Welcome to Andy Worthington

Three weeks into the ceasefire in Gaza, which is still in place, even though Israel switches it on and off at will, and last night undertook unforgivable aerial bombardments killing over a hundred civilians, I examine the short-term and long-term problems with Donald Trump’s “Peace Plan.” Short-term problems include the delivery of humanitarian aid, which, although increasing, is still failing to meet the requirements in the ceasefire deal, while the long-term problems involve the future governance of Gaza. I look at the particularly poisonous impact of the refusal, by Israel and its supporters in the west, to differentiate between Hamas as the legitimate administrative government in Gaza, and its military wing, which, for two years, has underpinned its entire genocidal assault on a trapped civilian population, and reflect on how Hamas cannot be expected to disarm, or even to relinquish power, until a political solution is in place that involves Israel’s military withdrawal and Palestinian self-determination. I also look at how Trump’s proposal for an “International Stabilization Force” will fail without a political solution, as recently confirmed by King Abdullah of Jordan, and assess alarming indications that the US’s primary interest, as suggested by Trump in February, is not in securing a meaningful political settlement, but in redeveloping Gaza as a real estate project.

My report about a devastating advisory opinion issued yesterday by the International Court of Justice (the UN’s principal judicial organ, sometime known as the World Court) regarding Israel’s persistent policies, over the last two years, of depriving the Palestinians of the Gaza Strip of all essential supplies to ensure their survival, despite the fact that they are required to do so as the occupying Power. Unanimously, the Court ruled that the State of Israel was required “to ensure that the population of the Occupied Palestinian Territory has the essential supplies of daily life, including food, water, clothing, bedding, shelter, fuel, medical supplies and services” — “from all of which”, as I explain, “despite persistent and risible protestations to the contrary by senior Israeli officials”, they “have been horrendously deprived, though various ‘sieges’ on all essential supplies, for most of the last two years.” The Court had been specifically asked to rule on Israel’s obligations towards the United Nations and its agencies, and, specifically, the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), which Israel has cynically sought to portray as having been “appropriated by Hamas”, to disguise its true aims: doing away with the organization that does more than any other to feed and educate Palestinians, and to provide them with medical supplies, as well as keeping alive the right of those exiled to return to their homeland. In a crucial passage, the Court pointed out that, despite Israel’s claims, it “has not substantiated its allegations that a significant part of UNRWA employees ‘are members of Hamas . . . or other terrorist factions.’” The Court also ran through the harrowing history of Israel’s ongoing efforts to starve the Palestinians, and to cut them off from all of the other supplies necessary for their survival, and it is to be hoped that the international community, and, particularly, the countries of the west, recognize how important it is to continue exerting meaningful pressure on Israel to stop blocking the delivery of humanitarian aid at the scale needed, as stipulated in Donald Trump’s “Peace Plan”, which came into effect two weeks ago.

My analysis of the momentous events of the last few days, as a ceasefire has begun in Gaza, and the last remaining living Israeli hostages have been freed in exchange for 1,968 Palestinians, including 1,718 hostages seized in Gaza since October 7, 2023, and held without charge or trial. I condemn the dehumanization of the Palestinians in most of the western media, in contrast to the attention paid to the Israelis, especially as so many of the Palestinians had so evidently been severely mistreated, and I point out how the media’s bias has prevented it from noting that 55 of those freed were healthcare workers, seized in the unforgivable war on Gaza’s hospitals that Israel has been waging relentlessly for the last two years. I also puncture the balloon of Donald Trump’s pomposity, noting that, although he pushed for the ceasefire deal, he has not put forward a credible plan for post-genocide Gaza beyond an unacceptable suggestion that its governance would be overseen by colonial overlords. I insist that Palestinians must be allowed to decide their own future, as part of a necessary process of securing their independence, in line with the recent recognition of the existence of the State of Palestine by numerous western countries. What is needed most urgently, as Israel is already trying to undermine the ceasefire deal, is for western countries and Arab nations to insist on being allowed to begin undertaking massive debris-clearing and reconstruction operations in Gaza, alongside a massive increase in humanitarian aid, as winter creeps in on a population that is still as deprived of all of the basic necessities of life as it was before Trump began hogging the spotlight.

Photos from, and my report about the 33rd consecutive coordinated monthly global vigils for the closure of the “war on terror” prison at Guantánamo Bay, which took place across the US, in Washington, D.C., New York, San Francisco, Portland, Detroit and Los Angeles, and in London, Brussels, Mexico City and Belgrade on October 1, 2025, with Cobleskill, NY joining on October 4. I also provide commentary and analysis regarding Donald Trump’s use of Guantánamo in the “war on migrants” that he initiated when he took office in January, which, after an initial flurry of media interest, has largely fallen off the radar as much as the “war on terror” prison in recent months. This is in spite of the fact that, as was reported in July, Trump was using Guantánamo to hold 26 migrants (out of 72 held at the time) from a variety of countries, including the UK, who allegedly had criminal records, raising fears that they might be deported to third countries, as has been happening sporadically but alarmingly over the last eight months. That doesn’t seem to have happened, although reports last week indicated that there are currently no migrants left at Guantánamo at all. However, as observers struggle to keep up with Trump’s manifold crimes, it is unclear exactly what happened to these men, and to dozens of others held over the summer, which is clearly a collective abdication of media responsibility.

My tentatively optimistic response to the news that the first phase of the Gaza “Peace Plan” that Donald Trump first announced eleven days ago has been agreed by the Israeli government and Palestinian negotiators, promising an enduring ceasefire in return for the freeing of the remaining hostages in Gaza (and with Palestinian prisoners and hostages also freed), and with humanitarian aid once more allowed into Gaza in significant quantities. Although Palestinian negotiators recognize that it is a huge gamble to trust Trump, reports suggest that they saw no other viable route forward to avoid the otherwise endless US-backed Israeli genocide. Time will tell if they are correct or not, but in the meantime, having wisely insisted that all discussions about disarming and about the post-genocide governance of Gaza will be addressed in future negotiations, all eyes are currently on Gaza, to see if the killing will stop, if humanitarian aid at scale will be allowed in, and, most particularly, if, when the hostages are freed, Israel can, as I describe it, “constrain its voracious genocidal lust by ceasing its military attacks”, and, if not, if the US is prepared to enforce its compliance.

Marking the unforgivable second anniversary of Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza, I reflect on how this unparalleled atrocity has been allowed to happen — through a rewriting of history, based on the false suggestion that the attacks on southern Israel on October 7, 2023 occurred in a vacuum, and not as a response to 75 years of oppression, apartheid and murder. I also reflect on the unprecedented complicity of the west and the profiteering of arms companies and tech companies, and, above all, on the particularly malignant combination of victimhood and supremacism within Israel itself, which, as I describe it, “are two of the most demonstrable failures of the human imagination that it is possible to act upon.” I also point out that the only way for Israelis to secure the safety that they crave “is to abandon their supremacism and to find a way to live in peace with the Palestinians, most obviously through the compromise of returning to them all of the land that they have been illegally occupying” since 1967, as the International Court of Justice confirmed in a landmark opinion last July that Israel and the rest of the world have conspicuously ignored.

Promoting my new online single ‘O Palestine’, a collaboration with my son Tyler (beatboxer The Wiz-RD) on which I play all the instruments — except for the beatboxing. Recorded with the great Charlie Hart, I’m releasing it as the clock ticks inexorably towards the unforgivable second anniversary of Israel’s genocide in Gaza, in two days’ time, and as Benjamin Netanyahu seems to be doing all in his power to wreck the “Peace Plan” pushed by Donald Trump. I hope you appreciate this slice of pop reggae protest music, with all the proceeds going to a worthy cause — the Sameer Project, set up by Palestinians living in the global diaspora, and facilitated by brave Palestinians on the ground in Gaza itself, who source and distribute aid to displaced families all over the Gaza Strip, who are skilled at locating supplies despite the severity of Israel’s ongoing siege, and who “provide support in the form of shelter, medication and treatment, food, water, diapers, formula, and more.”

My analysis of the 20-point Gaza “Peace Plan” unveiled yesterday by Donald Trump in the presence of Benjamin Netanyahu, who claimed to accept it. While many world leaders have responded to it positively, and Hamas’ leadership is currently studying it, it is clearly fraught with profound problems and unanswered questions despite seeming to promise an end to hostilities, and the resumption of the delivery of humanitarian aid at scale. Anyone with any fundamental decency wants the killing to stop, but the plan, with its demand for the immediate release of all the hostages, would remove Hamas’ sole bargaining chip, allowing Netanyahu to resume hostilities having placated his fiercest internal critics — the families of the remaining hostages. Also of great concern is the intention to initiate the “temporary transitional governance” of Gaza by “a technocratic, apolitical Palestinian committee”, because that would, in turn, be overseen by “a new international transitional body, the ‘Board of Peace’”, chaired by Trump, and including the former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, widely and understandably hated in the Middle East for his role in facilitating the Iraq War. As if this proposal for a neo-colonial takeover of Gaza isn’t revolting enough, Hamas also faces demands to disarm completely, even though that would provide the Palestinians with no defence if Israel were to break the terms of the deal, which, on past experience, seems likely, and is especially worrying because, immediately after agreeing to the plan, Netanyahu posted a video telling his Israeli audience that there was “no way” that the IDF was leaving Gaza, pouring scorn on any future hopes for a Palestinian state, and seemingly relishing the continuation of Israel’s genocidal assault on Gaza. As I state in the article, “Although everyone with a heart aches for an end to the killing, the timing of the plan, above all, reeks of desperate efforts by Israel and the US to stem the increasing tide of high-profile western support for Palestine”, and is “too high a price to pay for a people whose right to independence and self-governance on their own land, after nearly 80 years of barbaric oppression, apartheid and slaughter ought to be non-negotiable”, and I’d be surprised if Hamas accepts it.

My analysis of Israel’s increasing international isolation, as a number of western countries, including the UK, Canada, Australia, Portugal and France, have finally recognized the State of Palestine, as pressure mounts on FIFA to ban Israel from international football, and as calls also increase for it to be banned from the Eurovision Song Contest. In addition, just two days ago, Benjamin Netanyahu also faced an almost total walkout when he visited the US to address the UN General Assembly. Although the respected Middle East commentator Mouin Rabbani was undoubtedly correct to state that the actions these governments chose to take in recognizing the State of Palestine “were the least consequential available”, I believe it should not be underestimated, given the deeply embedded nature of Israeli influence in these countries, how even the “least consequential” actions will have led to a tsunami of criticism behind closed doors, as they break with what, to date, has been a rigorous insistence by Israel’s supporters that its actions must never be meaningfully criticized or challenged. None of the above will bring to an end Israel’s ongoing and ever more deranged genocidal actions in Gaza, for which, above all, arms bans and the imposition of punishing economic sanctions are needed, but, as I state, “every blow delivered may bring Israel’s collapse closer”, and in the meantime, it’s important to “recognize that it is people power that has been pushing western leaders to act, and to move, however slowly, away from their previously unbreakable support for Israel”, and this must “reinforce our determination to keep pushing for an end to the genocide, for meaningful accountability, and for Israel to be shunned until some just resolution is delivered for the Palestinian people.”

My analysis of the devastating new report by the UN’s Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel, establishing that Israel is engaged in a genocide in the Gaza Strip, and has been for the last 23 months. Although the report is significant, and a worthy product of the human rights mechanisms that are at the heart of one of the UN’s key founding purposes, to “maintain international peace and security”, I explain how, sadly, the lack of any enforcement mechanisms, coupled with the permanent veto that the alleged victors of the Second World War — the US, the UK, France, Russia and China — granted themselves when the UN Security Council was established, has meant that Israel, protected in particular by the US, has evaded responsibility for its actions since the blood-soaked founding of the state in 1948, which I describe as “a dark shadow of impunity haunting the UN throughout almost the whole of its existence.” As I discuss, the lack of any enforcement mechanism to compel countries to act is particularly dispiriting right now, as Israel, “ever more unhinged and genocidally belligerent”, is “engaged in the planned erasure of Gaza City, the last great population centre of the Gaza Strip, where around half of the estimated two million survivors of the genocide to date were still living until Israel issued mass evacuation orders and began systematically destroying entire neighbourhoods, home after home, apartment block after apartment block, with barely any pretence anymore of military necessity.”