Medical Teams Still Struggling to Treat Gaza Malnutrition Crisis ‘Entirely Manufactured’ by Israel

“Every six months, we might get a food parcel once. It’s barely enough,” said one mother. “We are forced to eat whatever is in front of us.”

Ten-year-old Palestinian Mohammed Ahmed Masoud al-Susi struggles with malnutrition due to Israel’s attacks on the Gaza Strip and restrictions on aid entry, in Gaza City on April 30, 2026.
(Photo by Abdalhkem Abu Riash/Anadolu via Getty Images)

Julia Conley
May 07, 2026

A ceasefire was declared between Israel and Hamas seven months ago, but just as the deal has not stopped the killing of hundreds of Palestinians in Gaza, it has failed to alleviate the acute malnutrition crisis that was created when Israel began blocking almost all humanitarian aid in October 2023.

The international aid group Doctors Without Borders, also known by its French name, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), on Wednesday accused Israel of imposing a “manufactured malnutrition crisis” that is proving particularly devastating for pregnant and breastfeeding women, newborns, and infants

At four clinics operated by MSF in Gaza between late 2024 and early 2026, medical teams found higher levels of miscarriage among mothers who experienced malnutrition.

The group also analyzed data on 201 mothers of newborns who required treatment in neonatal intensive care units at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis and Al-Helou Hospital in Gaza City between June 2025 and this past January. More than half of the mothers had been affected by malnutrition at some point in their pregnancy.

Ninety percent of the babies had been born prematurely and 84% had low birth weight.



“Neonatal mortality was twice as high among infants born to mothers affected by malnutrition compared to those born to mothers without malnutrition,” said MSF.

Samar Abu Mustafa, a displaced mother from Abasan al-Kabira, said she was diagnosed with malnutrition while pregnant with her 3-month-old baby.

“I don’t know how I will provide diapers and milk, nor how I will provide food for my other daughters. There is no income and no support,” said Abu Mustafa. “There is nothing apart from food parcels from the World Food Program and community kitchens. Every six months, we might get a food parcel once. It’s barely enough. It is all rice and lentils. We are forced to eat whatever is in front of us.”

“For a long time, we haven’t eaten anything nutritious and the baby does not get enough milk from me, so I am forced to provide formula, but I don’t have money for it,” she said. “I have just one remaining can of milk.”

Mercè Rocaspana, MSF’s medical referent for emergencies, emphasized that malnutrition in the exclave was “almost nonexistent” before Israel began bombarding Gaza and blocking humanitarian aid—an action Israeli and US officials persistently claimed Israel was not taking before the ceasefire was reached, even as the number of deaths from starvation climbed to nearly 500.

“The malnutrition crisis is entirely manufactured,” said Rocaspana. “For two and a half years, the systematic blockade of humanitarian aid and commercial goods, on top of insecurity, have severely restricted access to food and clean water. Healthcare facilities have been forced out of service and living conditions have profoundly deteriorated. As a result, vulnerable groups of people are at heightened risk of malnutrition.”

Before the war, there were no dedicated therapeutic medical feeding units in Gaza’s hospitals, but MSF teams admitted more than 500 infants under six months of age to outpatient feeding programs between October 2024-December 2025—programs that the bombardment has made impossible for many families to complete.

“Of those admitted, 91% were at risk of poor growth and development. By December, 200 infants were no longer in the program—only 48% of them were cured, while 7% died, another 7% were referred to a program for older children, and a staggering 32% defaulted due in part to insecurity and displacement.”

The 20-point ceasefire agreement stipulated that at least 600 aid trucks must enter Gaza daily and that border crossings must be reopened, but as Common Dreams reported in April, five leading aid groups gave “humanitarian aid access” a failing grade in a scorecard rating conditions in Gaza six months after the deal was reached.

Israel was still restricting deliveries, and food items sold in Gaza were anywhere from 3% to 233% more expensive than they were before the war started.

Al Jazeera’s Hind Khoury reported Thursday that only 150 aid trucks are being allowed in daily.

Last week, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said that while there’s been a 72% increase in the amount of humanitarian aid reaching Palestinians in Gaza since the ceasefire was brokered, 11% of coordinated humanitarian missions are still being denied.

“Many lives have been saved in Gaza because of scaled up humanitarian effort since the ceasefire. But much more to do: We need to sustain access, protection of civilians, neutrality, and partnership,” said Tom Fletcher, UN under-secretary general for humanitarian affairs.

Sahar Nafez Salem, who lives with her children in a tent in Khan Younis, told MSF that her family has been relying on a charity kitchen to eat.

“We eat lunch from it and save some for dinner,” she said. “We try to manage getting lunch for our poor children every Friday, so we can bring them joy, but all week long, almost everything is from charity kitchens... The last time I received aid was during Ramadan... There is rice and lentils... Other things, like vegetables, are expensive. We can’t get them all the time. So sometimes we go without vegetables for months.”

NAKBA II

West Bank Faces Economic Crisis as Israel Withholds Tax Revenue and Work Permits

Israel is choking off financial prospects in the West Bank, pushing Palestinians there toward a breaking point.

By Theia Chatelle ,

Truthout

May 7, 2026

Palestinian shoppers walks past as Israeli soldiers patrol the market in the Old City of Nablus, in the northern Israeli-occupied West Bank, on April 27, 2026.Jaafar ASHTIYEH / AFP via Getty Images

If it had not been stopped at an Israeli military checkpoint in the West Bank, the garbage truck carrying more than 70 Palestinian laborers seeking work would likely have been able to enter Israel without incident.

But on April 13, the driver was held outside the Israeli settlement of Ariel for failure to carry a license fit for the vehicle, and upon further inspection, Israeli border police discovered dozens of workers hiding inside the truck’s garbage compartment, on the verge of suffocation.

The Palestinians were held at gunpoint on suspicion of “attempted infiltration,” according to the Israeli authorities, or in other words, attempting to cross the “Green Line” into Israel without a permit.

But as Haaretz reported, the Palestinian laborers were all unarmed and were only attempting to enter Israel in order to work. They had paid smugglers thousands of shekels in the hopes of passing through the checkpoint, allowing them to earn wages in Israel before returning to their families.

The incident captured the desperation of Palestinians living in the West Bank, who are facing an economic crisis of unprecedented proportions: GDP has contracted by around 17 percent since October 7, and unemployment currently sits at around 28 percent.


Palestinians Observe May Day Amid a Deepening Crisis for Workers
Years of war and genocide have devastated our labor market and living standards.
By Eman Abu Zayed , Truthout May 1, 2026

Two factors are at play: Israel’s closure of permit access for Palestinian laborers from the West Bank, and the withholding of Palestinian Authority (PA) revenues by far right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, all of which has brought the economy to a functional standstill.

On the eve of October 7, 2023, more than 100,000 Palestinians from the West Bank held permits to enter Israel as laborers, and even more entered without permits, primarily in the construction and agriculture industries.

Wages in Israel are more than double those in the West Bank, and jobs are easier to find. The longstanding permit policy was just as much an attempt by the Israeli government to capitalize on the cheap labor costs of Palestinian workers.

Since Israel occupied the West Bank after the Six-Day War in 1967, Palestinian laborers have long been an integral part of Israel’s economy, including in its illegal settlements. Many Palestinians built the very settlements that surrounded their home villages, on land that the state had requisitioned.

All of this changed after October 7, when Israel imposed a complete and immediate ban on entry for Palestinian workers. This shut off a critical economic lifeline for the Palestinian economy, which had come to depend on the cash injection from the comparatively higher salaries paid inside Israel, even in the agriculture and construction industries in which Palestinian workers primarily worked.

Hop in a taxi in Ramallah and the driver has likely once held one of those work permits, but was forced to find other work after they were revoked.

Abdelrahim Abu Ahmad, 32, was one of those workers. He is from the Palestinian village of Bir Nabala, which was once a white-collar stronghold on the outskirts of Jerusalem until the separation barrier cut it off from the Jerusalem municipality.

Abu Ahmad depended on the wages he earned working construction in Israel to support himself and his three children. “But now we have nothing,” he said. “I go to work, maybe have one or two people in the taxi by lunch, and it’s barely enough to cover gas.”

Abu Ahmad is not alone. Ride the bus from the heart of Jerusalem toward Ramallah, and as you pass the separation barrier in Beit Hanina and on the edge of al-Ram, two Palestinian communities located within the Jerusalem municipality but cut off from the West Bank, you might see Palestinian laborers descending the wall, dodging the concertina wire at the top, and climbing down a rope on the other side.

Doing so last week, I watched five Palestinians, lucky not to be caught by the Israeli military, hurriedly climb down from a makeshift rope before running off. Under Israeli military policy, any illegal crossing of the separation wall constitutes an infiltration attempt. It carries a hefty prison sentence, and in many cases, those caught are shot on sight.

The Israeli military has killed at least 13 Palestinians and injured at least 170 others crossing the barrier since October 7, 2023, according to the United Nations, though the Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions puts the figure closer to 50. Abu Ahmad knows this and said he will likely attempt to cross anyway: “I have nothing to lose. We can’t buy bread, my children are skipping meals, and I have debt to pay.”

Even during the First and Second Intifadas, when Israeli authorities imposed significant movement restrictions within the West Bank in tandem with their military operations, including Operation Defensive Shield, launched by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in April 2002, the economic collapse was only temporary.

After the fighting subsided and strikes in protest of Israeli authorities were put on hold, economic activity largely returned to normal, an analyst at the Palestine Economic Policy Research Institute confirmed to Truthout.

Debt loads have skyrocketed in the West Bank, both for consumers and for the PA itself, which is approaching insolvency after Smotrich cut off its revenue after October 7, 2023.

Per the Oslo Accords, Israel is obligated to distribute tax revenue it collects on behalf of the PA, but in the wake of October 7, citing payments the PA makes to relatives of those held in Israeli prisons, Smotrich has withheld those revenues altogether.

The Palestine Economic Policy Research Institute condemned the action, stating that “politically motivated suspensions or conditional transfers exceed the scope of the agreement and therefore constitute a form of economic coercion, particularly when used to influence PA actions in diplomatic or legal arenas.”

The result has been a follow-on effect, forcing the Palestinian Authority to cut salaries for more than 140,000 public sector workers. Employees are being paid only 50 percent of their salaries and are still months behind. The PA submitted a funding request to the European Union and donor countries, but it was turned down.

Shadya Saif, 40, has felt the effects of the revenue cuts acutely. She teaches at a private girls’ school in Ramallah, and her child has a rare form of muscular dystrophy requiring frequent treatment at Ramallah Government Hospital. “I worry about when we will not be able to bring my daughter in for treatment,” she said. “She is always sick or dealing with an infection because of her weak immune system. We are trying to keep up with the bills, but if we are not paid soon, we won’t know what to do.”

Ramallah’s community Facebook groups, which were once filled with questions about where to purchase specific brands of American hair products or makeup, are now filled with anonymous pleas from neighbors for food donations. This sense of economic desperation has become commonplace even in the West Bank’s largest cities.

As reported by Middle East Eye in January, Ramallah is far from alone.

“This is absolutely unheard of, that Palestinians would ask for aid from their neighbors. Even in areas hardest-hit by settler violence, we would often distribute aid packages, but nobody would take them,” Abbas Melhem, executive director of the Palestinian Farmers Union, told Truthout in an interview at their offices in al-Bireh. “Now we get 50 calls a day asking for food distribution. People have had to abandon their shame out of desperation.”

It is just one indication of how fast economic conditions have deteriorated since October 7. “They have reached a breaking point,” said Melhem, warning that it is only a matter of time before the tension explodes.

Terror on the Mediterranean: Israel’s Abduction of Thiago Ávila and Saif Abu Keshek Exposes the Zionist Project’s True Face, Once Again

Michael Leonardi

May 8, 2026

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Photograph Source: Global Sumud Flotilla

On April 30th Israeli commandos committed an act of state terrosim in international waters off the coast of Crete — more than a thousand kilometers from occupied Palestine. They seized vessels of the Global Sumud Flotilla, detained activists, and singled out two men for special cruelty: Brazilian Thiago Ávila and Spanish-Palestinian Saif Abu Keshek. These two remain imprisoned in Israel without charge. Reports from released activists describe brutal treatment: activists were beaten, kicked, subjected to painful stress positions, and threatened with execution. Many suffered broken bones, head injuries, and deliberate denial of medical care. Thiago and Saif, in particular, have reportedly faced prolonged isolation, harsh interrogation, and physical abuse — a clear attempt to break their spirit and send a message to anyone daring to challenge the siege.

Thiago Ávila’s mother, Teresa Regina de Ávila e Silva, passed away on May 5 while her son remained locked in an Israeli prison cell, unable to say goodbye. In a letter dictated from inside Shikma Prison to his young daughter Teresa and her grandmother’s namesake, Thiago wrote with heartbreaking clarity: “Dear Teresa, I’m sorry for not being home with you right now. Unfortunately your father, your mother, and so many people around the world understood the historical task that we have the responsibility to fulfil. Today over a million children are suffering a genocide, being starved to death, being amputated without anesthesia…” That letter, included in its entirety below and now circulating widely, has become a global symbol of moral courage in the face of Zionist sadism.

Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez have both demanded their immediate and unconditional release, denouncing the detention as illegal and a flagrant violation of international law. Lula, who has unwaveringly called Israel’s actions in Gaza a genocide, and Sánchez, one of the few European leaders willing to speak truth to power, understand the stakes. Their calls are not mere diplomacy — they are a direct challenge to the impunity Israel has long enjoyed.

Photograph Source: Global Sumud Flotilla

This abduction is the latest chapter in the resilient but brutal history of the Gaza flotillas. Since 2008, international activists have repeatedly tried to break Israel’s illegal naval blockade — imposed in 2007 as collective punishment and calibrated through the infamous “Red Lines” policy that allowed just enough food to keep Palestinians alive but perpetually on the brink of starvation. In 2010, Israeli commandos murdered ten unarmed activists aboard the Mavi Marmara in international waters. Last fall, millions marched across the Mediterranean in support of the current effort — the largest coordinated flotilla campaign ever: the Global Sumud Flotilla, the Thousand Madleens to Gaza, and the Freedom Flotilla.

In Italy, the Palestinian-led Freedom Flotilla Italia is playing a vital and multifaceted role. Its campaign “100 Cities, 100 Ports” departed from the port city of Taranto on May 2nd and is currently underway, combining a sailboat named the Ghassan Kanafani with a mobile caravan that travels from port to port and into inland towns and cities. The initiative is actively providing on-the-ground support for Thiago and Saif while pursuing its core objectives: keeping international awareness focused on the ongoing genocide in Gaza, amplifying Palestinian voices, building a durable solidarity network across Italy, and raising essential funds for the Al Awda Hospital in Gaza, which continues to struggle against all odds to survive and serve the sick and wounded under ongoing attacks and deteriorating conditions.

These flotillas are not provocations. They are a direct challenge to Israel’s illegal siege and the live-streamed genocide that has escalated with total impunity since October 2023. The world has watched children starved, hospitals bombed, and entire families erased — all while Western governments, including Italy and the EU, continue to arm and shield the perpetrator.

The raid in international waters reveals the sadistic arrogance of Zionism. This arrogance was further revealed last week with the disgusting images of Israeli security minister Ben Gvir’s 50th birthday party, where they celebrated with noose draped cakes glorifying colonial conquest and genocide. Israel stands exposed before the eyes of the world not as a legitimate state, but as a European settler-colonial project — an ethno-supremacist enclave built on stolen land. Palestinians are the indigenous Semitic people of the region. The European colonizers who created “Israel” are not. “Make Israel Palestine Again” is not a slogan of revenge or hatred; it is a call for historical justice and decolonization.

This reality is thrown into even sharper relief by the grotesque farce of Donald Trump’s “Board of Peace” — a gang of billionaire real-estate speculators and Zionist hucksters dreaming of turning the ruins of Gaza into a luxury “Riviera” while two million Palestinians suffer in tents, face continued bombings, and are denied basic humanitarian aid. This is gangster capitalism unleashed.

The detention of Thiago and Saif, the murder of flotilla activists in 2010, the blockade that starves a population, and the ongoing genocide all flow from the same racist, supremacist logic. Zionism cannot tolerate witnesses. It cannot tolerate solidarity. It must abduct, isolate, beat, and disappear those who dare sail toward Gaza with medicine and truth.

Yet the opposite is happening. International solidarity is exploding. From Brazil to Spain, from Italian ports to streets around the world, the demand is growing louder: Free Thiago and Saif! Free the over 10,000 Palestinian Political Prsioners! Free Marwan Barghouti, Free Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya!

The flotillas continue. The resistance at sea continues. And on land, the movement must intensify. The Zionist project — illegitimate, colonial, and increasingly exposed — is cracking under the weight of its own crimes. The world is watching. History is watching.

Free Thiago and Saif. Break the siege. End the genocide. Free Palestine.

Letter from Thiago to his daughter:

Dear Teresa,

I’m sorry for not being home with you right now.

Unfortunately your father, your mother, and so many people around the world understood the historical task that we have the responsibility to fulfil.

Today over a million children are suffering a genocide, being starved to death, being amputated without anesthesia, and suffering from horrific, hateful ideas, despite not knowing what Zionism and Imperialism is.

I’m sure you miss me too much and all the mothers and fathers of Palestinian children also miss them so much and would give anything to live a life of love, happiness, and joy that every human being deserves, independently of race, religion, ethnicity or any other characteristic.

Your world will be safer because many parents decided to give everything to build this better world for you.

I hope someday you understand that because I love you so much there was nothing more dangerous for you and for other children than living in a world that accepts genocide.

Please remember your father as the person that would sing to you and play the guitar for you to sleep. And when you grow up your mom will also tell you that your father was a revolutionary and that even when facing the most horrific people alive – Donald Trump, Benjamin Netanyahu, and Itamar Ben-Gvir – he stood firm to the belief of building a better world.

Please do not forget Palestine!

With all my love,

Thiago Ávila.

Michael Leonardi lives in Italy and can be reached at michaeleleonardi@gmail.com

Lula Blasts ‘Unjustifiable’ Israeli Detention of Gaza Flotilla Pair Amid More Reports of Torture

Brazil’s president called Israel’s continued detention of Brazilian Thiago Ávila and Spanish-Swedish national Saif Abu Keshek “a serious affront to international law.”


Global Sumud Flotilla members Saif Abu Keshek (left) and Thiago Ávila (right) are seen during a May 5, 2026 court appearance in Ashkelon, Israel.
(Photo by Ilia Yefimovich/AFP via Getty Images)

Brett Wilkins
May 05, 2026
COMMON DREAMS

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva on Tuesday condemned Israel’s twice-extended detention of two Global Sumud Flotilla members abducted last week off the coast of Greece while attempting to break the decadeslong Israeli blockade of Gaza and deliver humanitarian aid to its people amid an ongoing genocide.

“Maintaining the imprisonment of Brazilian citizen Thiago Ávila, a member of the Global Sumud Flotilla, is an unjustifiable action by the Israeli government, causes great concern, and must be condemned by all,” Lula said on X.


“The detention of the flotilla activists in international waters had already represented a serious affront to international law,” he added. “For this reason, our government, together with that of Spain, which also had a citizen detained, demands that they receive full guarantees of safety and be immediately released.”



Spain’s government has also condemned Israel’s capture of Abu Keshek and demanded his immediate release, and like Lula, called the detention illegal because it occurred in international waters. Abu Keshek is also a citizen of Sweden, which has not condemned his detention—or even mentioned him by name—but has asked that “the rights of any Swedish citizens will be respected.”

Adalah Legal Center, the Palestinian group in Israel representing Ávila and Abu Keshek, said Tuesday that the Ashkelon Magistrates’ Court approved Israel’s request to extend the pair’s detention through May 10. This, after the court on Sunday prolonged their detention by two days.

“The court’s decision to extend the detention of humanitarian activists abducted in international waters amounts to judicial validation of the state’s lawlessness,” Adalah assertedad, vowing to appeal the decision, which the group said was based on “secret evidence.”

Adalah noted that “because the activists were abducted over 1,000 kilometers away from Gaza and are not Israeli citizens, Israeli domestic law does not apply to them.”

Israel contends that it is enforcing a lawful naval blockade of Gaza Strip, and that under the laws of naval warfare, that blockade can be enforced not only in its territorial waters, but also on the high seas.

Adalah said, “Crucially, the court granted the full six-day extension requested by the state without imposing any limitations or judicial constraints on the interrogation period,” adding that the stated purpose of their continued detention is further interrogation.

“Ávila reported being subjected to repeated interrogations lasting up to eight hours,” the group reported. “Interrogators have explicitly threatened him, stating he would either be ‘killed’ or ‘spend 100 years in jail.’”

“Both activists remain in total isolation, subjected to 24/7 high-intensity lighting in their cells, and kept blindfolded whenever they are moved, including during medical examinations,” Adalah said, accusing interrogators of “trying all the time to connect the humanitarian aid with Hamas to present it as a service to Hamas.”

Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs claims that both men were affiliated with the Popular Conference for Palestinians Abroad, which the US government accuses of “clandestinely acting on behalf of” Hamas, the militant Palestinian resistance group that led the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.

Still, no charges have been filed against the pair, who Adalah said have been on hunger strike since April 30 in protest of their detention.

Abu Keshek and Ávila were among the more than 170 Global Sumud Flotilla members intercepted and seized last week in international waters 45 nautical miles west of the Greek island Kythira and 600 nautical miles from Gaza in what many critics have called an act of piracy.

All of the other flotilla members have been released. Many said they brutally abused by their Israeli captors, who threatened to kill them. The Washington Post reported 34 people—including citizens of Australia, Colombia, Italy, Ukraine, and the United States—required medical attention for broken ribs, noses, and other injuries. Detained activists also said they were denied food and water, and were forced to sleep on deliberately flooded floors. Both Abu Keshek and Ávila had visible facial injuries during their first court appearances.

In a statement issued on Monday, Global Sumud Flotilla said Abu Keshek and Ávila “are being subjected to systemic psychological torture and explicit threats to the lives of their families.”



The statement also noted the growing calls for their release from advocacy organizations and governments.

“We urge the international community and their representatives to immediately take action for the safety and freedom of Saif and Thiago, the freedom of all Palestinian hostages, and the end of Israel’s illegal siege of Gaza and its genocide,” Global Sumud added.

American journalist Alex Colston, who was aboard the flotilla on assignment for Zeteo, said he was beaten by his captors, and corroborated accounts of broken bones, concussion symptoms, and other signs of abuse inflicted by Israeli forces on flotilla members, as well as death threats, property theft, and other mistreatment.

Hannah Smith, a representative of the flotilla’s public affairs team who was also aboard one of the vessels, told Democracy Now! on Monday that, after intercepting the boats, Israeli forces “pointed guns at us. They had lasers pointed at us. We had our hands in the air. They threatened lethal force.”



“Many people were subject to aggressive physical force,” she said. “We were denied access to adequate water. We were denied access to sanitary supplies.”

Smith continued:
The nights were extremely cold. People’s jackets were stolen. When I advocated for one of the participants, who’s a doctor, who was pacing for two hours trying to stay warm—she had a short-sleeve shirt in like 50-degree weather that was cold and damp. When I advocated for blankets, they flooded the sleeping area. And then we had a dozen people pacing, trying to stay warm, trying not to get hypothermia.

When we nonviolently resisted, many people were beat. Many people were dragged. I was held in a stress position for many hours... I heard people screaming. I heard people being dragged around. And it was absolutely horrifying.

The reports of torture and other abuse are consistent with Israeli forces’ brutal treatment of members of past Gaza flotillas, including Ávila, who has taken part in at least three such missions. Victims have included Swedish climate campaigner Greta Thunberg, who was allegedly dragged, beaten, and made to kiss an Israeli flag in which she was allegedly wrapped after Israeli forces intercepted last October’s Global Sumud mission.

It’s not just activists who reported Israeli brutality. Journalist Noa Avishag Schnal—who was covering last October’s flotilla—described rape threats and being “hung from the metal shackles on my wrists and ankles and beaten in the stomach, back, face, ear, and skull by a group of men and women guards, one of whom sat on my neck and face, blocking my airways.”

In 2010, Israeli forces raided one of the first Freedom Flotilla Coalition convoys carrying humanitarian aid intended for Gaza, which Israel blockaded three years earlier. The Israeli attackers killed nine volunteers aboard the MV Mavi Marmara, including Turkish-American teenager Furkan Doğan.

In a letter to his daughter dictated to his lawyer from prison, Ávila said, “I’m sorry for not being home with you right now.”

“Today over a million children are suffering a genocide, being starved to death, being amputated without anesthesia, and suffering from horrific, hateful ideas, despite not knowing what Zionism and Imperialism is,” he continued.

More than 250,000 Palestinians have been killed or wounded by Israeli forces in Gaza since October 2023. Around 2 million others have been forcibly displaced, starved, or sickened. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant are wanted by the International Criminal Court for alleged crimes against humanity and war crimes in Gaza, and Israel is facing an International Court of Justice genocide case filed by South Africa and formally supported by numerous nations, including Brazil and Spain.

“Your world will be safer because many parents decided to give everything to build this better world for you,” Ávila added. “I hope someday you understand that because I love you so much there was nothing more dangerous for you and for other children than living in a world that accepts genocide.”

Tlaib Leads Dems Decrying Trump Admin Failure to Protect US Citizens Abducted From Gaza Flotilla

Israeli forces intercepted and detained at least 175 people off the coast of Greece, including 14 Americans, some of whom reportedly suffered broken bones and other injuries.


US Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) speaks at a Jewish-led pro-Palesine demonstration outside the Capitol in Washington DC, on October 18, 2023.
(Photo by Celal Gunes/Anadolu via Getty Images)

Brett Wilkins
May 05, 2026
COMMON DREAMS

Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib of Michigan and 18 other House Democrats on Tuesday condemned the US State Department’s failure to protect 14 Americans aboard the latest humanitarian aid convoy seized by Israeli forces en route to Gaza, as well as the agency’s threat to punish US participants in the flotilla.

“On Wednesday April 29, 2026, Israeli military forces illegally intercepted and attacked nearly two dozen civilian vessels in international waters and abducted at least 175 unarmed humanitarians, journalists, and solidarity activists taking part in the Global Sumud Flotilla, a brave effort to end the Israeli government’s ongoing starvation blockade of Gaza and deliver essential food and medical aid, establish a humanitarian corridor, and save lives,” the lawmakers wrote in a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

Lula Blasts ‘Unjustifiable’ Israeli Detention of Gaza Flotilla Pair Amid More Reports of Torture

“This attack on a civilian humanitarian mission involving participants from over 55 countries, including the United States, conducted an unprecedented 600 miles into international waters, is a grave violation of international law,” the letter states. “It demands action and accountability from the United States to protect abducted US citizens, to allow the free flow of humanitarian aid to Palestinians in Gaza enduring forced starvation, and an end to the decades of impunity that enable these crimes.”



The lawmakers continued:
We are outraged that instead of speaking out and taking action to ensure the safety and immediate release of the at least 14 US citizens illegally abducted by the Israeli military, the Department of State went out of its way to issue a formal condemnation of their humanitarian efforts, smearing them with libelous falsehoods that expose them to greater danger and violence and threatening allied countries who allow port access to this humanitarian mission. This is an abdication of your duty to protect the safety of all Americans and is an Orwellian distortion where providing food to the hungry is terror and forced starvation is peace.

While we are relieved by reporting that most abducted flotilla passengers have now been released and will not be forced to suffer the abuse and inhumane conditions endured for days by participants of the previous flotilla illegally detained in Israeli prison, we are disturbed by reports that abductees were violently abused while held on Israeli vessels and that multiple US citizens have been hospitalized following their release. After all this, it is extremely alarming that US participants in the flotilla may face additional unjust persecution upon their return home.

Numerous people aboard the flotilla reported being brutally beaten by their captors, with some allegedly suffering broken ribs, noses, and other injuries, some of which reportedly required hospitalization.

Instead of assisting US victims, State Department spokesperson Thomas Piggott said his agency “will explore using available tools to impose consequences on those who provide support to this pro-Hamas flotilla.”

The lawmakers’ letter calls on Rubio and the Trump administration “to rescind these threats against flotilla participants, their supporters, and states that open their ports to this humanitarian mission and urge you to use your immense leverage to secure the freedom of all passengers who continue to be illegally detained.”

“Above all else, we urge you to address the issue at the root of this voyage: the brutal Israeli blockade and genocide of the Palestinian people in Gaza,” the Democrats said.

“The ongoing forced starvation of the Palestinian population in Gaza is a direct result of the Israeli government’s siege and blockade of the territory, which continues to impede the entry of food and humanitarian aid in flagrant violation of legally binding orders from the International Court of Justice,” they continued.

“Likewise, the United Nations Independent International Commission of Inquiry has determined that the Israeli government is committing the crime of genocide in Gaza and that this blockade is deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about the physical destruction of the Palestinian people in whole or in part,” the letter notes.

“While the Trump administration fails to use its immense leverage to end this blockade and fulfill the United States’ binding legal obligations under the Genocide Convention, the activists on board the flotilla are an example of profound solidarity and humanitarianism,” the lawmakers added. “Undeterred by this latest attack, additional flotilla ships continue their mission to deliver aid to Gaza. We call on you to deter any further hostile actions against the flotilla and ensure the successful completion of its humanitarian mission.”

Earlier Tuesday, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva condemned Israel’s twice-extended detention of two Global Sumud Flotilla members—Thiago Ávila of Brazil and Spanish-Swedish national Saif Abu Keshek—who Israeli authorities claim without providing evidence are linked to the Palestinian militant resistance group Hamas. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has also condemned the activists’ abduction and demanded their release, as have numerous humanitarian groups and advocates around the world.

In addition to Tlaib—the only Palestinian American member of Congress—the letter was signed by Reps. Mark Pocan (Wis.), Delia Ramirez (Ill.), Ro Khanna (Calif.), Jesús “Chuy” García (Ill.), André Carson (Ind.), Jim McGovern (Mass.), Pramila Jayapal (Wash.), Greg Casar (Texas), Henry “Hank” Johnson (Ga.), Nydia Velásquez (NY), Ayanna Pressley (Mass.), Maxine Dexter (Ore.), Summer Lee (Pa.), Ilhan Omar (Minn.), Bonnie Watson Coleman (NJ), Al Green (Texas), Lateefah Simon (Calif.), and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY).