Welcome to +972’s Sunday Recap!
Over 11,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, have disappeared in Gaza since October 7, 2023. Ahmed Ahmed and Ahmed Alsammak reported on the search for Gaza’s missing, speaking to relatives who don’t know if they’re dead or alive, under rubble or in prison.
Last Sunday, Israeli forces stormed and seized multi-story homes of two Palestinian families in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Batan Al-Hawa; within hours, Israeli settlers had erected barriers and placed flags on a rooftop. Dikla Taylor-Sheinman and Charlotte Ritz-Jack wrote about the mass evictions that loom over this Palestinian neighborhood, with 700 more residents targeted.
Nissi Peli detailed how a sticker campaign helped fuel Israel’s war machine over the past two years: from lampposts to café windows, portraits of fallen soldiers have saturated public space in Israel, binding personal loss to a drive for “total victory” in Gaza.
Naftali Bennett wants to be Israel’s next prime minister — and his first stop was to incite against Bedouin citizens. By taking aim at Palestinian communities in Israel’s south, Samah Salaime argued (originally published on Local Call), Bennett proves he offers little change from the most racist figures in the current government.
And Local Call’s Oren Ziv gathered 14 testimonies for a photo essay about the lives and bodies forever scarred by Israeli state-backed settler violence. Many of the victims — mostly Palestinians, but also Israeli activists — were beaten by masked settlers wielding clubs, while others were shot, stoned, or attacked in their homes or fields, and lucky if they escaped with only minor wounds.
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