The way forward can feel uncertain and even scary, particularly when the stakes are so high. But we cannot give up, as people in Gaza and the rest of Palestine have also refused to give up.
The way forward can feel uncertain and even scary, particularly when the stakes are so high. But we cannot give up, as people in Gaza and the rest of Palestine have also refused to give up.
Last night, Israel intercepted the Gaza Sumud Flotilla—the largest flotilla ever to attempt breaking the nearly two-decade siege, with 41 boats supported by solidarity teams worldwide. Despite Israel seizing all vessels, at least one ship successfully broke through the naval blockade into Gaza's territorial waters, revealing another crack in the colony's claim to impenetrability.
Wafa Al-Udaini, 39, wrote for The Guardian and mentored young Palestinian journalists. An Israeli airstrike on her home killed her alongside her husband and two children on September 29, 2024. Just one week before her death, she wrote - "There is no such thing as protective attire for journalists in Gaza." Her last message read, "I am fine, patient and steadfast."
Israeli forces killed 416 Palestinians between September 10 and 17, bringing total fatalities since October 2023 to 65,062, with 165,697 injured—figures universally recognized as undercounts, with some scholars estimating closer to 680,000 deaths—while damaging 11 UNRWA shelters and forcing 125,600 people to flee in just one week.
As an organization that has rejected chasing grants from large foundations and institutions, the Good Shepherd Collective has been fully reliant on the movement to finance the work in Palestine. We're asking folks to consider becoming monthly contributions to advance the work in Palestine.
Twenty-nine settler attacks were documented this week, injuring 24 Palestinians and damaging property, including 30 trees, 12 vehicles, four houses, and various infrastructure. In Khallet Addaba', settlers attacked residents with knife-fitted sticks, injuring 14 Palestinians, including seven children. In Hebron, armed settlers forced a Palestinian family from their vehicle at gunpoint, assaulting them and preventing medical teams from reaching them for four hours.
Today, the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club announced that the total number of known Palestinian prisoners has risen to 11,100. This includes 3,577 administrative detainees, who are held indefinitely and without charge, 2,662 detainees classified as “unlawful combatants”, and 400 children. I note these are the total number of known prisoners because it is not known how many Palestinians from Gaza have been abducted and continue to be held in Israeli army camps.
As Gaza's humanitarian crisis escalates with rising starvation deaths, Palestinian clergy refuse evacuation orders, choosing to remain with displaced families—inspiring us to actively interrupt genocide rather than watch silently.
Israeli forces have displaced 1,527 Palestinians and demolished 1,164 structures across the West Bank and East Jerusalem in the first eight months of 2025, maintaining a relentless pace of dispossession that targets homes, schools, and water infrastructure. From forced self-demolitions in Silwan where families must pay to destroy their own homes, to the destruction of agricultural facilities and animal shelters in Bedouin communities, the data reveals how bureaucratic violence and permit denials function as tools of ethnic cleansing. With 84 schools facing demolition orders and 73 communities lacking water networks, Israel's systematic erasure of Palestinian life continues to clear ground for exclusive Jewish settlement expansion.
TThirty years after the Oslo Accords were signed with promises of peace and Palestinian statehood, the reality on the ground tells a starkly different story. What was sold to the world as a historic breakthrough has functioned as one of the most effective tools for advancing Zionist colonization while maintaining a veneer of legitimacy through endless negotiations.
The pace of demolitions in 2025 remains higher than historical averages, despite the relative downward trend in recent months. With 333 operations displacing 1,419 people in just 210 days, projections indicate 579 total incidents affecting 2,466 people by year's end. This would make 2025 the second-worst year since 2009, surpassed only by 4,293 displacements in 2024.
Today I hosted friends visiting Palestine for the first time, showing them Bethlehem's most important sites in just a few hours. We visited the apartheid wall, checkpoint 300, Aida refugee camp, and the old city, while I shared both historical context and my personal journey of transformation. Over the years, the consistent support of friends, activists, and everyday people has made our critical work possible—supporting local communities, advising international organizing efforts, conducting research, and organizing campaigns.
Israel's parliament voted Wednesday on a symbolic motion calling for West Bank annexation, drawing sharp Palestinian condemnation. The nonbinding proposal, passing 71-13.
Comparing yearly totals, 2024's catastrophic 4,293 displaced Palestinians dwarfs the 593 displaced in 2010—a seven-fold increase. The 2025 projection of 2,502 displaced continues this elevated baseline of violence, cementing displacement at historically unprecedented levels.
Since the mid-March collapse of Gaza’s ceasefire, Israel’s assault has killed or injured tens of thousands, crushed what remains of vital infrastructure, and forced more than 640,000 people into an ever-shrinking patchwork of so-called ‘safe zones.’ Even ‘humanitarian aid’ distribution sites and food lines have been made fatal, prompting UN calls for an independent inquiry. Meanwhile, on the other side of the Green Line, the Israeli cabinet rubber-stamped 22 new settlements—and legalised nine outposts—while bulldozers resumed razing homes in Nur Shams refugee camp, Tulkarm. Israel’s bombardment of Gaza and its acceleration of land grabs in the West Bank reveal a single, coordinated strategy of expulsion and enclosure that is reshaping Palestinian life from river to sea.
With the long history of international aid doing more to disrupt Palestinian organizing than support it, the Good Shepherd Collective relies on people like you—folks willing to make meaningful personal sacrifices—to keep this critical work moving forward in Palestine
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