Palestinian man detained at Houston airport for 9 days: report
According to the Houston chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, Muhanad J. M. Alshrouf entered the United States legally on July 5 after obtaining a valid immigrant visa and has been held in a secondary screening room at the airport ever since. Alshrouf came to the U.S. to visit his father, who is a citizen. Per a press release, he has been held without access to legal counsel or a change of clothes since arriving at the airport earlier this month.
'This young man legally entered the country with a U.S. immigrant visa, having passed every background check and security clearance. Yet he has been held in a secondary screening room for more than a week without due process or basic human compassion,' John T. Floyd, a board member of CAIR-Texas Houston and civil rights attorney, said in a statement.
Floyd called the treatment 'unlawful, unjustified, and inhumane.'
Salon has reached out to airport and Customs and Border Patrol representatives and will update this article if they respond.
It's not the first time Palestinians and pro-Palestine activists have faced increased scrutiny of their legal status within the U.S. Despite being a permanent resident of the country, Columbia University graduate Mahmoud Khalil was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and held in a Louisiana facility for more than 100 days. Ward Sakeik, a Palestinian woman married to a U.S. citizen,was detained by ICE in February while returning from her honemyoon. Sakeik was just released from detention earlier this month.
The post Palestinian man detained at Houston airport for 9 days: report appeared first on Salon.com.
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UPI
25 minutes ago
- UPI
At least 20 killed in crush at Gaza Humanitarian Foundation food hub
Palestinians gather at a GHF facility in southern Gaza City in May, just after the organization assumed responsibility for the bulk of aid distribution in the strip. Israel has banned the U.N. and international aid agencies that previously delivered aid to Gazans via a comprehensive distribution system developed over decades, restricting them to a very limited role. File Photo by Hassan Al-Jadi/UPI | License Photo July 16 (UPI) -- At least 20 people were killed Wednesday in a stampede at a food distribution hub run by the U.S.-Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation in the south of the besieged Palestinian enclave. Calling it a tragic incident, GHF said 19 people were crushed to death and one was fatally stabbed in "a chaotic and dangerous surge" at the center in the Khan Younis district, for which it blamed Hamas. The foundation said it believed the stampede by Palestinians attempting to collect food packages was "driven by agitators in the crowd" allied to Hamas. "We have credible reason to believe that elements within the crowd -- armed and affiliated with Hamas -- deliberately fomented the unrest," GHF said in a statement. "For the first time since operations began, GHF personnel identified multiple firearms in the crowd, one of which was confiscated. An American worker was also threatened with a firearm by a member of the crowd during the incident." GHF blamed misinformation widely circulated on social media regarding its Wadi Gaza facility and another in the Tal Sultan district of Rafah that ceased operating some time back for "fueling confusion, driving crowds to closed sites, and inciting disorder." However, Israel's Haaretz newspaper said the crush was triggered by GHF workers lobbing tear gas canisters into the crowd. GHF employs armed private security contractors to maintain order and protect its facilities. On Tuesday, the United Nations' office for human rights said 674 people had been killed in the vicinity of the sites operated by GHF since the group began its operations in Gaza in May. Many had been caught in shelling or sustained fatal gunshot wounds. Wednesday's incident came as another senior GHF official quit after his businesses were the target of a boycott. Israeli restaurateur and entrepreneur Shahar Segal left his role as the foundation's spokesperson on Tuesday following backlash against eateries he owns in Melbourne, Australia, and another inside a popular club in Tel Aviv's nightlife district. Shahar's food empire, which includes the Michelin-starred Shmone in New York City, was targeted by protestors earlier this month who attacked his Miznon restaurant in Melbourne, throwing chairs, shattering a glass door and hurling anti-Israel slogans. Three people are facing criminal charges. The Teder nitespot in Tel Aviv criticized Segal's involvement with GHF and attempted to distance itself. "In recent weeks, we've become aware of our partner Shahar Segal's involvement with the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. We want to make it unequivocally clear: Teder has no connection to GHF, and we strongly oppose the existence of such an organization. Humanitarian aid must never serve as a tool of control over civilians, and people shouldn't die trying to get a little flour to what's left of their families," Teder said in a social media post. GHF told NPR in a statement that Segal's departure from his role, which was unpaid, was due to an internal reorganization involving expanding its communications operation. Segal did not immediately comment. Executive Director and former U.S. Marine Jake Wood and Chief Operating Officer David Burke, GHF's top two officials, both resigned in the days before the scheme began operating. Wood said he resigned because the scheme was out of step with the key humanitarian principles of "humanity, neutrality, impartiality, and independence." Israel insists the GHF project is aimed at preventing aid from being stolen and resold by Hamas to fund military operations against Israel, but the U.N. and traditional aid agencies reject the scheme, saying it goes against humanitarian ethics and "weaponizes" the issue of aid.
CNN
25 minutes ago
- CNN
Twenty killed in crush at Israeli and US-backed aid site in Gaza, group says
At least 20 people were killed in a crowd crush at an aid distribution site run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), the controversial Israeli- and US-backed organization said Wednesday, the first time it has acknowledged deaths at one of its sites. According to the GHF, the people died in a 'chaotic and dangerous surge,' which it said was 'driven by agitators in the crowd.' The aid group said 19 people were trampled and one person was stabbed in the crowd crush. The GHF alleged that individuals who were 'armed and affiliated with Hamas' deliberately instigated the chaos. 'For the first time since operations began, GHF personnel identified multiple firearms in the crowd, one of which was confiscated,' it said. Hamas' Government Media Office (GMO) blamed the GHF for the incident, claiming the group called on Palestinians to receive aid at the site in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, then 'proceeded to lock the iron gates after herding thousands of starving people into narrow iron corridors.' The Palestinian health ministry said 21 people were killed in the incident, 15 of whom died from suffocation after tear gas was fired at a crowd of people awaiting aid, triggering a crowd crush. US security contractors operate inside the GHF's aid sites, and the Israeli military is usually positioned outside. CNN has approached the Israeli military for comment on the latest incident. Hundreds of people have been killed while trying to access aid in Gaza since the GHF began operating in the Strip, according to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. Nearly 800 people were killed in this way between late May and July 7, it said, 615 of whom were killed near GHF sites. Palestinian officials and witnesses have said the Israeli military is responsible for most of those deaths. The military has acknowledged firing warning shots towards crowds in some instances, and denied responsibility for other incidents. In late June, the military said it had 'reorganized' the approach routes to aid sites to minimize 'friction with the population.' On Saturday, the Palestinian health ministry said 27 people were killed and many more injured when Israeli troops opened fire on people trying to obtain aid from a distribution site run by the GHF near southern Rafah. The GHF denied the claim, saying 'there were no incidents at or in the immediate vicinity of our sites' on Saturday. The Israeli military also denied that anyone was injured by gunfire from its troops in the vicinity of the site but said it continued to review the reports. It told CNN Sunday it had no further comment. A scathing US government assessment of the GHF reported on by CNN last week shows that USAID officials raised 'critical concerns' about the group's ability to protect Palestinians and to deliver them food. The assessment flagged a range of concerns, from an overall plan missing 'even basic details' to a proposal to potentially distribute powdered baby formula in an area that lacks clean water to prepare it. A GHF spokesperson defended the organization's work in Gaza and described the USAID assessment as normal for a funding application. In its statement released Wednesday, the Palestinian health ministry said that 'the Israeli occupation and the American establishment are deliberately committing massacres in a systematic manner and using various methods against the starving people.'
Yahoo
27 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Stampede, stabbing kill twenty at GHF aid site, instigators believed to be Hamas
Nineteen of the victims were trampled and one was stabbed in the event, the GHF stated. More than 20 Palestinian civilians were killed on Wednesday at a Gaza Humanitarian Food (GHF) site in Khan Yunis, most of them appearing to have been trampled, according to the aid agency. GHF said, "We are heartbroken to confirm that 20 people died this morning in a tragic incident at SDS3 in Khan Younis. Our current understanding is that 19 of the victims were trampled and one was stabbed amid a chaotic and dangerous surge, driven by agitators in the crowd." This is the first time that GHF has admitted to deaths occurring on its grounds, though in its early days in May, it admitted to some injuries and incidents where Palestinian civilians overwhelmed parts of the food facilities. NGOs, the UN, and Gaza groups have claimed many other such deadly incidents, but GHF has said the other incidents were either fake news or occurred outside of the facility between the IDF and Gazaans, often accusing Hamas of being involved. As of Tuesday, GHF has said it has distributed 76 million meals to Palestinians to date since May. GHF added regarding the Wednesday incident, "We have credible reason to believe that elements within the crowd – armed and affiliated with Hamas – deliberately fomented the unrest. For the first time since operations began, GHF personnel identified multiple firearms in the crowd, one of which was confiscated. An American worker was also threatened with a firearm by a member of the crowd during the incident." It was unclear if GHf had additional signs of Hamas involvement beyond the firearms or what happened to those who brought firearms into the GHF site. "This horrific event follows a deeply troubling pattern in recent days. False messages about aid site openings, including at SDS4 (Wadi Gaza) and the long-closed SDS1 (Tal Sultan), have circulated widely on Telegram and other platforms, fueling confusion, driving crowds to closed sites, and inciting disorder. Just last night, GHF issued a warning in Arabic via Facebook urging aid seekers to ignore these misleading messages, and to only refer to official GHF channels for updates on our operations," said GHF. However, critics have said that a critical problem with the GHF sites in general is that there are too few of them and they inherently draw too many Palestinians at once. In contrast, under the UN and other food aid NGOs, there were dozens or more localized sites for distributing food aid. The plus of the GHF is that it has been breaking Hamas' control over food aid in central and southern Gaza, where it operates so far. It has not yet operated in northern Gaza, where the UN and the NGOs still run the food aid operations. GHF stated, "We mourn the lives lost today, and we remain committed to providing humanitarian aid as safely and responsibly as possible. GHF exists to serve the people of Gaza with compassion and integrity, and our mission has never been more urgent or more challenged."
