Huda Abu Abed feared only long waits and Israeli checks when she was told she could return to Gaza after two years in Egypt.
The 57-year-old Palestinian heart patient expected delays at the Rafah crossing, but she never imagined being blindfolded, interrogated for hours, witnessing her daughter beaten, and having her belongings confiscated.
Abu Abed had been evacuated to Egypt during the genocide for urgent medical treatment, accompanied by her daughter.
She was among the first group of Palestinians contacted by the Palestinian embassy in Egypt to return on Monday, following the partial reopening of the Rafah crossing – the first since May 2024.
The crossing reopened under heavy Israeli restrictions and monitoring, limiting the number of people allowed to enter or exit, and subjecting returnees to physical searches at a checkpoint in Rafah.
Blindfolded, beaten, humiliated: How Israeli forces abused Palestinians returning to Gaza
At least 12 Palestinians killed and several hurt in Israeli airstrikes on Gaza
At least 12 Palestinians were killed and several more injured across the Gaza Strip on Sunday as the Israeli military said it carried out airstrikes in response to ceasefire violations by Hamas.
The Gaza civil defence agency said five people were killed and several others hurt when an airstrike targeted a tent sheltering displaced people in the northern city of Jabaliya.
According to the agency, which operates as a rescue force under Hamas authorities, five more people were killed and several injured in a separate early morning strike in the southern city of Khan Younis. It said one more person was killed after Israeli shelling in Gaza City, while one person was killed by Israeli gunfire in Beit Lahia.
Hazem Qassem, a Hamas spokesperson in Gaza, accused Israel of committing a new massacre against displaced Palestinians, calling it a serious breach of the ceasefire days before the first meeting of Donald Trump’s Board of Peace.
‘I was so scared’: US trial witnesses allege Alexander brothers worked together to rape women
In their time as real estate brokers, the Israeli-American Alexander brothers – twins Alon and Oren and older brother Tal – were known as “closers”, the salesmen who could a get a sale over finish line, often to wealthy hedge funders who were then making hay in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis.
Their technique, one real estate expert explained outside the 26th floor of the federal court house in lower Manhattan last week, was based on the sense that the property salesmen “were just like their clients” – young, eager and successful. Kim Kardashian and then-husband Kanye West, Jared and Ivanka Trump were clients.
And like many, they were party animals. Nightclubs in Manhattan, the Hamptons, Miami, Aspen, Tulum and Ibiza were seasonal stops. Tal and Oren, 38, were profiled in the New York Times on “How Two Luxury Real Estate Agents Spend Their Sundays”. The Wall Street Journal followed on the family’s $31m sale of their Miami beach home. US Vogue featured Oren’s wedding to a Brazilian model.
But a far nastier picture of their high life has been on display in court for the past few weeks, where the three brothers are on trial for sex trafficking. Prosecutors have accused each of the three brothers of violent, forcible rape of at least 10 women each and in some cases of threatening them if they spoke of their experiences.
Chicago teen who called for father's release from ICE detention dies
A Chicago teenager who garnered national attention for fighting for her father's release after he was detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in 2025 has died, a family spokesperson said.
Ofelia Giselle Torres Hidalgo, 16, died on Friday, Feb. 13, from stage 4 alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma, according to a statement from the family's spokesperson. Torres Hidalgo had been diagnosed with the rare and aggressive form of soft tissue cancer in December 2024.
The teenager was undergoing cancer treatment and had been home visiting her family for the weekend when her father, Ruben Torres Maldonado, was arrested in October 2025 at a Home Depot store in suburban Chicago, a GoFundMe page set up for the family states. He was detained during the Trump administration's "Operation Midway Blitz," a major immigration enforcement campaign that brought a surge of federal agents to the Chicago area.
Following his arrest, Torres Hidalgo posted a video on social media calling for his release. She described her father as a hardworking immigrant who cared for her younger brother while she stayed at the hospital for treatment.
Israel detains journalists, solidarity activists in occupied West Bank
Israeli forces have detained two journalists, two foreign solidarity activists and a Palestinian anti-settlement activist in the southern occupied West Bank city of Hebron while they were documenting attacks carried out by illegal Israeli settlers, according to local sources.
Osama Makhamera, a Palestinian activist involved in resisting settlement expansion, told Anadolu on Friday that Israeli forces stormed the Rujum al-Aala area after illegal settlers attacked residents of the Masafer Yatta region, south of Hebron.
He said the forces detained two journalists working with a foreign media outlet, along with two foreign activists and Rateb al-Jbour, coordinator of the popular and national committees opposing illegal Israeli settlement activity in southern Hebron, as they were documenting the settler assault.
Makhamera added that the detainees were taken to a nearby Israeli settlement in the area. Al-Jbour was later released, while the fate of the journalists and foreign activists remains unknown.
He said the Rujum al-Aala community has faced repeated attacks by illegal settlers, with incidents escalating in recent days.
The assaults have left residents wounded, including women and children, caused extensive damage to homes and property, destroyed crops, and prevented residents from accessing their farmland and grazing areas.
Walz Presses DHS To Disclose The Number Of Kids Detained By ICE In Minnesota
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) warned Tuesday that 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos’s detention could be far from an isolated case.
“Here’s the thing, we don’t know how many others are in the same situation that didn’t get a photo that went viral,” Walz said during a Tuesday press conference as he denounced the ways ICE had targeted schools and students.
In a letter he sent this week, Walz also pressed Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to reveal the number of children who’ve been detained in Minnesota.
“Incredibly, his case is only one of many. Each day brings new reports of children detained by ICE,” Walz wrote.
Walz’s statements underscore how the detention of children has skyrocketed under the Trump administration, and also point to how limited the oversight is of the treatment of kids in federal detention.
According to an analysis by The Marshall Project, ICE held roughly 170 children on an average day during President Donald Trump’s second term, a major uptick compared to the last year of former President Joe Biden’s administration. In the last 16 months of the Biden administration, ICE held about 25 children per day.
U.S. Envoys Refused to Report "Apocalyptic" Conditions in Gaza. Exclusive Photos Show the Reality They Suppressed
In February 2024, just over three months into Israel’s war on Gaza, U.S. ambassador to Israel, Jack Lew, and his deputy, Stephanie Hallett, blocked an internal cable intended for wider distribution among senior officials in the Biden administration that warned northern Gaza had turned into an “apocalyptic wasteland,” according to Reuters.
Lew and Hallett reportedly blocked the cable, which described the consequences of Israel’s assault in harrowing detail, because they believed it lacked balance.
The cable was drafted by U.S. Agency for International Development staffers and was based on a two-part humanitarian fact-finding mission by a small United Nations team that visited the area on January 31 and February 1, 2024.
I was part of that mission.
Northern Gaza had been under a total siege for over three months when we were eventually allowed to enter in January 2024. We moved through Gaza City, Beit Lahia, Jabaliya, and Beit Hanoun.
What we found was an endless horizon of destruction. People were living under plastic sheeting or in the rubble of buildings. Schools had been destroyed. In parts of Beit Hanoun, the entire area had been depopulated and decimated. There was a deadly shortage of clean drinking water, food and access to healthcare.
More Articles...
- Judge orders release of father and 5-year-old detained by ICE in Minnesota
- Five-year-old deported to Honduras despite being US citizen is latest child victim of Trump crackdown
- Israeli forces kill Palestinian, detain others in occupied West Bank
- ICE detains five-year-old Minnesota boy as he came home, say school officials
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