RafiqLatta

Private Account

[Shaiel Ben-Ephraim @academic_la]

A B'Tselem video shows the moment before an IDF soldier shot Sam Abu Haikal, a 7-month-old, in his family's car in Hebron. The car slows and stops. Two soldiers stand meters away. After firing, they leave. Footage shows the family pulling out the bleeding infant. No soldier renders aid.

The IDF claimed the car was "accelerating toward" troops. The father, a Bethlehem University lecturer, says he stopped fully and raised his hands. One bullet went through his hand, the baby's face, and his wife's cheek, in daylight, at 7:30pm. Sam died. His mother is in intensive care, shrapnel near her heart, not yet told her son is dead.

Military Police have opened a criminal investigation. The defense establishment's own internal word for it: "very bad."

A source I talked to in the IDF told me that "this is an absolutely shocking event." But they believed that in the current environment "the investigation will go nowhere."

[RafiqLatta @RafiqLatta]

@academic_la sorry to hear Shaiel...

[RafiqLatta @RafiqLatta]

@ori_goldberg Thoughts and prayers with you Ori!

[RafiqLatta @RafiqLatta]

https://t.co/6EUQiu7U9S

[RafiqLatta @RafiqLatta]

@AbujomaaGaza Wa antum bikhair!

[RafiqLatta @RafiqLatta]

:(

[Kegham Balian @kbalian90]

"Soldiers are spitting, too. The soldier, in uniform!"

[RafiqLatta @RafiqLatta]

@gershonbaskin My thoughts with you Gershon. These are awful days :(

[Katie Hopkins @KTHopkins]

On behalf of their client, Zara Sultana, Bindmans Media and Information Law Practise Group requires that I publish the following statement on X, and that such statement must be clearly visible and pinned to my
profile for a continuous period of no less than 24 hours:

“On 30 March 2026, I published a post on my X account addressed to Zarah Sultana in which I stated that she encourages and incites violence and is friends with terrorists.

Those statements are false. I was wrong and offer my sincere apologies to Ms Sultana for the harm and distress caused to her.”

It is my very great pleasure to do this, and I reiterate my sincere and repeated offer to meet with Miss Zara Sultana in person to resolve our differences.

[Mouin Rabbani @MouinRabbani]

Rape has become part of the Israeli national ethos.
Politicians and government officials riot in support of it.
Prominent journalists and commentators shout and scream in support of it in television programs.
Public figures demand it.
And comedians devote skits to the joys of raping Palestinian prisoners.

[Dr. Ezzideen @ezzingaza]

Something is spreading in Gaza, quietly and rapidly, and almost no one is paying attention.

Over the past few days, we have seen a sharp rise in cases of gastroenteritis at the clinic. Yesterday alone, 32 out of 84 patients came in with the same complaint. One of those cases involved an entire family of seven. All sick. All at once.

In a place where nearly everything has collapsed, and where those in power are more concerned with survival than responsibility, there is no functioning system left to track outbreaks or investigate their causes.

So we asked the patients ourselves, and a pattern slowly began to emerge. Almost all of them had consumed one of two things: frozen fish widely sold in local markets, or frozen meat distributed through international aid organizations.

These products often remain stranded at border crossings for long periods, waiting for permission to enter. During colder months, those delays may have gone unnoticed. But now, as summer approaches, time is no longer neutral.

Food spoils quietly and invisibly, and then it reaches people’s tables.

There is another layer to this crisis. Many of the shops selling these frozen products are simply not equipped to store them safely. Even large supermarkets in Gaza cut electricity to their freezers for long hours each day.

The result is predictable: food that appears safe, but is not. Food that feeds people, and then makes them sick.

This is not a coincidence. It is the outcome of a system that no longer functions. There is no proper oversight, no effective regulation, and no institutions capable of protecting people from what they eat, drink, or endure.

And this is perhaps the most dangerous part: these are not isolated problems. They accumulate. They build on one another. Over time, they create a reality in which even the most basic human acts, like eating, become a risk.

These conditions will not resolve themselves. They require governance, accountability, and real institutions that exist to protect people. None of that exists right now.

So the pattern will continue. More illness. More preventable suffering. More silent crises that no one officially records.

And in a place already pushed beyond its limits, even something as simple as a meal can become the beginning of another emergency.

If this continues, the danger will no longer be hunger alone. It will be something more insidious: a reality in which people are forced to choose not between food and no food, but between food and sickness.

And that is the moment survival itself stops feeling like survival at all.

#WoundedGaza

[RafiqLatta @RafiqLatta]

:(

[Nicholas Kristof @NickKristof]

This is a hard article to read, but I hope you'll do so. I've spent some time reporting on widespread rape and other sexual violence of Palestinian male and female prisoners by Israeli authorities, and the article is now published. The assault victims were warned not to give speak of what they endured -- they were sometimes told they would be killed or raped if they gave interviews -- but they found the courage to do so. One man described being raped three times in a single day in Israeli prison, the third time after he tried to protest. A young woman said the guards would come in at the beginning of each shift and strip her naked and abuse her. Another reported that she was shown photos of herself being raped and warned they would be released unless she cooperated with Israeli intelligence. Even three children who had been detained told me they had been sexually abused. Look, whatever our position on the Middle East, we should be able to agree on being anti-rape. Sexual assaults were horrific when Israeli women were targeted on Oct. 7, and they're equally horrific when Israeli authorities use them against Palestinians day after day after day. We should be able to find common ground in opposing rape. Here's a gift link to the article: https://t.co/aMMHId49OO

[Ounka @OunkaOnX]

Smotrich: 'My son wants me to leave some Lebanon for him to destroy later. I told him don't worry, there will be enough for everyone.'

Generational evil

[Drop Site @DropSiteNews]

A man holds his cousin’s head in a black plastic bag in Gaza. Israel killed at least 7 people in various attacks on Sunday. 13 people were killed on Saturday.

[Ihab Hassan @IhabHassane]

Israeli settlers, alongside Israeli forces, uprooted more than 400 olive trees since this morning in the village of Turmus Ayya in the West Bank.

The uprooting is still ongoing as of 4 a.m. local time in Palestine.

[RafiqLatta @RafiqLatta]

@ori_goldberg Nooooo...Very important humanist Israelis stay where they are...if all left.... who knows what would happen. Things are bad...even awful...but they can get worse...

[Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur oPt @FranceskAlbs]

I have seen enough to say it with absolute certainty: the Israeli army is the most depraved army.

[Osama Abu Rabee أسامة أبوربيع @dn_osama_rabee]

Today, March 30, 2026, the Knesset votes on the Palestinian prisoners’ death penalty law ⚠️
A move that throws thousands of prisoners into the face of death. Ben-Gvir and his party members wore a noose-shaped pin, demanding it be turned into an enforceable law.
🆘Save the prisoners✊🕊️

[Mairav Zonszein מרב זונשיין @MairavZ]

Back in 2014 Gaza war, when the Israeli Right assaulted protesters and incited against leftists, I wrote about how dissent was being silenced and it was a matter of time before the state would turn on Jews. And here it is. Police brutalizing an older woman protesting in Tel Aviv

[Shaiel Ben-Ephraim @academic_la]

There is a myth that hunger ended in Gaza. No:
⚠️ 1.6M face extreme hunger
⚠️ 101K under 5 at risk of acute malnutrition
⚠️ 37K pregnant/breastfeeding women need urgent treatment
⚠️ Aid restrictions have tripled malnutrition rates
Help these verified accounts remain nourished.