Category World News

In what a US-based organization called an “abduction,” British political commentator and journalist Sami Hamdi has been detained by federal authorities in the country.

Hamdi’s arrest was attributed to his criticism of Israel’s war on Gaza, according to the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR).

Hamdi, a frequent critic of US and Israeli policy, was scheduled to address a CAIR gala in Sacramento on Saturday night and speak at a subsequent CAIR event in Florida prior to his arrest by the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency.

According to CAIR, he was stopped at the airport as a result of a coordinated “far-right, Israel First” campaign.

It stated in a statement that “our nation must stop abducting Israel First bigots who are unhinged.” It must end because this is an Israel-first policy, not an America-first policy.

Friends of Hamdi called his arrest “a deeply troubling precedent for the freedom of expression and the safety of British citizens abroad” in a statement seen by Al Jazeera.

The United Kingdom Foreign Office was asked to “demand urgent clarification from the US authorities regarding the grounds for Mr. Hamdi’s detention.”

He is still being held in the US and hasn’t been deported, according to Al Jazeera.

A British citizen’s arrest for expressing political views is a dangerous precedent, according to the statement.

Mohamed El-Hachmi Hamdi, Hamdi’s father, claimed in a post on X that his son “has no affiliation” with any political or religious organization.

His position on Palestine is not in line with any faction there, but rather with the people’s right to peace, freedom, and dignity. He continued, “Quite simply, he is one of the young dreamers of this generation who longs for a world with more compassion, justice, and solidarity.”

Sami Hamdi, a British Muslim journalist and political commentator, was abducted by ICE agents at San Francisco Airport earlier this morning, allegedly as a result of his outcry against the Israeli government during his ongoing speaking tour.

We can confirm that Mr. Hamdi has not been… https://t.co/dfcVGvz6UX

“Proud Islamophobe”

Hamdi’s detention was confirmed on Sunday by DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin, who asserted that there was no proof that he posed a threat to national security. She wrote on X that “This individual’s visa was suspended and he is currently in ICE custody.”

Hamdi has frequently criticized Western governments for directly challenging arms transfers and diplomatic cover for Israeli war crimes, accusing US politicians of actively encouraging Israel’s genocide in Gaza.

His arrest is one more example of US authorities thwarting access for Palestinian and pro-Palestine voices.

Awdah Hathaleen and his cousin Eid Hathaleen, two Palestinian men, were denied entry to the same airport in June and deported to Qatar. Awdah was reportedly killed by an Israeli settler in the West Bank’s occupied West Bank a few weeks later.

Laura Loomer, a far-right activist and ally of US President Donald Trump, was immediately applauded online for playing a role in Hamdi’s detention after she publicly described herself as a “proud Islamophobe” and “white advocate.”

She falsely described him as a “supporter of HAMAS and the Muslim Brotherhood,” saying “you’re lucky his only fate is being arrested and deported.”

Loomer has previously advanced conspiracies, including those that claim the September 11 attacks were inside the US.

Loomer and others attributed the RAIR Foundation, a pro-Israel pressure organization whose stated goal is to fight “Islamic supremacy,” to the rise in Hamdi. RAIR demanded Hamdi’s removal from the country a day after he was accused of trying to “extend a foreign political network hostile to American interests.”

Shaun Maguire, a partner at the tech investment firm Sequoia and a vocal supporter of Israel, claimed on Sunday that Hamdi had tried to hire him through an AI-generated email campaign, claiming that “there are jihadists in America whose full time job is to silence us.”

The opposite is true, according to Hamdi’s supporters and civil rights advocates, and this detention is yet another instance of political retaliation against Israel critics, which is carried out at the border before even one word is uttered in the media.

As thousands of tonnes of unexploded Israeli bombs threaten lives across the Gaza Strip, the city’s mayor claims that Israeli restrictions on the entry of heavy machinery are hampered by Israeli restrictions on debris removal and reconstruction of vital infrastructure.

Mayor Yahya al-Sarraj stated in a news conference on Sunday that Gaza City needs at least 250 heavy trucks and 1, 000 tons of cement to maintain water networks and build wells.

Only six trucks, according to Al Jazeera’s Hind Khoudary, who was reporting from Gaza’s Az-Zawayda region.

Palestinians are still buried beneath the rubble, with at least 9, 000 of them. Instead of assisting Palestinians in finding their loved ones who are still buried beneath rubble, the new equipment is being prioritized for the recovery of the remains of Israeli prisoners.

According to Khoudary, “Palestinians know the ceasefire won’t change until the bodies of all the Israeli prisoners are brought back.”

Red Cross vehicles were seen arriving after holding meetings with Hamas’s armed wing, the Qassam Brigades, to alert them to an Israeli prisoner’s location in southern Rafah.

The Red Cross and Egyptian teams have been permitted to travel beyond the “yellow line,” which allows Israel to control 58 percent of the besieged enclave, according to a spokesperson for the Israeli government, to search for captives’ remains.

Nour Odeh, a journalist from Amman, reported for Al Jazeera that Israel had been insisting for two weeks that Hamas had located all of the bodies of the captives.

Israel has now allowed Egyptian teams and heavy machinery to enter the Gaza Strip to assist in the enormous task of removing debris, trying to reach the tunnels, or underneath the homes or structures that the captives were held in and killed in, she said.

Odeh added that Hamas had been unable to access a tunnel for two weeks as a result of Israeli bombing-related damage. She remarked that the Red Cross and Hamas have been given the opportunity to assist in the discovery of potential burial sites beneath the rubble and that “that change of policy is coming without explanation from Israel.”

Netanyahu: “We have control over Gaza.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated his political authority at home on Sunday, claiming that Israel controls how foreign forces might enter Gaza.

We have made it clear to international forces that Israel will decide which forces are against our will, and that is how we act and will continue to do so,” he said. The United States accepts this, as its most senior representatives have recently said.

Odeh explained that Netanyahu’s statements are intended to reassure Israel’s far-right base, who believes he’s no longer in charge of the affairs.

According to her, Israeli soldiers and army leaders don’t appear to be the ones currently in charge of the ceasefire, with Washington “demanding that Israel notify it of any attack that Israel might be planning to conduct inside Gaza.”

Odeh cited a wider plan to maintain political support at home as evidenced by Israel’s insistence on controlling which foreign actors operate in Gaza in addition to the country’s limited resources for reconstruction.

A threat from unexploded bombs

Unexploded ordnance poses additional challenges for reconstruction in Gaza. Gaza is “essentially one giant city” where every inch of it has been struck by explosives, according to Nicholas Torbet, Middle East director at HALO Trust in the United Kingdom.

Some munitions are intended to linger, but he told Al Jazeera, “Ordnance that is expected to explode upon impact hasn’t.”

According to Torbet, removing explosives stifle the reconstruction process. Instead of permanently closing off large areas, his teams intend to work directly within communities to safely remove bombs. He remarked that “the best way to dispose of a bomb is to use a small amount of explosives to blow it up.”

Torbet added that progress is being made and that the required equipment is starting to be moved forward. It can be moved by hand or by small vehicles.

Gaza is now rife with deadly remnants from Israeli bombings because of the scale of the debris dropped.

According to Mahmoud Basal, a Palestinian Civil Defense spokesperson, Israel dropped at least 200 000 tonnes of explosives on the territory, with roughly 70 000 tonnes failing to detonate.

Particularly vulnerable children have been, frequently mistaken for toys, with bombs. Yahya Shorbasi and his sister Nabila, both 7, were playing outside when they discovered what appeared to be a toy, according to Ibrahim al-Khalili of Al Jazeera.

They discovered a typical child’s toy, not a typical one. It was being held by the girl. The boy then began to use a coin to tap it before taking it. We allored an explosion all at once. Their mother Latifa Shorbasi reported to Al Jazeera, “It went off in their hands.”

While Nabila is still receiving medical attention, Yahya’s right arm required an amputation.

The situation, according to Dr. Harriet, an emergency physician at al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, is “a public health catastrophe waiting to happen.” She claimed that children are being harmed by live explosives, which appear to be harmless, like toys, cans, and other debris.

According to Luke David Irving, head of the UN Mine Action Service, 328 people have died or been injured by unexploded weapons since October 2023.

Over the course of Gaza, tens of thousands of tonnes of bombs, including landmines, mortar rounds, and large bombs designed to flatten concrete structures, are still buried. According to Basal, it could take years and be worth millions of dollars to clear the explosives.