.org/en/article/7105/They-see-them,-then-kill-them:-Israeli-quadcopters-track,-deliberately-target-civilians-in-Gaza

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Children. Displaced people. Farmers. Shepherds. People returning to check their homes. Israeli drones track their movements, and strike them with precision.

 Euro-Med Monitor

@EuroMedHR

Israeli forces are using armed quadcopter drones to hunt down and kill Palestinian civilians in #Gaza. 

 

Since the ceasefire began on 10 October 2025, Euro-Med Monitor has documented at least 60 civilians killed by gunfire or munitions fired from these drones. 

 

Children. Displaced people. Farmers. Shepherds. People returning to check their homes. These drones can identify people, track their movements, and strike them with precision.

https://x.com/EuroMedHR/status/2099432059861184725 

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A quarter century later, we must recognize that “wars on terror” have undermined Human Rights and stretched the fundamental principles of international law to breaking point. Security and human rights must go hand in hand

United Nations Special Procedures

@UN_SPExperts

 

A quarter century later, we must recognize that “wars on terror” have undermined #HumanRights and stretched the fundamental principles of international law to breaking point. Security and human rights must go hand in hand - UN experts. See full statement: https://ohchr.org/en/statements-

 https://x.com/UN_SPExperts/status/2098433756491059327

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9/11 anniversary: A quarter century of global counter-terrorism has endangered human rights

11 September 2026

On today’s 25th anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the United States of America, we pay tribute to the thousands of victims who lost their lives, to their families, and to the communities whose lives were forever changed by those horrific acts of violence. We equally acknowledge the millions of other victims worldwide of terrorist attacks, excessive counter-terrorism responses, and conflicts in the name of countering terrorism.

Terrorist violence causes profound human suffering, and every State has a duty to protect people from it and to uphold the right to life. We welcome that many governments have assisted and protected the victims of terrorism, and provided remedies, reparation and memorialization. Many countries have also strengthened security measures in ways that respect human rights.

Yet, too many governments have adopted unnecessary and disproportionate responses that have seriously undermined human rights, civil society, civic space, democracy, and the rule of law. Our worldwide monitoring over the past quarter century has exposed the gravest violations of international law in the name of countering terrorism. Wars of aggression. Unlawful occupations. Countless war crimes and crimes against humanity, and plausible allegations of genocide. Assassinations dressed up as “targeted killings”. Torture disguised as “interrogation”. Transboundary abductions, extraordinary renditions, and transnational repression. Secret detention and enforced disappearances. Unfair military trials and special courts, including at Guantanamo Bay. Toxic residues from conflicts have severely harmed human health.

“Wars on terror” have stretched foundational rules of international law beyond their breaking point, including excessive claims about national self-defence and what is permissible under international humanitarian, human rights and refugee law. State violence, foreign intervention, and impunity have counter-productively fuelled terrorism and insecurity locally and even globally, as with the spread of Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant after the 2003 aggression in Iraq.

State violations have also entrenched cycles of violence and impeded the just resolution of protracted conflicts in line with international law, as in the unlawfully occupied Palestinian territory.

Other violations have become almost routine in some countries, including the politicized abuse of overbroad terrorism and “extremism” laws, arbitrary detention, ill-treatment including inadequate health care, denial of fair trial before independent courts, the unjustified imposition of the death penalty and disproportionate penalties, and breaches of privacy and other basic rights. Exceptional temporary laws to address public emergencies have increasingly been made permanent.

Human rights have been further undermined by the arbitrary use of restrictive administrative measures. These include security detention, “control orders”, terrorist and “State terrorist” designations and sanctions (some of which affected whole populations), coercive “re-education”, travel bans, migration controls, citizenship revocation, and internet, communications and online content restrictions.

The use of new and emerging technologies, without adequate safeguards, is a key facilitator of violations. This includes drones, online and offline mass surveillance, spyware, biometric systems, and border security tools. Artificial intelligence and the automation of weapons systems pose heightened risks to the right to life and can undermine accountability. Businesses developing, supplying, or deploying these technologies should ensure that human rights are respected throughout their lifecycle, in line with the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.

Civil society has been heavily impacted by counter-terrorism measures, which have been used to target, harass, intimidate, threaten and silence many actors. These include human rights defenders, journalists, dissidents, environmental and land defenders, academics, scientists, artists, non-governmental organizations, social movements, minorities, Indigenous Peoples, peasants and migrants, refugees and asylum seekers. Civic space has been eroded by unjustified restrictions on the rights to freedom of expression, association, peaceful assembly, and the right to take part in public affairs.

Terrorism sanctions, financing laws and “support” offences, and bank de-risking and over-compliance, have led to over-regulation of non-profit organizations, contrary to the risk-based, proportionate approach required under international standards. Such measures have impeded and deterred impartial humanitarian activities in conflict zones, preventing assistance to civilians and undermining economic, social and cultural rights. Security Council and Financial Action Task Force standards have not adequately mitigated these risks and have been misused by some States to restrict civil society.

Counter-terrorism measures have violated the rights of vulnerable groups, including by failing to recognize children as victims of terrorist groups, consider their best interests, provide for their rehabilitation and reintegration, detain them only as last resort and for the shortest possible time, and use specialized juvenile justice processes. Women have experienced differential impacts of counter-terrorism and gendered assumptions about their agency as perpetrators, victims, and participants in counter-terrorism and civil society. Religious, racial and ethnic profiling has victimized some groups.

The Security Council has been part of the problem, by requiring all States to adopt highly intrusive measures without defining terrorism, guaranteeing safeguards, or effectively enforcing international law.

The sheer number, breadth, and invasive nature of counter-terrorism measures has strengthened repression and authoritarianism, in an era of backsliding on human rights and democracy. State violations not only cannot defeat terrorism, but can breed it. They also deny justice to victims of terrorism.

We urge States to review their counter-terrorism laws and practices to comply with international human rights, humanitarian, and refugee law, to establish effective independent oversight and accountability mechanisms to prevent and effectively remedy violations, and to protect and assist victims of terrorism and of unlawful counter-terrorism measures alike.

We also call on States to more meaningfully address the conditions conducive to terrorism under the UN Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy. Trillions of dollars have been spent on highly securitized responses, yet terrorism is more prevalent, in more places, than before 9/11. The world must adequately fund long-term initiatives to prevent terrorism, by prioritizing conflict resolution and peace building, good governance and political inclusion, the rule of law, sustainable development, humanitarian assistance, and human rights for all.

 https://www.ohchr.org/en/statements-and-speeches/2026/09/911-anniversary-quarter-century-global-counter-terrorism-has

NPR- Skeletons in their clothing: Recovering bodies from the rubble in Gaza....An Israeli drone buzzes over a sea of debris in northern Gaza, where homes were turned into mass graves...

A neighborhood of Beit Lahia was destroyed in Israeli strikes in October 2024, including a strike on a building that killed 132 members of the extended Abu Naser family.

May 6, 20265:00 AM ET

By 

Anas Baba

BEIT LAHIA, Gaza Strip — An Israeli drone buzzes over a sea of debris in northern Gaza, where homes were turned into mass graves.

This is where a recovery crew has carried out one of its first missions to unearth bodies buried deep under rubble — at the site of one of the deadliest Israeli strikes of the Gaza war.

The strike destroyed a five-story apartment building in late October 2024, killing more than 132 members of the extended Abu Naser family sheltering inside, an NPR investigation documented.

"We've been dreaming every day of the moment we could recover the martyrs, honor them, and bury them," said Ola Abu Naser, a 30-year-old survivor. "Every day we felt as if they were calling us, saying: 'We are here.'"

About 8,000 bodies are believed to still be buried under debris throughout Gaza, according to Gaza's health ministry.

NPR documented the three-day recovery mission at the site of the Abu Naser family massacre.... READ MORE  https://www.npr.org/2026/05/06/nx-s1-5811930/gaza-recovering-bodies

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Both doctors described the psychological warfare Palestinians in Gaza and the medical workers are enduring: no internet, no communication with families, constant bombs. Dr. Aziz: “This is a stain on our humanity. I’m ashamed to call myself human… we need absolute, unimpeded medical aid and an arms embargo now.”

 Australian Doctors in Gaza: “Healthcare Is Not Collapsing — It Has Collapsed” Dr. Nada Abu Alrub and Dr. Saya Aziz, two Australian doctors volunteering in northern Gaza’s Al-Shifa Hospital, have released a harrowing video describing mass death under relentless bombardment.

After an eight-hour trip north, Dr. Abu Alrub described “bombing after bombing with Apaches, F-35s, F-16s, drones — weapons attacking us from everywhere. The number of patients and the number of dead bodies arriving are ridiculous.”

“We are hardly surviving… no soap, no gloves, nothing at all. We’re treating patients on the floor — mass casualty after mass casualty.” 

“Today they bombed just in front of the main entrance of the hospital. Two days ago they did the same. The issue is we live there — our accommodation is within walking distance. So we could be at any time at that side of the bomb. As internationals, we’ve not even been given an evacuation order. We know that we might die at any time.”

Dr. Aziz called the situation “cataclysmic”: operating beds broken, flies swarming theater rooms, no suction, no sterility. “Healthcare is not collapsing — it has collapsed.” 

Both doctors described the psychological warfare Palestinians in Gaza and the medical workers are enduring: no internet, no communication with families, constant bombs. Dr. Aziz: “This is a stain on our humanity. I’m ashamed to call myself human… we need absolute, unimpeded medical aid and an arms embargo now.” 

Dr. Abu Alrub recalled one case: a woman beheaded by an Israeli strike, nine months pregnant. “We had to deliver her by emergency C-section… luckily, the baby girl survived.” https://x.com/dropsitenews/s 

 https://x.com/dropsitenews/status/1969476559145746645

Israel destroyed 400 [Palestinian] homes in Gaza’s Zeitoun neighborhood, east of Gaza City, over the past six days through aerial bombardment and the use of booby-trapped robots...

Smoke rises and Palestinians flee the site after Israeli army conduct attacks over al-Zeitoun neighborhood of Gaza City, Gaza on August 06, 2025. [Khames Alrefi – Anadolu Agency]

August 16, 2025

The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor on Saturday said that Israeli forces have destroyed some 400 homes in the Zeitoun neighborhood, east of Gaza City, over the past six days through aerial bombardment and the use of booby-trapped robots, Anadolu reports.

In a statement, the rights group said Israeli forces have been “leveling Zeitoun to the ground” since Aug. 11 as part of a large-scale military assault aimed at imposing full control over Gaza City and forcibly displacing its residents.

The monitor noted that “more than 90,000 Palestinians have fled the neighborhood under intense shelling.”

It added that Israeli forces have “deployed quadcopter drones to encircle residential blocks and force residents to evacuate at gunpoint, while advancing with ground units under heavy fire cover.”

The group stressed that the destruction of “nearly half of the homes in the Zeitoun neighborhood was not justified by any military necessity, as no armed clashes had been reported in the area recently.”

It said the “systematic use of robotic explosives and aerial strikes after residents were evacuated indicated the aim of the operation is not to achieve a legitimate military objective but rather the destruction of civilian life and forced displacement.”

The rights group said that the assault on Zeitoun, Gaza City’s largest neighborhood, falls within a “broader Israeli policy of genocide aimed at erasing Palestinian urban centers through mass destruction of homes, infrastructure, and essential services.”

READ: Nearly 61,900 Palestinians killed in Gaza since October 2023, as Israeli attacks persist

It urged the international community, including the UN and legal institutions, to “act urgently to stop the attacks, protect civilians, and hold Israeli leaders accountable.”

The group also called for the enforcement of International Criminal Court arrest warrants issued against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.

The latest Israeli military campaign began on Aug. 11, following a government-approved plan to gradually reoccupy Gaza, starting with Gaza City.

Witnesses reported widespread home demolitions using robotic devices, artillery fire, indiscriminate shooting, and forced displacement.

Israel has killed nearly 61,900 Palestinians in Gaza since October 2023. The military campaign has devastated the enclave and brought it to the verge of famine.

Last November, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.

Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on the enclave.

Middle East Monitor

@MiddleEastMnt

 https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20250816-israel-destroyed-400-homes-in-gazas-zeitoun-neighborhood-euro-med-monitor/ 

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