Friday, September 25, 2026

Nearly 400 members of UNRWA 's workforce in Gaza have been killed, with hundreds of premises in the Occupied Palestinian Territory made “inaccessible, severely damaged, or utterly destroyed” - Antonio Guterres warned at the UN General Assembly

https://x.com/UNGeneva/status/2103465868336173408

United Nations Geneva

Nearly 400 members of @UNRWA's workforce in #Gaza have been killed, with hundreds of premises in the Occupied Palestinian Territory made “inaccessible, severely damaged, or utterly destroyed” - @antonioguterres warned at the UN General Assembly

[AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES (or quotes) IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine, or at least fair and just laws and policies here, there- and everywhere]

https://news.un.org/en/story/2026/09/1168428

UNRWA work and mandate in ‘jeopardy’, Guterres warns

24 September 2026 Humanitarian Aid

The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA) continues to operate under “extraordinary pressure”, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said on Thursday.

Speaking at the annual ministerial meeting on the agency's work during High-Level Week in New York, the UN chief maintained that nearly 400 members of UNRWA’s workforce in Gaza have been killed, with hundreds of premises in the Occupied Palestinian Territory made “inaccessible, severely damaged, or utterly destroyed”.

“These actions are wholly unacceptable and inconsistent with Israel’s obligations under international law, including the UN Charter,” he said.

In a highly challenging environment, he said, UNRWA provides essential public services to Palestinians, however, its work and entire mandate from the General Assembly is now in “jeopardy”.

Nearly two years ago, the Israeli Knesset passed legislation banning the UN agency from operating on Israeli territory – which included East Jerusalem – and cut off all cooperation between Israeli officials and UNRWA.

The Israeli Government seized and began demolition of UNRWA’s main compound in Jerusalem last January. The UN and multiple States maintain the punitive laws passed by parliament breach Israel’s obligations under the UN Charter and Security Council resolution 2730 on protection of humanitarian personnel.

Campaign against the agency

According to the UN chief, the agency has been excluded from coordination meetings with Israeli authorities over humanitarian operations in Gaza and elsewhere, while staff visas are no longer being granted by Israel and personnel have been subject to intimidation.

He added that UNRWA continues to face a severe financial crisis, “with a cash shortfall of $100 million”, putting operations at risk and threatening the welfare of millions of Palestinian refugees.

Mr. Guterres called on Member States to take immediate action as UNRWA’s capacity to act was “seriously imperiled” and regional stability was at “stake”.

‘Conditions remain intolerable’

He highlighted that continued Israeli attacks continue to kill an average of four people per day, “a quarter of them children”, while international law is being “brazenly violated”.

“The resumption of assistance since the ceasefire was announced last October has brought some relief – but conditions remain intolerable,” Mr. Guterres said.

He said settler attacks and efforts to expand settlements in the West Bank have pushed Palestinians to “breaking point” and posed a threat to the two-State solution.

Amidst the volatility, he said, UNRWA remained a “critical stabilizing presence” and a lifeline for many Palestinian refugees.

‘Levels unseen’

UNRWA’s Commissioner-General ad interim, Christian Saunders, said the agency’s more than 10,000 personnel in Gaza are still assisting 1.7 million people, including some 70,000 medical consultations a week.

He said displacement in the West Bank was “at levels unseen since 1967”.

Forty-one of the 50 recommendations of the independent neutrality review into UNRWA operations were fully implemented, the Commissioner-General said, and a “slimmer UNRWA” did not mean a change to its mandate.

The Commissioner-General said 94 per cent of people in Gaza lacked proper shelter and 98 per cent of households lived near environmental hazards such as raw sewage and rubble, with humanitarian partners warning of major gaps as winter approaches.

In occupied East Jerusalem, measures against UNRWA had culminated in the seizure of it headquarters, vocational training centre, schools and health facilities, he said, calling on Member States to advocate for the agency to be given “the space to operate” in the Occupied Palestinian Territory in line with its mandate.

General Assembly President Khalilur Rahman said humanitarian access was “non-negotiable” and called on Member States to build on the New York Declaration to implement the two-State solution, through implementation of Security Council Resolution 2803.

Victim of ‘political assassination’

Jordan’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Ayman Safadi, whose country co-hosted the meeting with Spain and Brazil, said UNRWA was “still the target of political assassination” despite the reforms it has carried out, and warned against any change to its mandate or transfer of its responsibilities to host countries.

Mr. Safadi said host countries “are already doing enough” and that UNRWA would only cease to be needed once a sovereign Palestinian State emerged.

Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs José Manuel Albares Bueno said Spain had committed more than €85 million to UNRWA over the past three years and urged other donors to follow.

Brazilian Minister of Foreign Affairs Mauro Vieira condemned the closure and destruction of UNRWA premises in East Jerusalem and said the source of the agency’s crisis “is political”.

Mr. Vieira said Brazil had proposed a working group on disinformation during its presidency of UNRWA’s Advisory Committee, and condemned plans to build military structures on the site of the agency’s compound in Sheikh Jarrah.

https://news.un.org/en/story/2026/09/1168428

It’s not hypothetical: the dangers of AI are already here- Israel and the US have used AI to kill in Gaza and Iran, while law enforcement uses it in surveillance and arrests. The future is here

‘The strike that caused what is almost certainly the worst incident of civilian casualties in the war was, most likely, the result of a “targeting mistake” that relied on faulty data.’ Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images

Granate Kim and Mohamed Hussein in The Guardian

In recent weeks, concerns about AI have forged unlikely alliances in the tech and policy worlds. Tech moguls such as Sam Altman, Elon Musk and Demis Hassabis joined Dario Amodei, Satya Nadella and Bill Gates in sounding the alarm about the dangers of AI and called for a slowdown of the technology’s development despite years of racing for dominance. The senator Bernie Sanders teamed up with Steve Bannon to urge Congress to regulate AI, which has become one of the very few issues to unite Americans across the political spectrum.

The latest moves were sparked in part by the AI researcher Jacob Coxon’s warnings on Twitter/X that AI companies are “gambling with our lives” and believe that the technology “could kill us all by the end of the decade”.

The reality is, we don’t have to wait to see how AI will bring about unprecedented death and destruction, because we’ve already witnessed its unleashing.

Bill Gates’s nearly 6,000-word essay in late August warning about AI and its potential harms to humanity doesn’t come as a surprise. One of us has been a Microsoft employee for nearly a decade, witnessing all the dangers unfold in real time. Together, we’ve spent the past two years organizing with other Microsoft employees and activists to uncover the company’s role in the genocide of Palestinians in Gaza. We have collectively called on Microsoft to cut ties with the Israeli military.

But it’s not just Microsoft that is involved in AI-driven destruction.

Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza was a testing ground for the use of AI in warfare and the results were deeply disturbing. Israel’s military used AI to identify people to kill, with 12,000 targets generated and bombed in the first month alone. This was done with little to no meaningful human oversight, as documented in an investigation by Oscar-winning Israeli journalist Yuval Abraham, whose latest film NAZA includes chilling testimonials by the soldiers involved.

Earlier this year in Iran, the US military launched an AI-involved airstrike that hit Shajareh Tayyebeh Elementary School in Minab, Iran, killing 156 children, teachers and other civilians. The strike that caused what is almost certainly the worst incident of civilian casualties in the war was, most likely, the result of a “targeting mistake” that relied on faulty data.

The horrors wrought by AI aren’t limited to people overseas – they’re already being felt by vulnerable communities in the US The Department of Homeland Security is using AI tools – including Microsoft’s Azure – to monitor, arrest and deport immigrants at a massive scale. Law enforcement agencies nationwide are deploying facial recognition technology despite evidence of algorithmic bias that has led to the wrongful arrest and incarceration of Latino and Black Americans..READ MORE https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/sep/25/ai-israel-gaza-iran-police-surveillance

AI (artificial intelligence)

Israel uproots 400 olive trees in occupied West Bank as harvest season approaches... The trees are hundreds of years old- uprooting them not only destroys the trees, but also affects the livelihoods of Palestinian families that depend on them.

September 24, 2026

Israeli forces uproot 400 olive trees belonging to Palestinians and destroy 31 dunams of land with heavy machinery in the town of Beit Rima, northwest of Ramallah, in the West Bank, Palestine on September 24, 2026. [Issam Rimawi – Anadolu Agency]

https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20260924-israel-uproots-400-olive-trees-in-occupied-west-bank-as-harvest-season-approaches/

... Since the beginning of 2026 through Sept. 22, Israel has issued 51 orders to remove trees and vegetation in the occupied West Bank, targeting 2,093 dunams of land, according to data from the Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission.

The uprooting operation comes as the olive harvest season approaches. Olive trees are a major source of income for thousands of Palestinian families. Bulldozing and uprooting operations cause losses to farmers and threaten their ability to access and cultivate their land.

Afrah Qadura, 65, from Beit Rima, told Anadolu Agency that residents learned of the military order two days ago and saw a map at the municipality building showing the areas targeted for the removal of olive trees.

He said landowners were given 12 hours to remove trees before the Israeli army would implement the order. “How can we remove trees planted by our fathers and uproot them with our own hands?” he asked rhetorically.

Qadura said the olive trees had been planted over decades, beginning in the late 1960s and continuing through the 1970s and 1980s, as well as trees planted in the 1990s.

He said some of the trees uprooted Thursday had become highly productive for years, adding that olive trees are a primary source of livelihood for residents.

Palestinians in the occupied West Bank are preparing for the olive harvest season, which usually begins in October.

Thousands of Palestinians rely on olive trees and their crops as a source of income, alongside their connection to the land and agricultural heritage passed down through generations.

“We are proud of those trees like our children,” said Qadura, noting the years he and his father spent cultivating the land, caring for the trees and watering them.

He added that he used to bring water from a well to water the saplings and follow their growth during the years. “My father worked hard planting the trees, and we also worked hard caring for them.”

He said his family continued to tend, clean and care for the trees until they became part of their lives. Losing them in this way was, for him, like losing one of his children.

Qadura said uprooting the trees would not force his family to abandon their land, stressing that he and his family intend to replant the trees uprooted by the Israeli army.

“We will continue planting trees like my father did, and our children will continue after us,” he said, citing his family’s connection to the land and its cultivation across generations.

Abdul Rahman al-Rimawi, mayor of Bani Zeid al-Gharbia, which includes Beit Rima and other towns, told Anadolu Agency that everybody was surprised Thursday when Israeli army bulldozers began uprooting mature olive trees in the town in an area of 31 dunams.

Rimawi said the trees “are hundreds of years old,” and that uprooting them not only destroys the trees, but also affects the livelihoods of Palestinian families that depend on them.

He said the operation comes as the olive harvest season approaches, describing it as part of “arbitrary Israeli practices against people, trees and stones.”

Rimawi said the residents of Beit Rima “are not isolated from this people” and what Palestinians are subjected to in terms of harassment, killings, displacement and the uprooting of olive trees.

He implored international institutions and relevant parties to work to halt the decision to uproot the trees, noting that there is ongoing communication with the Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission to that end.

Rimawi said Israeli authorities had not, according to him, explained the grounds for implementing the decision, and that what is happening represents “Israeli practices against all members of the Palestinian people” in the occupied West Bank.

WATCH: Gaza and the dystopian future of AI-powered war | Palestine This Week

‘They uprooted it all’: Israel bulldozes Palestinian-owned olive groves. Israeli bulldozers uprooted olive groves near Ramallah in the occupied West Bank weeks before the annual harvest.

PalestinianAbd Alfattah Tamimi gestures after Israeli military machinery uprooted his olive trees near the Palestinian village of Deir Nidham near Ramallah, in the occupied West Bank, September 23, 2026 [Mohammed Torokman/Reuters]

Israeli army bulldozers have ploughed through rows of olive trees in a village near Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, just as Palestinian farmers were preparing to begin their annual harvest, residents told the Reuters news agency.

Palestinian farmer and landowner Abd Alfattah Tamimi said the army had destroyed the olive trees planted on his family’s land as well as his neighbours’.

The demolition in the village of Deir Nidham started on Monday and continued on Tuesday, the Palestinian news agency Wafa reported.

“They don’t care about anyone, but God is up there, and we are steadfast here with our souls,” he said. “They are uprooting, and we will plant again with the help of God,” he said.

Another farmer, Nather Tamimi, told Reuters the timing of the demolition was designed to inflict maximum damage ahead of harvest season, which traditionally begins in October.

He said that his family produced about 120 drums of olive oil from the land each year.

The Israeli army also “uprooted all kinds of trees even from between the houses”, Nather Tamimi said.... READ MORE https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/9/24/they-uprooted-it-all-israel-bulldozes-palestinian-owned-olive-groves

Thursday, September 24, 2026

Refaat Alareer 1979-2023 killed by Israel (but not silenced) poet, professor, writer, & one of the co-founders of We Are Not Numbers: We remember him not only for how he died, but for how he lived — teaching and inspiring generations of young Palestinians to write back and tell their stories.

We Are Not Numbers

@WeAreNotNumbers

Today, Refaat Alareer should have turned 47.

He should have been here, teaching, writing, mentoring our writers, making jokes, challenging us to think harder, and reminding us again and again that our stories matter.

Refaat was born in Gaza on September 23, 1979.

He was a poet, professor, writer, and one of the co-founders of We Are Not Numbers.

To so many of us, he was also a teacher, mentor, colleague, and friend.

Today, on what would have been his 47th birthday, we remember Refaat, who was killed by Israel on December 6, 2023.

We remember him not only for how he died, but for how he lived — teaching and inspiring generations of young Palestinians to write back and tell their stories.

https://x.com/WeAreNotNumbers/status/2102817110615298221

https://wearenotnumbers.org/

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