Human Rights Glance
The Israeli government announced on Tuesday that it had approved a budget of approximately 1.3bn shekels ($434m) to fund the establishment of 34 new settlements in the occupied West Bank.
According to Israeli news outlet Ynet, the decision was made by the security cabinet in June but kept under wraps over concerns about the US response.
The cabinet had separately approved the establishment of the 34 settlements in March, but the decision was not publicly announced until Tuesday.
The latest approval brings the number of settlements authorised under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's current government to 104 since it took office in late 2022, Ynet reported.
Israel approves over $400m to fund 34 settlements in occupied West Bank
'Red Ribbons' campaign urges Red Cross be allowed access to Palestinians held by Israel
A global campaign in support of captive Palestinians has urged the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to immediately resume independent visits to Palestinians held in Israeli prisons, warning that Israel has yet to implement a Supreme Court ruling overturning its ban on humanitarian access.
The Red Ribbons campaign emerged last year as people started wearning red ribbons in support of Palestinian captives held in Israeli prisons at protests from New York to London.
In a statement, it called on the ICRC to “take immediate humanitarian action to ensure the practical implementation of the Israeli Supreme Court's ruling of 3 June 2026, which revoked the blanket prohibition on ICRC visits to Palestinian prisoners and detainees held in Israeli custody.”
An open letter sent last week also urged the Red Cross to “restore regular, meaningful and independent access to Palestinian hostages and prisoners in accordance with international humanitarian law and the ICRC's own established standards for detention visits.”
Israel’s Supreme Court unanimously struck down the ban on 3 June, ruling that the government had violated Israeli and international law and failed to prMore...ovide a legal basis for blocking visits since October 2023.
The rules bar visits to several categories of detainees, limit the ICRC to one visit every three months, and allow it to request meetings with no more than five prisoners.
Holocaust Museum LA deletes post saying 'never again' applies to all people
The Holocaust Museum LA on Saturday deleted a social media post stating in block letters that "'Never again' can't only mean never again for Jews," on an illustrated image of interlocking human arms of different shades.
"Standing with humanity does not betray our people," the following slide said. "It honours them."
Within a day, the post was gone, and they promised to "do better".
“We recently posted an item on social media that was part of a pre-planned campaign intended to promote inclusivity and community that was easily open to misinterpretation by some to be a political statement reflecting the ongoing situation in the Middle East. That was not our intent,” a later post said.
"It has been removed to avoid any further confusion," the museum added. "We promise to do better".
A screenshot of the original image released by the California museum was captured by Ryan Grim, co-founder of Dropsite News.
"Speechless. No words for this," he captioned in a post on X.
"Think about how many people must have complained about this first message to get them to delete it and even issue an apology," he wrote. "If you denounce genocide, some might think you’re being critical of Israel and we can’t have that".
The Forward news outlet, which targets a Jewish American audience, noted that Jews who have rallied against gun violence in the US and against China's crackdown on the Uyghur minority have used the phrase "never again" for their causes, but others oppose it for anything but the Holocaust of World War II.
Gov. DeSantis confirms Florida's "Alligator Alcatraz" shutting down operations, all detainees relocated
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis held a news conference at "Alligator Alcatraz" on Thursday morning and confirmed that the mission at the controversial immigration detention facility was completed and all the detainees have been relocated.
DeSantis made the announcement alongside White House Border Czar Tom Homan, and Florida State Board of Immigration Enforcement Executive Director Anthony Coker at the isolated facility in the Florida Everglades.
During the news conference, DeSantis said that "Alligator Alcatraz" was always meant to be temporary until more detention centers could be located – and that has occurred.
"It served its purpose for the time," DeSantis said on Thursday.
Earlier this week, CBS News Miami's Jim DeFede reported that vendors hired by the state to operate "Alligator Alcatraz" were notified that they were to begin "full demobilization" of the facility, quietly bringing a close to the $1.2 billion experiment that had once been hailed by DeSantis and President Donald Trump as a model that other states should pursue, according to sources.
Palestinian dies in Israeli custody with signs of torture
A Palestinian citizen of Israel held by the internal security agency, Shin Bet, has died in hospital after being found unconscious in his cell, with his family and lawyers saying they found severe bruising on his body.
According to a Haaretz report, Saber Amitel, 21, was arrested earlier this month and taken to Shikma prison in Ashkelon, where he was denied access to a lawyer. He was suspected of arms smuggling
Police told his attorneys and family that he had attempted to take his own life.
His family and legal team were only permitted to visit him after Haaretz enquired about the case.
When his lawyers visited him at Barzilai Hospital on 8 June, they found severe bruising on his body, according to Haaretz.
Nearly 100 UK MPs and peers urge cancellation of Israeli settlement event
Nearly 100 British MPs and peers have signed a letter calling for an upcoming London event advertising the sale of land in illegal Israeli settlements to be cancelled, warning that it could implicate the UK in international war crimes.
The Great Israeli Real Estate Event is scheduled to be held in London this Sunday, but its location is being kept secret.
Andy McDonald, an MP for Middlesbrough and Thornaby East, published the statement on X on Friday, urging the UK government to prevent the Great Israeli Real Estate Event from taking place.
"The govt has an opportunity to uphold obligations under international law and take action against Israel's illegal occupation of Palestine," McDonald wrote.
The letter, sent to Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper, described the event as "firmly embedded in Israel's project of colonial expansion" as it facilitates the sale of land seized from displaced Palestinians.
‘It’s torture’: prisoners’ letters expose subterranean Oklahoma ‘dungeon’ known as the tombs
Down here in the tombs, there aren’t any windows,” writes Tremane Wood from inside his cell, in a modern-day American “dungeon” that few people have ever heard of.
“It’s really like living in cave,” he writes in another letter. “It’s dark and damp. Sometimes this place drives people mad. The hardest part is the isolation.”
Or in another: “You end up loosing [sic] track of days and nights and what day it is … It’s a real form of psychological torture that some people never come back from.”
Wood, 46, spent 17 years incarcerated in H Unit – the underground cells at the state prison in the rural town of McAlester, Oklahoma, where no natural light ever reaches.
According to prisoner letters seen by the Guardian and published here for the first time, H Unit – also known by the prisoners as the “tombs” – features a series of windowless cells that are built banked into the earth. The letters also tell of infestations of vermin, unsanitary conditions, and frequent instances of physical and sexual violence.
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