Some 400 protesters gathered in Tel Aviv Saturday night to protest against the war in Gaza, calling for an end to the blockade of the Strip and the Israeli occupation in general. The protest was organized by the the Coalition of Women for Peace and the socialist Da'am Workers Party. The protest was set to take place in Habima Square in central Tel Aviv, however police prevented the demonstration from taking place there and moved it to a nearby street. During the protest a rocket was fired from Gaza toward Tel Aviv and intercepted by the Iron Dome. The protesters chanted…

As a fundamental human desire and right, peace traverses time and context. However, if it is to be realized it must be adjusted to political and social realities. By Nadia Naser-Najjab In a period degraded by extremes of violence and dehumanization, the sight of 10,000 Israeli protestors taking to the streets of Tel Aviv last Saturday to protest against their own government’s actions in Gaza appeared as a welcome chink of light illuminating unremittingly bleak skies. Despite being smaller in scale, the demonstration recalled the early 1990s, when large numbers of Israelis demonstrated in favor of peace, and the possibility…

Update: The IDF has confirmed that the mortar shell that killed a 4-year-old Israeli child Friday evening was not fired from a UN-run shelter for Gazan refugees, as earlier reported by Haaretz. On the 46th day of Israel's Operation Protective Edge at least 113 projectiles were fired into Israel from Gaza. A mortar attack early Friday evening  killed four-year-old Israeli child Daniel Tregerman – the first child fatality on the Israel side since the start of hostilities more than six weeks ago. This was also the first Israeli fatality since a temporary ceasefire between Hamas and Israel broke down last Friday…

The personal losses of Al Mezan’s team are a microcosm of what Israel’s military operation is doing to Gaza’s population. If Israelis met them face-to-face, would they tell them the same excuses for those civilian deaths as they tell themselves and the world?  By Amjad Iraqi On August 21, the father, step-mother and niece of Issam Younis, director-general of the Al Mezan Center for Human Rights in Gaza, were killed as a result of an Israeli air strike on a nearby house; five other family members, including a three-year old and two-month old, were wounded. The home of another Al…

This week: Palestinian and Israeli protests across the political, ethnic and religious spectrum; homes and property damaged and destroyed in Gaza, the West Bank and Israel; aid for those suffering; and a wedding under protest. Related: Wedding crashers: Do anti-miscegenation protesters hate or love Judaism? 10,000 protest in Tel Aviv for a just peace, end to occupation PHOTOS: Israeli forces kill Palestinian and bulldoze his family house

Bibi went there. [This post has been updated.] The official account of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu went on a roll today comparing apples and oranges ISIS and Hamas. First there was a Venn diagram comparing some of the key similarities between the two groups (although inexplicably skipping some of the equally relevant ones, such as that both group use guns, sport woolly balaclavas and operate east of Sicily.) Then, however, the prime minister stepped it up a notch by using a frame from James Foley's murder video and a frame from Hamas's 2012 summary execution of suspected informants, to indicate that ravens and…

At least 34 Palestinians were killed Thursday when the Israeli air force bombed Gaza for a second day after a temporary ceasefire broke down and negotiators failed to reach a ceasefire agreement. While the fate of Hamas military chief Mohammed Deif remains unknown after Israel attempted to assassinate him, and consequently killed his wife and two young children, the Israeli military confirmed that it had killed three top Hamas commanders, Raed Attar, Mohammed Abu Shamaleh and Mohammed Barhoum, in Rafah. Attar and Abu Shamaleh are thought to both have been involved in the 2006 Gilad Shalit kidnapping. Israel's Shin Bet also believes that…

An affidavit obtained exclusively by +972 reveals what appears to be the first documented case of a 'human shield' used by the Israeli military during its invasion of the eastern Gaza town of Khuza'a. Ahmad Abu Raida, now 17, was separated from his family by Israeli soldiers on July 23 as he and his family were trying to flee to safety. During Abu Raida's five-day captivity, an Israeli soldier, who insisted he be called "captain," repeatedly asked the boy about alleged Hamas tunnels and rocket launching sites in his neighborhood. "I told him I did not know," Abu Raida, who…