"In its official comments, the Israeli army had said that the displaced [Palestinian] population had left voluntarily, that “civilians who wished to evacuate were permitted to temporarily leave the area”. Ahmaro was outraged at the suggestion that he had any choice about fleeing. “Never, never, never. Why should I leave my house?” he asked."

Guardian graphic. Source: Peace Now

 

... Within hours, the whole city of 250,000 people had been sealed off [by Israeli forces] and the neighbourhood of Farsh al-Hawa [Palestine], closest to the site of Friday’s attack [on Israeli forces at one of the many Israeli checkpoint chokeholds on Palestine], had been flattened. By Sunday morning, there was nothing left but rubble of an industrial area that had been full of car workshops, a big ceramics plant and other enterprises.

As the bulldozers were at work there, another district a few kilometres away was being systematically emptied. Ein Deir Baha was allegedly home to at least one of the two men involved in the attack (both of whom were killed on the spot), and on Friday its residents paid the price.

Fahed Ahmaro, who was forced to flee his home in the Deir Baha area of Hebron by Israeli security forces, looks at his house from a distance. Photograph: Quique Kierszenbaum/The Guardian

 

The imam from the local mosque, Fahed Ahmaro, was woken at about midnight by the loudspeakers from military vehicles patrolling the street, telling [Palestinian] homeowners to vacate their homes immediately for their own safety.

Ahmaro had 30 members of his family living in his house. He rushed his frail mother and some of his grandchildren to his daughter’s house in another part of Hebron, and was on his way back in the hope of picking up some of his possessions when his neighbour phoned him.

“He told me not to come back, and the [Israeli] army had blown up the gates to the house. I don’t know what they have done to it by now. I heard they destroyed the furniture,” Ahmaro said. “You don’t know what you have until you lose it. Now I realise how devastating it is to lose your home.”

At midday on Sunday, he was in a Hebron market shopping for a change of clothes for his grandchildren, uncertain how long the family’s exile would last.

He had heard that the house was being used as a base by Israeli soldiers and looking up at the house, perched on the side of a steep hill, he could see some lights on but no sign of life.

The Hebron municipality said that 370 families, nearly 2,000 people, had been displaced by the army sweep through Ein Deir Baha. In its official comments, the Israeli army had said that the displaced population had left voluntarily, that “civilians who wished to evacuate were permitted to temporarily leave the area”.

Ahmaro was outraged at the suggestion that he had any choice about fleeing.

“Never, never, never. Why should I leave my house?” he asked.... READ MORE https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/oct/26/collective-punishment-palestinians-displaced-israeli-forces-take-over-hebron-homes

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Israeli soldiers raze neighbourhood in Hebron, driving families from homes

PM Benjamin Netanyahu vows ‘to destroy this place’ in retaliation for militant attack on army checkpoinks

Israeli troops have levelled a neighbourhood in Hebron, driving out hundreds of families in collective punishment for a militant attack on an army checkpoint outside the West Bank city, local Palestinian authorities said.

The Hebron municipality estimated that 35 hectares (86 acres) had been destroyed or marked for destruction and about 1,500 people had been evicted from their homes by Saturday afternoon in the district of Ein Deir Baha. The whole city of 250,000 people was sealed off by checkpoints on every point of entry.

Videos sent by a Hebron resident showed a substantial area of devastation with every house over several blocks flattened in an urban area. One video showed soldiers marking Palestinian houses with a sprayed black cross, another showed a bulldozer tearing down a stone wall on a hillside and another showed a large residential building festooned with Israeli flags... READ MORE  https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/oct/24/israel-soldiers-raze-west-bank-neighbourhood-hebron-families-from-homes

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In Gaza, farmers rescue roots buried under rubble to grow fruit again. Gazan fig and date farmers are replanting crops from roots that survived years of Israeli bombing.

Ghada Abdulfattah

Figs grow again in Sheikh Ijlin, on the southwest edge of Gaza City, after farms there were destroyed by Israeli attacks since 2023.

 

By Ghada Abdulfattah, Special contributor

Gaza City, Gaza Strip | Oct. 02, 2026, 2:36 p.m. ET | 5 min read

When Jumaa Abed Saad returned to his farm in Sheikh Ijlin in January 2025 after more than a year of displacement, the place that greeted him was nearly unrecognizable. His house looked like a crumbled concrete cookie, with its blown-apart walls, roof, and floors scattered across the ground. Nearby, the neat rows of grapevines and fig trees his family had tended for three generations had vanished under piles of rubble. The grass towered above his head.

“Everything [was] gone,” he says of the farm in Sheikh Ijlin, a neighborhood on the southwest edge of Gaza City renowned for its grapes and figs.

Or so it appeared. But as Mr. Saad and his sons cleared the debris and dug into the sandy earth, they found something extraordinary: roots. For three years, as Israeli bombs made ruins of the ground, some of the trees and vines had clung to life in the spongy layer of clay below.

“Grapevines and fig trees don’t always give up as easily as they look like they have,” Mr. Saad says.

The taste of home

It is this quirk of soil, more than anything else, that has made this small corner of Gaza famous for grapes and figs for generations. Plant a vine or tree, and its roots reach down through the sand until they find the clay beneath. Through the driest months of summer, when nothing else in the ground has water left to give, the clay remains moist enough up to keep the tree alive... READ MORE https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Middle-East/2026/1002/gaza-rebuilding-ceasefire-farming-figs-grapes-sheikh-ijlin 

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At 76, Mansoura’s most precious possession is the key to her former home... ‘This is where I live now, the back of a truck’: a day in the life of a grandmother in Gaza

This is the most precious thing I own – the key to our house in the north. It is the key to the house that the occupation forces bulldozed. They flattened it: the house, the trees, the well, even a pen full of animals – they bulldozed it all. We couldn’t take anything with us, no money, no livestock.

I lived through wars before this. None was as bad as this one. During the 52-day war, we sheltered in schools, and we were OK – there wasn’t bombing like this, not the level of killing, and not the destruction of homes. But this war is extremely difficult. The destruction is enormous, the devastation is enormous – and all without any benefit. All of this is for nothing.

Life has become very different. Our family never knew hunger before, never knew displacement, bombardment, missiles, killing and destruction in this way or on this scale. The other thing I keep in this bag is a bullet – it was pulled from my son’s back. During the famine, he had nothing to eat and nothing to feed his seven children, so he went to get a bag of flour to feed his children from the aid stations, and they shot him. I keep this as a reminder of what happened – all for the sake of getting food.

‘This is where I live now, the back of a truck’: a day in the life of a grandmother in Gaza

 https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/ng-interactive/2026/sep/23/this-is-where-i-live-now-the-back-of-a-truck-a-day-in-the-life-of-a-grandmother-in-gaza

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25 Million Stitches - One Stitch, One Refugee; Raising awareness of the global refugee crisis through Art

Refugee is a person who has been forced to leave their country in order to escape war, persecution, or natural disaster. The number of global refugees has been doubling roughly every decade.  —Panel by Penny Peters, Washington

 

From Kindergarten to Graduate students, schools from Dominican Republic, Canada, and the U.S. from 5 year old to 91 year olds, 3 generations in a family, groups of diverse faith organizations generously donated their time to build our community and express their support for the refugees

 

If you are interested in booking this show, please contact at: 25millionstitches@gmail.com

25 Million Stitches

One Stitch, One Refugee; Raising awareness of the global refugee crisis through Art

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 25 Million Stitches was initiated and conceived in May 2019 by Jennifer Kim Sohn, a multimedia artist and activist, in Sacramento, CA, to create a community of art activists to visually document the enormity of the number of refugees in the world and to sustain the concern for the refugees in the minds of global citizens. 

 https://www.25millionstitches.com/upcoming-shows

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Let’s give peace a chance

On the International Day of Peace, you can give a voice to the war victims who need food and peace so they can return home

 Sep. 21, 2026  

by William Lambers in The Patriot News 

William Lambers is the author of the Road to Peace and has partnered with the UN World Food Program on the book Ending World Hunger.

In the movie “The Wizard of Oz,” Dorothy famously says “There’s no place like home.” On International Day of Peace , Sept. 21, there are millions of war refugees who just want to go home and live there again. Peace is precious to them because it can lead them home.

Asha is a mother from war-devastated Sudan who was forced to flee with her daughters to South Sudan. She told the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) that she worries her daughters may have to grow up away from home.

Asha and her family wish every day could bring peace. War refugees may be thousands of miles away from you, but you can actually help them get home. The theme of this year’s International Day of Peace is “‘everyday architects of peace’—people driving local action, laying the groundwork for stability, and building a lasting peace from the ground up.”

As the UN reminds us, “Peace isn’t just built in conference rooms—it is shaped by everyone, everywhere, every day.” You have the power to make a difference in building peace.

First, pay attention to conflicts, even those that aren’t in the headlines. You can ask your elected officials to make global peacemaking a priority. Ask them to fund peacemaking initiatives rather than fuel arms races.

You can... READ MORE  https://www.pennlive.com/opinion/2026/09/lets-give-peace-a-chance-opinion.html?gift=707a9de1-ed48-4171-ac4a-3ca02af7116b

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[ISRAELI] Settlers and soldiers cut off water and electricity to [PALESTINIAN] homes, and block medical care in campaign of terror: “Every night, the [ISRAELI] settlers throw stones, use obscene language and shout during the night. We are living in a state of terror,” [PALESTINIAN] Hassan said. His mother, brother and sister, and three neighbours have also been blockaded inside, and their power and water have been cut off.

Refqa Hassan watches as Israeli settlers besiege her family home for the fourth consecutive day in the town of Qusra. Photograph: Alaa Badarneh/EPA

Israeli militants besiege two Palestinian families in their West Bank homes

Emma Graham-Harrison in Jerusalem

Thu 13 Aug 2026

Israeli militants have besieged two Palestinian families in their homes since the weekend, aiming to take over their properties in the West Bank village of Qusra through a campaign of terror.

A group of settlers and soldiers set up a tent outside the home of Yousef Hassan’s family on Sunday afternoon, trapping him inside with his wife and two young daughters.

The Israeli men gathered just metres away from the spot where 28-year-old Amir Moatasem Odeh was killed by a settler in March. Another attacker stabbed his father. No one has been arrested over the murder and assault.

“Every night, the settlers throw stones, use obscene language and shout during the night. We are living in a state of terror,” Hassan said. His mother, brother and sister, and three neighbours have also been blockaded inside, and their power and water have been cut off.

Settlers used the same tactics to steal another Palestinian home in neighbouring Jalud village, driving the al Tubasi family out in July after a months-long siege.

They cut off water and electricity to the homes, although a solar panel allows Hassan to keep some devices charged in Qusra. They have also blocked medical care.

When his younger daughter, aged two, fell ill with vomiting and a high fever on Monday, settlers blocked an ambulance from reaching the house. The girls and their mother were eventually evacuated on Tuesday.

Hassan said those in the house were short on food and were drinking water and juice delivered by the ambulance that came to collect his daughter. “The situation is extremely dire.”... READ MORE  https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/aug/12/israeli-militants-besiege-two-palestinian-families-in-their-west-bank-homes

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