Human Rights Glance
The United States has criticised its allies for failing to stop a Gaza-bound aid flotilla that was raided and seized by Israeli naval forces earlier this week.
US Department of State spokesperson Tommy Pigott on Thursday described the flotilla as a “baseless, counterproductive stunt”.
He said Washington expects allies to "take decisive action", including denying port access, docking, departure and refuelling to vessels involved in the mission.
"This flotilla circumvents mechanisms designed to ensure humanitarian assistance is received by civilians," Pigott said in a statement.
"The United States will explore using available tools to impose consequences on those who provide support to this pro-Hamas flotilla and supports our allies’ legal actions against."
US criticises allies over failure to stop Gaza aid flotilla
Red State Sued Over 'Punitive' Bathroom Law
Six transgender Idahoans filed a federal lawsuit on Wednesday challenging the state’s new bathroom law, which civil rights experts say is the most restrictive in the nation.
The law, which is set to go into effect in July, carries criminal penalties for people if they enter a bathroom or locker room that does not align with their sex assigned at birth in both government-owned buildings and private businesses.
Anyone who “knowingly” enters such a bathroom could face a year in jail for a misdemeanor first offense, or up to five years in prison for a felony second offense.
Idaho’s bathroom law is the “most punitive and broadest sweeping law in the country,” said Paul Carlos Southwick, the legal director for the ACLU of Idaho. So far, it is the only state to criminalize transgender people’s bathroom usage in private businesses.
'Piracy': Israel raids Gaza-bound aid flotilla off Greek coast
According to the Global Sumud Flotilla aid mission, at least 15 boats were raided, with those on board “abducted” by Israeli forces and unaccounted for.
Israel’s Foreign Ministry said approximately 175 activists from more than 20 boats were in Israeli custody.
The Global Sumud Flotilla said various vessels were “systematically disabled” after being raided, leaving activists stranded at sea.
“After smashing engines and destroying navigation arrays, the military retreated - intentionally leaving hundreds of civilians stranded on powerless, broken vessels directly in the path of a massive approaching storm,” it said.
Shortly before the raid, activists said they were approached by military speedboats identifying themselves as Israeli. Soldiers reportedly pointed lasers and semi-automatic weapons at those on board, ordering them to get on their hands and knees. They added that boat communications were being jammed.
“No state has the right to claim, police, or occupy international waters. Yet, that is exactly what Israel has done, extending its regime of control outward, occupying the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Europe."
In Gaza, life flickers as power cuts shatter livelihoods and healthcare
After hours spent carefully preparing her cakes, Abrar Abdu stood stunned in silence before her oven.
In her small, darkened workshop in Gaza City, the only light came from her phone’s torch, illuminating more than 27 ruined cakes - the result of a sudden power cut and a faulty oven.
Abdu, 34, who runs a small cake business in the Palestinian enclave, was forced to apologise to customers after failing to deliver their orders, refund every payment and absorb the full cost of the wasted ingredients.
“I have incurred devastating financial losses due to the chronic instability of the electricity generators,” she told Middle East Eye.
The losses have pushed her to the brink, she added, threatening not only her liveLike Gaza’s 2.2 million residents, Abdu has struggled to secure a reliable electricity supply since Israel severed all power lines to the strip at the start of the genocide in 2023.
The territory’s sole power plant shut down on 11 October that year after running out of fuel amid the blockade on energy supplies.
'If the current situation persists, Gaza will sink into total darkness'
- Mustafa Abu Hassira, association of generator in Gaza
Since then, Gaza has been plunged into near-total darkness, with residents relying on limited solar power or costly private generators.
'All changed with the genocide': Palestinian women and girls face brutal abuse in Israeli jails
Once you picture schoolgirls, university students, mothers, aunts and grandmothers lying on their stomachs in prison pyjamas - their hands tied behind their backs, and soldiers looming over them, beating them if they move even slightly - you cannot forget the image.
When you hear a female prisoner say she has "nothing but her heart", you immediately grasp how prison can dismantle lives.
Palestinian Prisoners’ Day is marked every year on 17 April to spotlight ongoing human rights violations - and today, conditions are worse than ever. Since the launch of the Gaza genocide, starvation, isolation, humiliation, strip searches, torture and overwhelming fear have become constant realities for Palestinian women in Israeli prisons.
More than 700 Palestinian women have been arrested in the occupied West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza since the genocide began in late 2023, according to rights groups. Enduring night raids on their homes or detention at military checkpoints, most have been subjected to physical and psychological abuse both during and after their arrest.
“Everything is different from the prisons of the 1990s. All changed with the genocide,” Ramallah-based lawyer Sahar Francis, who is also the former director of the prisoners’ rights group Addameer, told a recent webinar entitled Women, Prison Sumoud.
Israeli forces beat elderly Palestinian woman to death
A 68-year-old Palestinian woman was beaten to death by Israeli soldiers during a raid on her home in the town of Jayyous, in the northern occupied West Bank.
Soldiers stormed the house of Sabriya Shamasneh in the early hours of Tuesday morning, conducting an aggressive search and interrogating the family.
Her husband, Walid Shamasneh, told local media that shortly before the raid, his daughter-in-law had approached him in fear, believing there were “thieves” outside. She reported hearing unusual noises and noticed that the front garden gate had been forced open.
Israeli forces then broke down the front door, terrifying the family.
“The Israeli officer began asking me for the names of people I did not know. Then they forced us all into a corner of the room while they searched the other bedrooms,” Walid said.
Epstein Survivors Plead With Newly Ousted Pam Bondi: ‘Do Right By Survivors’
The firing of Attorney General Pam Bondi, who received widespread criticism for her handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files, was celebrated Thursday by the sexual predator’s surviving victims, who have long felt Bondi could be more transparent about their cases.
Marina Lacerda, one of the survivors, shared a news article about Bondi’s firing on her Instagram stories, writing, “WE KNEW IT WOULD COME DOWN TO THIS.”
She also shared a satirical reel from the Instagram account @mermaidmamamaggie that poked fun at all the names Bondi had redacted from the Epstein files.
“What? You’re firing me,” the comedian said in the reel, posing as Bondi talking to President Donald Trump. “But I’ve done everything you’ve asked, sir. I’ve ignored the facts, buried the evidence, and I even learned how to say ‘no comment’ in five different tones of panic.”
Amanda and Sky Roberts — the family of Epstein survivor Virginia Roberts Giuffre, who died by suicide last year — said in a statement to independent journalist Aaron Parnas that they hope Bondi “has the courage” to “do right by survivors.”
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- Huckabee’s Israel land remarks condemned as ‘dangerous’ as controversy rumbles on
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