Protest actions demand freedom for imprisoned Palestinians in Italy

5 January 2026

In the wake of the Italian government’s attack on the Palestinian community and Palestine solidarity movement in the country, in which it arrested seven Palestinian activists and leaders, including Mohammed Hannoun, the president of the Associazione dei Palestinesi in Italia(API, Association of Palestinians in Italy), protests have grown against the so-called “Operation Domino.” The next announced protest for the freedom of the imprisoned Palestinians will take place on Wednesday, 7 January in Milano at 6 pm outside Piazzale Aquileia (S. Agostino M2), outside San Vittore prison, where Raed Dawoud, one of the 7 imprisoned Palestinian organizers, is being held as a political prisoner.

On Saturday, 3 January, protesters gathered in Piazza Scala in Milano with signs calling for the liberation of Hannoun, Dawoud, Yaser El-Assaly and their fellow Palestinian prisoners — both in Italy and in Palestine. Simultaneously, another protest was organized in Genova — Hannoun’s hometown in Italy — calling for their freedom; protests have also been organized in Brugherio, outside the Monza prison, and in Napoli.

On New Year’s Eve, the API published an open letter to the prisoners from the families of the seven arrested Palestinians, highlighting that they are beloved and missed, with a call to return them home:

While everyone else celebrates with the affection of their fathers
and loved ones, our homes have seven empty seats.

Seven smiles we missed at the stroke of midnight. Seven presences that, even if far away, are the center around which our thoughts revolve.

We begin 2026 with our hearts split in two: proud of your
commitment, of your courage, and of the duty you are serving, but with a knot in our throats that does not loosen.

Every bell, every firework, will sound a little quieter without you.

Know that our love reaches you. Our new year will truly begin
only when you once again cross the threshold of our doors.

With all our love and nostalgia,

Your families

Hannoun has already been denied family visits; in an action highly reminiscent of the Zionist entity’s treatment of Palestinian prisoners in its occupation jails, his family members were told that they were also “suspected” and therefore, for security reasons, they would be denied visitation. His lawyer also noted that he has been denied a Qur’an and prayer mat, and that he was ordered transferred to a “high-security” prison — itself reminiscent of the U.S.’ treatment of its Palestinian political prisoners, Ghassan Elashi and Shukri Abu Baker, who, like the Palestinians in Italy, were accused and sentenced solely for humanitarian activity and support.

In what appears to be an attempt to cause widespread intimidation and fear, the state further announced that 25 more people are “under investigation” in the case, including journalist and InfoPal editor Angela Lano, who spoke out publicly about the raid and invasion of her home and confiscation of years of documents and materials.

According to the documents and intensive media campaign unleashed against the Palestinian activists and organizers, the arrests and accusations rely solely on the statements and allegations by “Israel” itself, including repeated reliance on a dossier provided by pseudonymous “Israeli” intelligence agent, codenamed “Avi.”
This includes, more broadly, its organizational bans, allegations of political affiliation, and attempts to deny humanitarian aid and independent support to the Palestinian people under occupation. Further, the charges — which have been combined with a pretrial detention order — openly equate humanitarian aid for the Palestinian people with “support for terrorism” as well as utterly disregarding the fact that Palestinians, like all people facing colonialism and foreign occupation, have the absolute right to resist that occupation by all means, including armed struggle.

In fact, the Italian state’s charges against the imprisoned Palestinians are, quite clearly, an attempt to aid and abet “Israel’s” genocide of the Palestinian people, especially in Gaza, by denying them access to independent support and aid. Notably, these charges and arrests come precisely as the Zionist occupation banned 37 organizations, including prominent international organizations such as Medicins sans Frontieres, Oxfam Netherlands, and the American Friends Service Committee, from operating in occupied Palestine by denying them licenses.

The media campaign against the targeted Palestinians has relied increasingly on dubious allegations that reflect a colonialist and Zionist framework, including attempting to frame as “accusations” things such as having photographs of martyrs and prisoners on one’s phone, subscribing to Telegram or WhatsApp channels receiving news, updates and pictures from Palestine, or possessing flags and banners associated with Palestinian resistance groups. Of course, none of these things are illegal under Italian law; they are, however, the sort of allegations under which Palestinians under occupation are routinely jailed without charge or trial in Zionist prisons.

Further, it is clear that the Palestinian Authority has been instrumentalized to advance the persecution of Palestinians in the diaspora as well as those in occupied Palestine. Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni practically presaged the campaign of arrests just a week before at the conference of her far-right Brothers of Italy party, where she attacked the API and the Palestinian Youth of Italy (Giovani Palestinesi Italia, GPI) for speaking out against her meeting with PA president Mahmoud Abbas, Abu Mazen. Right-wing media have repeatedly spread reports that Hannoun and the targeted associations were “investigated by the PA” in an attempt to legitimize the prosecution, and at the same time that the PA is cutting all funds to the families of martyrs and prisoners, the Italian prosecutors declared that funding the families of martyrs and prisoners amounts to “supporting terrorism” — when, in reality, it is supporting the victims of terror.

The GPI further noted that Meloni’s party and the far-right media have used the case not only in an attempt to terrorise the Palestinian, Arab and Muslim communities and the broader Palestine solidarity movement, but also to attack the parliamentary opposition and attempt to pressure them to rescind their support for Palestinian freedom and opposition to Italian complicity in Zionist genocide. GPI’s statement specifically criticized parliamentary “leftists,” who, rather than defending the targeted political prisoners and intensifying support for Palestine, are engaging in the politics of disassociation, denial and abandonment.

At the same time, the Italian state continues its persecution of Palestinians Anan Yaeesh, Ali Irar, Mansour Doghmosh and Ahmed Salem. On 16 January, Anan, Ali and Mansour are facing a final hearing in court on their case, which accuses them of supporting the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, the armed wing of the Fateh movement, in the occupied West Bank of Palestine. Yaeesh has been imprisoned continuously for the past two years. The Free Anan committee and other organizations are arranging group transportation to L’Aquila to stand with the three Palestinians in court, as well as support rallies on that date.

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Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network reiterates our solidarity with and call for the immediate release of all of the imprisoned and targeted Palestinians and fellow activists, an end to the persecution of Palestinians and Palestine solidarity organizers, and full recognition of the legitimacy of Palestinian resistance:

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network demands the immediate release of Mohammed Hannoun, Raed Dawoud, Yasser el-Assaly, and all the detained Palestinians in Italy — including Anan Yaeesh, Ali Irar, Mansour Doghmosh and Ahmed Salem — and the return of the funds of the targeted organizations, as well as a full end to Italian support, complicity, trade and military commerce with the Zionist regime. This is a moment when independent, community-based support for the Palestinian people, especially in Gaza, is more urgent than ever, as the Zionist regime, with full U.S. and European imperialist support, is aiming to accomplish what it could not through its genocidal bombs through siege, starvation, the continued closure of the Rafah crossing, and the denial of fundamental needs. The work of these organizations is most desperately needed now — and this is precisely why they have been targeted.

As we noted at the time of Samidoun’s designation:

“Like the Zionist entity fears the Palestinian resistance, so do the imperialist powers fear the Palestinian diaspora and their supporters that have been rising up again and again, especially since the start of operation Al-Aqsa Flood and the Zionist genocide. They fear a strong, popular movement that threatens their economic and political interests in Palestine and the region.”

Once again, the imperialist powers are making clear that they are more than willing to carry out intense repression, criminalization and imprisonment in order to aid and abet genocide. We urge the movement for Palestine — in Italy, throughout Europe, and internationally — to rally around all of the targeted individuals and organizations, and to not allow the tactics of state terror and fear to divide us.

Further, it is long past time for all Palestinian, Lebanese and regional resistance organizations — let alone charitable, community, activist and humanitarian initiatives — to be removed from so-called “terrorist lists” — in Italy, in Europe, in the U.S. and around the world. The Palestinian people, and all occupied peoples, have the right to resist their occupation, to defend themselves, to liberate their land, and to organize to achieve those goals.

For the solidarity movement’s work to be meaningful and effective, it must act to support the Palestinian Resistance organizations — and, indeed, to coordinate with them on the broadest possible level. We must redouble our efforts to escalate our resistance and globalize the intifada in the streets of the cities of the world, for the freedom of all of our prisoners in Zionist and imperialist jails, and for the freedom of Palestine, from the river to the sea.

Palestinian and regional resistance organizations and popular movements stand with Venezuela against U.S. imperialism

3 January 2026

As the U.S. attacked and invaded Venezuela, kidnapping the legitimate president Nicolas Maduro, and openly seeking control over Venezuela’s politics, oil and resources, Palestinian and regional resistance organizations and popular movements spoke out in condemnation of U.S. imperialism and in support of the Venezuelan people and their government.

The Masar Badil, the Palestinian Alternative Revolutionary Path Movement, said:

We condemn the military aggression perpetrated by the United States of America against the sovereign territory of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. The affected areas thus far include the capital, Caracas, and the states of Miranda, Aragua, and La Guaira.

This brutal US imperialist behavior constitutes a flagrant violation of international law and a clear embodiment of the logic of aggression and criminal annihilation.

This attack aims solely to seize Venezuela’s strategic shared resources, particularly oil and minerals, in an attempt to forcibly break the political sovereignty of the Bolivarian Republic and pave the way for military incursions into other Latin American territories.

The “fight against drug trafficking” is merely a pretext for imperialism, a threat not only to the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela but to the entire region. This was explicitly stated in the recently published “US National Security Strategy” (NSS).

We recognize that American imperialism is the primary enemy of peoples struggling for national and social liberation. Therefore, we call upon all social, political, and freedom-loving forces worldwide—just as we took to the streets in support of the Palestinian people’s struggle—to mobilize and act in support of the Venezuelan people in the face of US aggression. We endorse the sovereign decision of the Bolivarian Government of Venezuela, based on international law, to respond through armed struggle.

As in Palestine… in Venezuela, they shall not prevail!

Long live the resistance of the Venezuelan people… towards global mobilization and a global uprising!

Let us demonstrate our popular outrage at every embassy of US imperialism!

The Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine stated:

In the name of Allah, the Most Merciful

We condemn the vicious American aggression against the Republic of Venezuela and the attacks targeting its capital, Caracas, and its loyal people. These aggressive actions, which have escalated from naval blockades to direct military strikes, reveal intentions of hegemony, occupation, and forcible domination, and constitute a flagrant violation of international law and national sovereignty. They are an extension of imperialist policies aimed at subjugating peoples and plundering their resources.

Today’s targeting of Venezuela is a punishment for its steadfast international positions, particularly its historic and unwavering support for the Palestinian cause and resistance forces in our region, and its standing with our people against war crimes and genocide. The Venezuelan people’s struggle for freedom and sovereignty is part of our nation’s own battle against hegemony and neocolonialism.

We affirm our full solidarity with the Venezuelan people and their legitimate government, led by President Nicolás Maduro, in confronting this aggressive campaign. We call on all liberation forces and free peoples of the world to reject this aggression and stand with Venezuela in defense of the principle of state sovereignty and the right of peoples to self-determination.

Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine
Saturday, Rajab 14, 1447 AH, January 3, 2026 AD.

Hamas, the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement, issued the following statement:

We condemn in the strongest terms the American aggression against the Republic of Venezuela, and the kidnapping of President Maduro and his wife. We affirm that it represents a serious violation of international law, by attacking the sovereignty of an independent state.

The aggression is an extension of the unjust American policies and interventions that hide behind them imperialist ambitions, which have plunged several countries into conflicts that pose a direct threat to international security and peace.

We call on the international community, the United Nations and its institutions, particularly the Security Council, to take decisions to confront the aggressive policies pursued by Washington, and to immediately stop the military attack on Venezuelan territory.

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine stated:

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine condemns in the strongest terms the brutal American imperialist aggression against the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, which has taken the form of air strikes and missile attacks targeting the capital, Caracas, vital and civilian installations, military bases, and residential complexes; the Front considers this aggression a new chapter in the organized American terrorism against sovereign states.

The Front expresses its full and unlimited support for Venezuela, its leadership, government, and people, led by the courageous President Nicolás Maduro, and emphasizes that Venezuela, which has always sided with the oppressed, particularly the Palestinian cause, is now facing the consequences of its principled stance against hegemony and colonialism.

This American attack on Venezuela is fundamentally similar in its nature and objectives to the brutal Zionist aggression against our Palestinian people; the criminal is the same, and the colonialist mentality that seeks to break the will of resistance is the same.

The US administration’s pretexts of “combating smuggling” or “protecting democracy” are merely a cover for imperialist piracy aimed at plundering the Venezuelan people’s wealth and confiscating their independent political decision-making; this bullying by Washington in the Caribbean represents organized state terrorism unleashed from its chains, exceeding all international conventions, norms, and human values.

We affirm the inalienable right of the Venezuelan people to resist in all forms and defend their existence and national sovereignty, and we stress that internal unity is the best response to attempts at intimidation and infiltration.

We call on all free and progressive forces in Latin America and the world to form a unified international position to confront this aggression that threatens global stability and peace, affirming that imperialist arrogance will inevitably collapse in the face of the consciousness and courage of peoples who stand for their freedom.

We warn that the US’s continuation of this military madness will spark new conflict hotspots in the world; the aggression on Venezuela is an attack on every country that upholds its independent national decision-making.

Hezbollah, the Lebanese Islamic Resistance, issued the following statement:

Hezbollah strongly condemns the terrorist aggression and American thuggery against the Republic of Venezuela, which targeted the capital, Caracas, vital and civilian facilities, and residential complexes, and involved the abduction of President Nicolás Maduro and his wife—an unprecedented and blatant violation of the national sovereignty of an independent state, international law, and United Nations charters, based on flimsy and false pretexts.

This attack constitutes a renewed affirmation of the approach of domination, arrogance, and piracy practiced by the U.S. administration without any restraint, and a stark proof of its disregard for international stability and security. It entrenches the logic of the law of the jungle, detonates what remains of the structure of the international order, and hollows it out of any substance that could serve as a guarantee or safeguard for peoples and states.

The United States of America, which continues to live in a frenzy of control and hegemony—especially under its current president—persists in its aggressive policies aimed at subjugating free states and peoples, plundering their wealth and resources, and leading war projects designed to redraw state borders. While it falsely claims to spread peace in the world and support democracy and the freedom of peoples to determine their destiny, it repeatedly exposes its true criminal face—from Afghanistan to Iraq, Yemen, and Iran—through the manufacturing of terrorism and its support for its protégé, “Israel,” with which it shares the same criminal, aggressive, and colonial behavior. Meanwhile, the international community retreats into shameful silence instead of rising up and sounding the alarm to reject and curb this American aggression and thuggery. Today’s assault on Venezuela represents a further escalation of the direct threat to every independent, sovereign state that refuses domination and submission.

As Hezbollah affirms its full solidarity with Venezuela—its people, presidency, and government—in the face of this American aggression and arrogance, which will inevitably collapse before the will of the free Venezuelan people—who have rejected all forms of hegemony and colonialism on their land and have consistently stood with just causes and the oppressed worldwide, foremost among them the Palestinian cause—it calls upon all states, governments, peoples, and free forces around the world to condemn this aggression and to stand alongside Venezuela, its people, and its right to fully defend its sovereignty and independence.

The Political Bureau of Ansar Allah, in Yemen, issued the following statement:

“We strongly condemn the brutal US military aggression against Venezuela.

What the US is doing against Venezuela, including the preceding blockade, reflects the extreme level of American savagery and criminality.

The American aggression provides further evidence of a US policy based on destroying countries, killing peoples, and plundering resources.

What the US is doing to Venezuela confirms once again that America is the head of evil and the mother of terrorism.

We affirm our solidarity with Venezuela and its President Nicolás Maduro, who has refused to submit to American domination.

We stress Venezuela’s right to defend its sovereignty, its people, and its resources against ruthless American aggression.

We call on the international community to take urgent action to stop the US aggression and respect international principles and charters.”

Tariq el Tahrir Youth and Student Movement said:

Heroic people of Venezuela! Soldiers of the fatherland! Sons and daughters of Bolivar! Tariq El-Tahrir expresses our most steadfast solidarity in this moment of renewed and intensified American aggression.

After weeks of piracy and naval blockades on Venezuelan shipping, and years of economic warfare and imperialist aggression, today the US empire has committed terrorist attacks against the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. The bombings of Caracas, the capital of Venezuela, and the surrounding Venezuelan states of Miranda, Aragua and La Guaira are nothing less than terrorist bombings of a sovereign country by an empire who feels threatened by the courageous path of self-determination which has been undertaken by the Venezuelan people, under their government led by Nicolás Maduro.

The kidnapping of President Nicolás Maduro and First Lady Cilia Flores is part of a larger history of attacks against anti-imperialist and anti-colonial leaders, from Palestine’s Saleh Al-Arouri, Yahya Sinwar and Ismail Haniyeh, Patrice Lumumba in the Congo, Thomas Sankara in Burkina Faso, and Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah in Lebanon. It is a continuation of imperialist policy aimed at subjugating the power of the Third World’s people and plundering their resources. In Latin America, this has taken the form of veiled and overt aggressions, economic and military, against Colombia, Cuba and Nicaragua, and countless others. In the wider international sphere, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Yemen, Palestine and the forces of the Axis of the Resistance are targeted.

The Venezuelan people have, since the Bolivarian Revolution of 1999, held firm in protecting their sovereignty in the face of imperialist aggression led by the US empire. Since the Al-Aqsa Flood Operation on October 7th, 2023, they have demonstrated historic and unwavering support to the Palestinian cause, the resistance forces, and have been faithful in denouncing the US-Zionist war crimes and crimes against humanity committed against our people. Their struggle for freedom and sovereignty is our struggle for liberty and self-determination. The bombs which were dropped this Saturday, Jan 3 are built by the same corporations whose bombs fall onto Palestinian children, women and men in Gaza and villages in Lebanon. These are acts of international terrorism.

We call on all our supporters, friends and sympathizers to join in the demonstrations and raise the flag of Palestine at protests, picket lines and militant actions in your cities and localities. Where such actions are still not being mobilized, we encourage you to lead the organization of rallies, support groups, solidarity committees, and to summon allied forces for a grand mobilization of the global camp of resistance against the empire of death. The call from Palestine to lay siege to the military and imperialist infrastructure inside the imperialist nations remains one we have yet to fully answer and it is our obligation to build our own popular forces as true partners of the resistance in Caracas and Gaza. Let us apply our energies, which brought millions to the streets of every world capital in solidarity with Palestine, to stop the imperialist aggression and war against the free and sovereign Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, and impose a cost on the profiteers of genocide and the representatives of the modern Holocaust. And let it be a warning to the imperialist mercenaries and terrorists who attempt to usurp the sovereignty of Venezuela – do not underestimate the power of a people’s guerrilla army fighting for their survival and homeland. Venezuela will be another grave for the imperialist invader.

This is a clear and unified stance: with Venezuela, its government and its people, and against the murderous crimes of U.S. imperialism. We reiterate our call to action:

This is a moment for resistance and for action. It is clear that the U.S. sees the slaughter of even the appearance of international law under imperialism in its imperialist-Zionist genocide in Gaza as an open door to expand its aggression everywhere in the world, without even an attempt to manufacture other than the thinnest pretext and while openly declaring their thirst for the resources of the people of the world.

It is an urgent responsibility for everyone and every organization in the United States and in the international core to stand now for Venezuela, to escalate, to protest, to take direct action — as we stand simultaneously against the ongoing genocide in Palestine, the attack on Lebanon, and the aggression against all the peoples of the region and the world who confront and resist imperialism. We must not allow business as usual or content ourselves with mild condemnations.

The Palestinian liberation movement is fundamentally an anti-imperialist movement; the Palestinian people confront not only Zionism in Palestine and its entity “Israel” but the imperialist powers — if this was not clear before Al-Aqsa Flood, it is more clear than ever now. The front to defend Venezuela is a front to defend Palestine, for the liberation of land and people, and to confront our collective imperialist enemy.

Defend Venezuela, defend Palestine: International call to action against U.S. imperialism

3 January 2026

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network declares its full and complete solidarity with the people and government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, which today confronts not only over a decade of U.S. imposed coercive economic measures and economic warfare, nor imperialist military assaults on its trade and citizenry at sea, but a full-fledged ground and air aggression by the United States, targeting the capital Caracas, as well as the states of Miranda, Aragua and La Guaira. U.S. President Donald Trump is even boasting of kidnapping the legitimate President of Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro Moros. At this moment, it is urgent for all who stand against imperialism, particularly in the United States and throughout the imperial core, to stand with Venezuela against U.S. imperialism and its criminal military aggression.

The aggression against Venezuela is cut from the same cloth as the ongoing U.S.-Zionist assault on Palestine, Lebanon, Yemen, and throughout the region, including the ongoing and escalated war threats against Iran. As the U.S. bombs and invades the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela — notably, just days after Trump’s meeting with fellow war criminal, Zionist prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu — the Zionist regime is threatening yet more attacks on Lebanon, as it continues to bomb the South on a daily basis, and on Gaza, where it continues its genocide, even amid the one-sided “ceasefire.”

The U.S. has even attacked the mausoleum of Venezuelan leader of the Bolivarian Revolution, Hugo Chavez, who famously declared in 2009 that the Zionist entity was guilty of genocide in Gaza and expressed his strong support for the Palestinian people’s liberation struggle. As in Palestine, Lebanon, Yemen, Iraq and Iran, once again, it is imperative to affirm full solidarity with Venezuela’s right to defend itself and to resist U.S. imperialist assault.

The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela is being targeted today for its resources and its oil, which war criminal Trump openly boasts of demanding for U.S. control, domination and exploitation. However, more than simply for its oil, Venezuela is being targeted because the Bolivarian Republic stands, clearly and firmly, for the right of the people and government of Venezuela to control its own destiny and future, and for the rights of the people of the world to do so. This includes breaking all ties with the Zionist entity and repeatedly standing in international forums for Palestine.

In 2018, Ahmad Sa’adat, imprisoned General Secretary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and a prominent leader of the Palestinian prisoners’ movement, wrote:

The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela has been a stalwart friend of the Palestinian people. In all international arenas and forums and through practical support and material solidarity, the Venezuelan people and state have stood with the Palestinian people, confronting imperialism and Zionism. Venezuela’s rejection of diplomatic ties with the Israeli colonial regime stands as an example in the world of principled solidarity and boycott, especially as the Palestinian movement, including the Palestinian prisoners’ movement, urges international boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel… We know well the words and actions of Hugo Chavez in support of the Palestinian people and his clear condemnations of the Zionist attacks on the Palestinian people. ‘The State of Israel has become a murderous lackey at the service of imperialism…It’s a genocidal government. I condemn that Zionist government that persecutes the heroic Palestinian people,’ Chavez said. His words on Palestine and in support of the struggle of our people have bolstered the strength and resolve of Palestinians everywhere.

Venezuela has been, for over a decade, targeted by sanctions and siege — illegal unilateral coercive measures — imposed by the United States. This has formed a fully fledged hybrid economic war on Venezuela, for the purpose of “regime change” to a Venezuelan “opposition” that is fully in the pocket of U.S. imperialism and allied with Zionism. It has also birthed creative and resilient responses to U.S. coercion, in alliance with other targeted states, such as Iran, as well as expanded trade with China, Russia, and other BRICS powers. This is the same policy of siege and starvation that has been intensified and focused for the past 17 years upon Palestine and its Resistance in Gaza. It is extended to the policy of “anti-terror” designations and individualized sanctions imposed upon every identified individual in the world involved in confronting U.S. imperialism, which the U.S. demands be treated as global edicts.

This refusal to allow the U.S. to control the trade in Venezuela’s world-largest oil reserves is part of the global effort to shatter the hegemony of U.S. imperialism and dollar domination of international trade. Venezuela is targeted today, alongside its leaders, because, like Simon Bolivar, from whom the Bolivarian Republic takes its name, it defends sovereignty, freedom, self-determination and the entire global South against imperialism; because Venezuela has dared, since its Revolution, to say ‘NO’ to empire.

The kidnapping of legitimate Venezuelan President Maduro is yet another egregious adventure by U.S. imperialism, following failed efforts to use collaborators and bribes to secure their goals. Before being subjected to this invasion and kidnapping, he was targeted with a $15 million U.S. bounty on his head. The kidnapping and assassination of leaders is a strategy used by the imperialist-Zionist alliance in Palestine, in Yemen, in Lebanon, in Iran and throughout the region, as is the posting of extensive bounties seeking to market the lives of those who refuse U.S. imperialism. In fact, many of the Resistance leaders targeted by the occupation (often with U.S. intelligence as well as nearly always with U.S. weaponry) have been targeted by such bounties, including the martyrs Saleh al-Arouri (martyred two years ago yesterday), Haitham Ali Tabataba’i, assassinated just 40 days ago in Lebanon, and, of course, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, assassinated with 80 tons of U.S.-made explosives. The combination of kidnapping, imprisonment and assassination of leaders is the standard imperialist and colonialist playbook, epitomized by the campaign of imprisonment and assassination targeting the Palestinian resistance.

Indeed, this 3 January assault on Venezuela comes six years to the date after the assassination of General Qassem Soleimani and Abu Mahdi al-Mohandis in Baghdad, Iraq, on 3 January 2020, in yet another blatantly unlawful crime of U.S. imperialism. This infamous anniversary is now marked by yet another U.S. crime of aggression against the people and nations of the world who act and organize to reject imperialism and its plunder, domination and hegemony.

The Venezuelan government has affirmed that Vice President Delcy Rodriguez is safe, and will assume the duties of the legitimate President captured and illegally kidnapped by the United States.

This is a moment for resistance and for action. It is clear that the U.S. sees the slaughter of even the appearance of international law under imperialism in its imperialist-Zionist genocide in Gaza as an open door to expand its aggression everywhere in the world, without even an attempt to manufacture other than the thinnest pretext and while openly declaring their thirst for the resources of the people of the world.

It is an urgent responsibility for everyone and every organization in the United States and in the international core to stand now for Venezuela, to escalate, to protest, to take direct action — as we stand simultaneously against the ongoing genocide in Palestine, the attack on Lebanon, and the aggression against all the peoples of the region and the world who confront and resist imperialism. We must not allow business as usual or content ourselves with mild condemnations.

The Palestinian liberation movement is fundamentally an anti-imperialist movement; the Palestinian people confront not only Zionism in Palestine and its entity “Israel” but the imperialist powers — if this was not clear before Al-Aqsa Flood, it is more clear than ever now. The front to defend Venezuela is a front to defend Palestine, for the liberation of land and people, and to confront our collective imperialist enemy.

In 2022, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro noted: “The Axis of Resistance exists throughout the world; it exists in Africa, in Asia, in the Middle East, in Latin America and in the Caribbean. The Resistance also belongs to the people who are fighting against neoliberalism, racism and various forms of colonization…The 21st century is our century. It is the century of the unity of the people. It is the century in which people will be liberated. It is the century of justice and truth. Empires are in decline, and people’s projects for well-being, development and greatness have just begun. This century is our century.” There are two paths for the world: of the resistance of the people, of Al-Aqsa Flood and the Bolivarian Revolution; and of the horrific crimes of imperialism and the blatant greed and thievery of the U.S. empire in decline. It is our task to make the first path — the global camp of resistance — larger, stronger, and, indeed, victorious.

Italy’s new attack on Palestine: Solidarity with Mohammad Hannoun and all targeted Palestinians!

27 December 2025

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network condemns in the strongest terms the arrests, raids and repressive attacks in Italy today against Palestinian organizers and community leaders, and expresses our full solidarity with Mohammad Hannoun and his fellow arrested Palestinians. Today’s arrests are only the latest act of complicity and direct involvement with Zionist genocide in Palestine by the Italian state, which continues to deliberately act to besiege, starve, and criminalize the Palestinian people and their very existence.

Mohammed Hannoun, 63, is a Palestinian architect and resident of Genoa who has lived in Italy for over 40 years; the president of the Associazione dei Palestinesi in Italia (API) and the founder of the Charity Association for Solidarity with the Palestinian People (ABSPP), he is tirelessly active in organizing to defend Palestine and achieve its liberation from the river to the sea. He has been repeatedly attacked by Zionist organizations — as well as the U.S. and Zionist governments, and right-wing local governments in Italy — for his clarity in speaking about Palestinian liberation, the right to resist occupation, and the illegitimacy of colonialism on Palestinian land.

Today, Hannoun and at least six other Palestinians’ homes were raided and they were arrested by Italian “counter-terror” forces, including the Anti-Terrorism Directorate of Genoa (DIGOS), the Prevention Police, the Economic and Financial Police Unit, and the Guardia di Finanza, with at least two more people reportedly sought under international arrest warrants. The Italian state has targeted three organizations, the ABSPP, the Charity Association of Solidarity with the Palestinian People – Volunteer Organization and La Cupola d’Oro. The detained Palestinians have been ordered imprisoned before trial, with an Italian investigating judge, Silvia Carpanini, alleging that they are an “escape risk.” In the meantime, eight million Euro in funds and assets, raised to support the Palestinian people, have been seized and frozen by the Italian government.

These Palestinian organizers have been targeted because they have worked to break the siege imposed on Gaza by fundraising to support Palestinians in Gaza, providing necessary aid and support for humanitarian and civil projects as the Zionist regime has attempted to carry out its genocide by strangling the Palestinian people through siege, starvation and blockade.

It has long been a goal of Zionism and imperialism to cut off independent aid and support to the Palestinian people, and to break the ties between Palestinians in exile and diaspora and the Palestinians inside Palestine and in the refugee camps. For example, the infamous injustice of the Holy Land Five case in the United States targeted what was, at that time, the country’s largest Muslim charity and a significant support of independent aid for Palestine.

Today, the arrested Palestinians in Italy are “accused” of having raised over 7 million Euro for Palestinians in Gaza over several decades, and especially in the past 2 years of genocide following Al-Aqsa Flood. The Italian government is labeling this aid to the Palestinian people as “support for Hamas,” noting that it allegedly supported institutions in the Gaza Strip “controlled by Hamas” — the leading, elected, party in the governance of Gaza for the past 18 years. In particular, they are accused of providing some of their funds to “family members of terrorists” — that is, to the families of martyrs whose lives were taken by the occupation and of Palestinian political prisoners, who are currently under an internationally-organized financial siege designed to break social support for Palestinian resistance and liberation inside occupied Palestine. They are being accused of nothing more than helping to break the illegitimate, illegal, and murderous siege on Gaza by fundraising to support the Palestinian people under attack. In other words, the goals of these arrests are to intensify and advance Zionist genocide in Palestine, to deny Palestinian self-determination, and to impose fear and terror on the growing Palestinian and solidarity movement in Italy.

The Palestinian community in Italy and the solidarity movement have been under attack by the Zionist entity and U.S. imperialism for some time; in October 2024, the U.S. sanctioned Hannoun and the ABSPP (just one week before its sanctions on Samidoun). Again, in June 2025, the U.S. again sanctioned La Cupola d’Oro, alongside multiple international Palestinian charities, as well as Addameer, the Palestinian organization working for Palestinian prisoners in occupation jails. Despite the fact that U.S. sanctions ostensibly have no legal effect in Italy, the investigating judge cited the U.S. sanctions as a reason to arrest and imprison Hannoun and his fellow Palestinians, because they “continued their activity” — entirely legal in Italy — despite being listed and designated by the United States.

These sanctions, like those on Samidoun, come hand in hand with the use of U.S. sanctions and siege — for 18 years in Gaza, alongside the sanctions imposed on Iran, Cuba, Sudan, Venezuela, the DPRK and other independent nations — to seek to undermine popular resilience, immiserate and starve the masses of the population, and cut off the road to independent development and self-defense.

These U.S. sanctions, of course, came hand in hand with the Italian government’s full alignment with U.S. imperialism, NATO and Zionist genocide. Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni was among the first officials to flock to Tel Aviv following Al-Aqsa Flood, and to sign a joint declaration with Britain, Germany, and France pledging full support for the Zionist assault on Gaza. Italy is currently imprisoning multiple Palestinian political prisoners, including Anan Yaeesh and Ahmed Salem, and prosecuting Ali Irar and Mansour Doghmosh. Italy has continued to maintain its military and economic trade with the Zionist regime and police have brutally repressed demonstrations throughout the country, despite the widespread mobilization of hundreds of thousands of Italians in support of Palestine, including multiple general strikes targeting military trade and commerce with the occupation. It has remained the third largest arms exporter to “Israel” on the European continent.

In 2024, Hannoun himself was banned from entering the city of Milan by its local government, because he denounced the actions of Zionist football hooligans in Amsterdam and rallied around the youth who defended their communities from the hooligans’ racist attacks; shortly after this ban expired, Milan once again banned him from entering the city because he affirmed the right of the Palestinian people and their resistance to hold collaborators accountable and carry out revolutionary justice immediately following the ceasefire. In response to this most recent ban, the planned demonstration in Milan continued, led by a banner stating “Siamo Tutti Hannoun” — “We are all Hannoun”!

The attack on the Palestinian community in Italy shows clear signs of cooperation with other imperialist powers, as well as with the Zionist regime and its surveillance and “security” forces, with media reports citing the U.S. sanctions and cooperation with the Netherlands and “other European authorities”, as well as with “Israel”. In fact, the allegations against the targeted Palestinians state that the targeted men helped to support associations “declared illegal by Israel.” This is in and of itself an outrageous “allegation,” as “Israel” routinely criminalizes and bans all forms of aid, social support, human rights activism, political organization, community organizing, independent business, health services, agricultural unions, and cultural activities of all kinds among the Palestinian population, as it is actively engaged in a genocide and a criminal colonial occupation against that population and is seeking to secure their expulsion and extermination through isolation, siege and starvation.

Disturbingly, these arrests also come days after the widely criticized visit of Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) to the Brothers of Italy conference at Atreju between 6 and 14 December, where he embraced Meloni. Palestinian organizations throughout Italy — including the API led by Hannoun, as well as the Giovani Palestinesi Italia (Palestinian Youth of Italy), the Unione Democratica Arabo-Palestinese and the Movimento Studenti Palestinesi in Italia — denounced Abu Mazen’s attendance, noting that Meloni and her government are being pursued at the ICC for collaboration in the genocide in Gaza at the same time that Abu Mazen is embracing them. They noted that this underlines the ongoing collaboration of the PA with Zionism and imperialism against the Palestinian people, alongside “security coordination” with “Israel” and the repression of the resistance in the West Bank. They called for accountability for Italian complicity in genocide and freedom for the Palestinian political prisoners in Italian jails, and affirmed that the Resistance is the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people.

Meloni, from her widely publicized platform at Atreju, angrily denounced the Palestinian organizations speaking out against Italian complicity, PA collaboration, and Abu Mazen’s betrayal, denouncing these “self-proclaimed” organizations and their “delusional” statement, asking if they are acting “in service of Hamas.” These arrests come one week after Meloni publicly identified these Palestinian community organizations as political enemies.

It is also notable that the arrested Palestinians are specifically being targeted for allegedly aiding the families of martyrs and prisoners with their charitable and humanitarian support. This comes as the Palestinian Authority has massively escalated its own attack on the families of martyrs and prisoners, as well as released prisoners, stripping them of their salaries and financial support, across all factional and political lines, in a joint plan with the U.S. and European imperialist states. In fact, the PA’s escalation of this existing policy against the families of martyrs and prisoners came simultaneously with Abu Mazen’s visit to Italy, and now Palestinians in Italy are being criminalized on the basis of accusations of supporting the same targeted individuals and families — clearly indicating a firm plan and alliance meant to break the steadfastness and resistance of the Palestinian people through economic starvation and siege alongside brutal colonial violence.

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network demands the immediate release of Mohammed Hannoun and the detained Palestinians in Italy — including Anan Yaeesh, Ali Irar, Mansour Doghmosh and Ahmed Salem — and the return of the funds of the targeted organizations, as well as a full end to Italian support, complicity, trade and military commerce with the Zionist regime. This is a moment when independent, community-based support for the Palestinian people, especially in Gaza, is more urgent than ever, as the Zionist regime, with full U.S. and European imperialist support, is aiming to accomplish what it could not through its genocidal bombs through siege, starvation, the continued closure of the Rafah crossing, and the denial of fundamental needs. The work of these organizations is most desperately needed now — and this is precisely why they have been targeted.

As we noted at the time of Samidoun’s designation:

“Like the Zionist entity fears the Palestinian resistance, so do the imperialist powers fear the Palestinian diaspora and their supporters that have been rising up again and again, especially since the start of operation Al-Aqsa Flood and the Zionist genocide. They fear a strong, popular movement that threatens their economic and political interests in Palestine and the region.”

Once again, the imperialist powers are making clear that they are more than willing to carry out intense repression, criminalization and imprisonment in order to aid and abet genocide. We urge the movement for Palestine — in Italy, throughout Europe, and internationally — to rally around all of the targeted individuals and organizations, and to not allow the tactics of state terror and fear to divide us.

Further, it is long past time for all Palestinian, Lebanese and regional resistance organizations — let alone charitable, community, activist and humanitarian initiatives — to be removed from so-called “terrorist lists” — in Italy, in Europe, in the U.S. and around the world. The Palestinian people, and all occupied peoples, have the right to resist their occupation, to defend themselves, to liberate their land, and to organize to achieve those goals.

For the solidarity movement’s work to be meaningful and effective, it must act to support the Palestinian Resistance organizations — and, indeed, to coordinate with them on the broadest possible level. We must redouble our efforts to escalate our resistance and globalize the intifada in the streets of the cities of the world, for the freedom of all of our prisoners in Zionist and imperialist jails, and for the freedom of Palestine, from the river to the sea.

Samidoun Participates in the Fourth Annual Rawafed Scientific Conference in Baghdad, Iraq

21 December 2025

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network participated in the Rawafed al-Afnan Cultural Organization’s fourth annual scientific conference in Baghdad, Iraq, on 20 December 2025, under the slogan “Al-Aqsa Flood: Remembrance and Continuation.” Samidoun’s international coordinator, Charlotte Kates, presented a paper at the conference, which was widely attended by religious scholars, academics, political figures and media representatives from Iraq, the broader Arab region and internationally.

Among others, the conference was attended by the representative of Imam Khamenei, His Eminence Ayatollah Sayyed Mujtaba al-Husseini; Dr. Osama Hamdan, a leader in Hamas, Islamic Resistance Movement; Dr. Taher al-Nunu, media advisor to the head of the Hamas political bureau; and Qasim al-Araji, the Iraqi national security advisor. Several other official and diplomatic figures were also present, including the ambassador of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, as well as media figures, intellectuals, and youth representatives from various Iraqi provinces. Researchers and academics from Canada, Lebanon, Morocco, Yemen, Jordan, Palestine, and Iraq also participated in the conference.

Charlotte Kates presented a comprehensive research paper that addressed “The International Popular Cradle of Resistance and the Impact of the Al-Aqsa Flood on Solidarity Movements with Palestine,” which focused on the irrevocable changes to the world made by Al-Aqsa Flood, emphasized the significant growth not only in outrage at “Israel” and its genocide but also support for the resistance in Palestine and throughout the region, noted the role of the U.S. and Western imperialist powers in the genocide as well as in state repression to target this growing movement, and called for international action and mobilization to confront the attempts to “disarm” the resistance militarily, politically and intellectually in Palestine, Lebanon, Iraq, Yemen, Iran and beyond.

She concluded, “This campaign seeks to render the Palestinian people defenseless, while allowing the Zionist entity to retain and expand its military capacity, nuclear arsenal, and unchecked license to wage war. International solidarity must therefore become a counter-force to this disarmament project. Our task internationally is to become—through organization, clarity and action—popular weapons for the Resistance.”

Scholars and academics Dr. Ali Hamieh, Dr. Omar Hamed, Nour Ali and Harith Ali also delivered papers addressing various aspects of Al-Aqsa Flood and the strategic perspective for the future. The presentation of research was directed by Dr. Bushra al-Zuwaini, head of the Scientific Committee of the Rawafed Organization conference.

In his speech at the conference, Mohammed al-Hamad, president of the Rawafed Organization, reviewed the role of the Al-Aqsa Flood in uniting the peoples of the world, and emphasized that a strong, just future for Iraq requires a focus on the Palestinian cause: “The enemy creates death to expand, while resistance creates life so that the region can rise with sovereignty, dignity, and prosperity,” he noted.

Sayyed Mujtaba al-Husseini, representative of Iman Khamenei, emphasized the need to unify efforts to confront the challenges ahead, noting the pivotal role of Al-Aqsa Flood in opening a new moment for unity and struggle towards victory.

Dr. Osama Hamdan emphasized that study, research and knowledge are important in charting the paths forward in the next stage, noting that the resistance continues and the Al-Aqsa Flood continues, until liberation, as the resistance will not abandon its goals in the face of an enemy of humanity.

The conference concluded with the presentation of honors to the sons of the martyrs Abu Baqir al-Saadi and Imad Mughniyyeh. The participating researchers were honored for their intellectual contributions with awards featuring the image of Palestinian leader Yahya Sinwar at the iconic moment of his martyrdom confronting occupation forces in Gaza.

Jordanian arrest of journalist Mohamed Faraj is a blatant attack on free Arab media

20 December 2025

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network denounces in the strongest terms the Jordanian authorities’ arrest of Al-Mayadeen TV journalist Mohammed Faraj and his arbitrary detention for more than a week without any declared legal justification, and without revealing his place of detention or the charges against him. This is a dangerous step that affects the most basic public freedoms and the freedom of journalistic work, coming atop ongoing arrests and repression targeting those working for freedom and justice for Palestine..

Journalist Mohammed Faraj was arrested upon his arrival at Amman airport and taken to interrogation; his family and his wife, media personality Rana Abi Jomaa, have been prevented from visiting him or checking on his condition. This constitutes a flagrant violation of Jordan’s constitution and laws, and a direct attack on the dignity of the press and its role in conveying the truth.

This arbitrary arrest comes in the context of policies of silencing, repression and targeting free Arab media voices, especially those supporting the Palestinian cause carried out by “Israel,” imperialist Western powers, and Arab reactionary regimes. This is a policy of the Zionist project as is evident in the assassination of hundreds of Palestinian journalists in Gaza. This targeting of journalists because of their positions and professional work documenting and exposing the crimes of the occupation is a desperate attempt to break the power and strength of the free word. It further comes amid ongoing arrests, criminalization and imprisonment in Jordan of those who stand with, organize for, and act to liberate Palestine.

We call for the immediate and unconditional release of journalist Mohamed Faraj, urgent disclosure of his place of detention and his health and legal status, enabling his family and lawyer to visit him immediately without restrictions, and stopping all forms of harassment and prosecution against journalists and media professionals.

We further call upon on Jordanian and Arab media institutions, press unions, human rights institutions, national forces and intellectuals to assume their responsibilities, raise their voices loudly in solidarity with writer and journalist Mohammed Faraj, and manifest serious pressure to end this arbitrary detention, in defense of freedom of the press and the right of peoples to know the truth.

Fighting racism and repression in Belgium: Husam is free after 50 days in detention

23 November 2025

A statement from Samidoun Belgium

Upon receiving refugee status in Belgium, Husam has finally been freed. Arrested on 29th of September after the daily protest at the bourse, Husam has spent 50 days in a closed detention center. His arrest was part of a broader wave of repression against the Palestine solidarity movement in Belgium. Husam was among eleven Palestinians violently arrested, of whom eight were taken to closed detention centers despite being in ongoing asylum processes.

Out of the eight Palestinians who were arrested and taken to closed detention centers, only Fathi Alhams, Ali Abu Taha and Mahmoud Abu Hadayed remain. Two others, Anas and Hamouda, have been deported to Greece, while Mahmoud Faraj Allah died a martyr within the walls of the closed detention center 127bis in Steenokkerzeel.

The use of closed detention centers and threat of deportation continues the Arizona coalition’s aim to ‘institute the strictest migration policy ever’, expanding on previous governments’ persecution of undocumented migrants. Using a combination of new laws, policies, and unlawful police interventions, this has led to a severe increase in expulsions of squats for undocumented migrants, the expansion of detention centers, increased deportations, and continuous flagrant violations of the right to asylum.

Let there be no mistake. The politicians behind this policy, the bureaucrats who keep it in place, and the police who enforce it, are all directly responsible for the violence of the last months. From the death of Mahmoud Ezzat Farag Allah, to the violent expulsion of 70 undocumented migrants from Zone Neutre.

While we celebrate the release of Husam, we will not stop mobilizing until Fathi, Ali and Mahmoud are freed.

We will not stop taking to the streets until every single closed detention center has been dismantled, and the Belgian state abandon its persecution of undocumented migrants.

We will not rest until we get justice for Mahmoud, Fabian, Christophe, Sourour, Mehdi, Imad, Adel, Sabrina, Ouassim, and everyone else murdered by the racist and violent Belgian state.

Ni oubli, ni pardon — we do not forget or forgive.

The case of Ahmed Salem: Palestinian refugee imprisoned in Italy

23 November 2025

The case of Anan Yaeesh and his fellow targeted Palestinians, Ali Irar and Mansour Doghmosh, and the active support campaign for them, have raised the alarm Italy’s ongoing imprisonment of another Palestinian political prisoner, Palestinian refugee Ahmed Salem, from Baddawi refugee camp in Lebanon, who has been imprisoned for six months for calling upon people to mobilize to confront the imperialist-Zionist genocide in Gaza.

When he applied for political asylum in Italy, he was instead criminalized and his phone searched — and now he is facing criminal charges for posting a video on social media urging Palestinians and Arabs in the West Bank and Lebanon to act for Gaza, and for having viewed widely circulated videos of Palestinian resistance operations confronting genocide. This case is, in part, based on new additions to the Italian criminal code introduced this year for the purpose of targeting local social movements as well as internationalist and anti-imperialist struggles, particularly, the Palestinian cause.

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network urges the immediate liberation of Ahmed Salem as well as that of Anan Yaeesh, and calls on supporters of Palestine everywhere to demand that Italy cease its imprisonment of Palestinian political prisoners — part and parcel of its imperialist complicity with genocide.

We are republishing the text of the Free Anan campaign below, translated to English:

The case of Ahmad Salem

In prison for six months for calling for mobilisation against genocide

Ahmad Salem is a 24-year-old Palestinian, born and raised in the Baddawi Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon. He arrived in Italy seeking international protection and, after his arrival, went to Campobasso to apply for political asylum.

During the hearing before the Territorial Commission, his phone was seized and searched, and Salem was charged under Articles 414 (incitement to commit a crime) and 270 quinquies (self-training for the purpose of terrorism) of the Italian Criminal Code. The Italian authorities, as well as the press, described him as a ‘jihadist’ who incited hatred and instigated terrorist acts, claiming that his phone contained ‘instructional material’ useful for terrorist purposes.

The entire case against him is based on a couple of sentences taken out of context from an eight-minute video posted online, in which Ahmad called for mobilisation against the ongoing genocide in Gaza, for an uprising in the West Bank and for people to take to the streets in Lebanon; and a passage in the video in which Ahmad condemns the silence and inaction of the Arab and Muslim world in the face of Israel’s crimes becomes, for the Campobasso Digos, a video of “jihadist propaganda”.

As for the alleged ‘instructional videos’, it emerged that these were footage of operations by the Palestinian resistance in Gaza against Israeli military vehicles, the same videos that had been circulating for months on television channels and in the media; these were found to contain no technical or training information, as claimed by the prosecution; so much so that the same videos released by the Palestinian resistance in Gaza have been repeatedly made publicly available and broadcast by Italian media outlets, including Rai News, La Repubblica, La Stampa and others, over the last two years.

Despite this, Ahmad has been in prison for over six months, under high security, in Rossano Calabro, awaiting trial. His lawyers have appealed to the Court of Cassation and raised the issue of the constitutionality of Article 270 quinquies, known as “terrorism of speech”, recently introduced with the “Security Decree” (formerly DDL 1660) in April, further expanding the scope of repression in Italy. This case is part of a broader political and legal context, namely one in which the Italian state is equipping itself with increasingly stringent repressive measures, not only to crack down on social struggles and solidarity movements, but also on any expression of support for Palestine and the Palestinian people’s legitimate struggle for independence and self-determination…

We would add that in Rossano prison (in the province of Cosenza, Calabria) there is a high-security wing where around twenty similar cases are being held, young immigrant proletarians, as well as some long-standing Red Brigade comrades who were recently transferred there.

Lebanon’s Independence Day: The U.S.-Zionist assassination of Haitham Ali Tabtaba’i and the struggle to free Lebanese prisoners

23 November 2025

On 22 November 2025, Lebanon marked its Independence Day as the Zionist occupation, backed by the United States and its imperialist partners, continues its daily barrage of aggressions in clear violation of the ceasefire agreement made nearly one year before, on 27 November 2024. On the afternoon of Sunday, 23 November, occupation aircraft bombed Haret Hreik, a crowded residential municipality in Dahiyeh, the southern suburbs of Beirut, and assassinating Haitham Ali Tabtaba’i, a senior leader in Hezbollah, the Lebanese Islamic Resistance, taking the lives of five martyrs and wounding at least 28 more people, including 10 children and 8 women.

He was martyred alongside four of his comrades, distinguished strugglers of Hezbollah: Qassem Hussein Barjawi, Mustafa As’ad Berro, Rifa’at Ahmed Hussein and Ibrahim Ali Hussein.

Earlier the same day, occupation forces assassinated a man in Aita al-Shaab, south Lebanon, as he worked to rebuild and restore his home, damaged last year by the occupation’s aggression on Lebanon. The assault on Beirut was coordinated with the United States, according to both U.S. and Zionist statements, making clear once again that the U.S. is neither a partner nor a friend of Lebanon, but directly involved in attacking its sovereignty, independence and self-determination. Indeed, the United States had previously declared a $5 million “bounty” on Tabtaba’i, as has been the case in a series of Zionist assassinations of figures singled out by the U.S. for targeting for their role in the Arab and Islamic resistance and the defense of Palestine, Lebanon, Yemen and the region as a whole.

The martyr leaders, Ibrahim Aqil and Haithem al-Tabtaba’i

The statement issued by Hezbollah upon his martyrdom highlighted the role of the U.S.:

Allah bestowed upon him the high honor of martyrdom. His great martyrdom will impart hope, determination, and strength to his brother fighters and persistence in continuing the path, just as he was a source of strength and inspiration for them during his life. The fighters will carry his pure blood, just as they carried the blood of all martyred commanders, and they will move forward with steadfastness and courage to defeat all projects of the zionist enemy and its patron, America.

On Saturday, 22 November, Zionist warplanes bombed at least 16 locations in Lebanon, including areas in south Lebanon and Baalbek, and killed one martyr, Hussein Yassin Hussein, a member of the Houla Municipal Council, in a drone strike on the southern Lebanese village of Wadi Nahle. While the U.S. and its imperialist partners in France, Britain, Germany and fellow imperialist powers demand that the Resistance “disarm” and become defenseless in the face of an aggressive enemy that seeks to occupy and seize Lebanese land, the Zionist regime continues its aggression, assassinations, bombings and ongoing invasions of Lebanon.

This followed the massacre in Ein el Helweh Palestinian refugee camp on 19 November, when the occupation forces bombed a sports field near Khaled bin al-Walid Mosque in the camp, taking the lives of 14 martyrs and injuring nearly 100 people. The martyrs included: Hussein al-Shouli, Yousef al-Shama, Ahmed Othman, Ali Ibrahim, Bilal al-Natour, Obada Ghoutani, Mohammed Khalil, Ibrahim Qaddoura, Amjad Khashan, Jihad Sidawi, Mohammed Ghoutani, Ahmed Mohammed and Mustafa Ghoutani. The people of the camp took to the streets in large numbers in outrage at the massacre, which once again underlined that the Zionist regime — armed and funded by the United States, and provided with weaponry to carry out its crimes — is carrying out its genocide against the Palestinian people not only inside Palestine, but in the refugee camps surrounding it as well.

Part and parcel of the assault on Lebanon is the continuing imprisonment of at least 20 Lebanese prisoners in the occupation’s jails, at least some of whom are held in the notorious Rakevet underground prison, where prisoners have been subjected to some of the most extreme forms of torture and abuse, are denied all access to lawyers or family members, and are prevented from seeing the outside entirely.

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network expresses our outrage at the ongoing massacres, assassinations, kidnappings and bombings targeting the people and the Resistance of Lebanon by the U.S.-led imperialist-Zionist forces. We salute and mourn the martyr Haitham Ali Tabtaba’i and all of the martyrs of Lebanon and Palestine whose blood has been shed by the vicious crimes of the occupation and their imperialist sponsors amid “ceasefires” in Lebanon and Gaza.

The Zionist-imperialist assassination policy is intended to disorganize the Resistance, undermine popular morale and support, and remove effective leadership confronting the enemy assault, from Yahya Sinwar, Ismail Haniyeh and Mohammed Deif, to Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, Sayyed Hashem Safieddine and Fouad al-Shukr, to Ahmed al-Rawhi and Mohammed Abdul-Karim al-Ghamari, to Mohammed Bagheri and Mohammed Saeed Izadi. It is all of our responsibility to stand with the people and the Resistance to ensure the failure of the assassination campaign — and victory for Palestine and Lebanon.

We emphasize that this is a moment for urgent action and escalation everywhere around the world, and particularly in the heart of the imperial core — not for retreat and silence. Every day, the occupation is killing, stealing land, assassinating and abducting, in Gaza, the West Bank and throughout occupied Palestine, and in Lebanon, particularly in the South.

We further urge all supporters of Palestine, Yemen, Lebanon and of justice and dignity to join the campaign to free Lebanese prisoners in Zionist jails. They struggle side by side with the Palestinian prisoners in Zionist jails for justice and liberation, for themselves and their brothers, and for their land and people. The imprisonment of the Lebanese prisoners — including farmers, fishers, workers and freedom fighters — is a daily act of war against Lebanon, as are the assassinations, bombings and invasions.

The imprisoned Lebanese are:

Ali Younes (Hermel)
Abducted from Wadi al-Hujeir on Dec 19, 2024
Fouad Qattaya (al-Qasr)
Abducted from Wadi al-Hujeir on Dec 19, 2024 – Ali Younes and Fouad Qattaya are workers who install aluminum. Both were seized as they were traveling to a workshop in Shaqra.
Hussein Karaki (Khirbet Salem)
Abducted from Markaba on Jan 26, 2025 – Hussein Karaki was shot by “Israeli” occupation forces multiple times while participating in the liberation of his mother’s town on 26 January; his mother, Tamara Shahimi, was martyred beside him. His current location is unknown.
Hassan Hammoud (Taybeh)
Abducted from Taybeh on Jan 27, 2025
Ali Tarhini (Jibshit)
Abducted from Odaisseh on Jan 28, 2025 – Ali Tarhini, 19, was abducted by occupation forces as the people of Odeisseh sought to liberate it and return home. He was shot in his back, stomach and feet.
Mohammad Jheir (Naqoura)
Abducted at sea on Feb 2, 2025 – Mohammed Jheir is a Lebanese fisherman abducted from his boat in Lebanese waters.
Murtada Mhanna (Maroun al-Ras)
Abducted on Feb 16, 2025
Ali Fneish (Maaroub)
Abducted at sea on Jun 4, 2025 – Ali Fneish is a Lebanese fisherman abducted from his boat in Lebanese waters.
Maher Hamdan (Shebaa)
Abducted from Shebaa on Jun 7, 2025 – Maher Hamdan, 28, is a shepherd who was abducted from Shebaa Farms as he was tending a herd of sheep. His family did not know what had happened to him until Ali Fneish’s family learned that both Ali and Maher were imprisoned together in late July.
Imad Amhaz (Hermel)
Abducted in Batroun on Nov 1, 2024
Hassan Aqil Jawad (Aita al-Shaab)
Captured in Aita al-Shaab, 2024
Mohammad Abdel-Karim Jawad (Aita al-Shaab)
Captured in Aita al-Shaab, 2024
Ibrahim Munif al-Khalil (Aita al-Shaab)
Captured in Aita al-Shaab , 2024
Yousef Abdullah (Babliyeh)
Captured in Aita al-Shaab , 2024
Hussein Sharif (Yammouneh)
Captured in Aita al-Shaab, 2024
Waddah Younes (Houla)
Captured in Blida, 2024
Hadi Mustafa Assaf (Al-Diyabiya)
Captured in Aita al-Shaab, 2024
Ali Assaf (Hermel)
Captured in Aita al-Shaab, 2024
Abdullah Fahdeh (Al-Qasr)
Captured in Aita al-Shaab, 2024
Hassan Qashqoush (Qaqiyah al-Jasr)
Captured from Aita al-Shaab while working as a nurse, 2024

Take action:

Organize a protest, demonstration, banner drop, or postering on 10 December — International Human Rights Day — to free the Lebanese prisoners. (Read the call from the Assembly of Detainees and Freed Prisoners — Lebanon)
Record a video in solidarity with the Lebanese prisoners (1 minute or even less!) Call for their liberation. Send the video to us at samidoun@samidoun.net.
Sign on to the All for Lebanon campaign of the Masar Badil, Palestinian Alternative Revolutionary Path Movement, at https://allforlebanon.com/

Download posters that you can use for the Lebanese prisoners in your area in PDF form (with Samidoun logo | without Samidoun logo).

Liberated Palestinian prisoners express support for hunger-striking prisoners in British jails

23 November 2025

As the Prisoners for Palestine in British jails are amid the fourth week of their rolling hunger strike, which began on 2 November 2025, the anniversary of the infamous Balfour Declaration, liberated Palestinian prisoners express their solidarity and support for the hunger strikers. Qesser Zuhrah, Amu Gib, Heba Muraisi, Teuta Hoxha, Jon Cink, and Kamran Ahmed are all on hunger strike; they are part of the Filton 24 — British actionists who shut down a Zionist weapons manufacturing plant of the infamous Elbit Systems — and the RAF Brize Norton 3, who allegedly decommissioned two British military planes involved in flying surveillance flights and refueling flights to support the Israeli occupation military amid the genocide in Gaza.

In addition, Sean Middlebrough, one of the Filton 24, remains free after refusing to return to prison after a four-day parole to attend his brother’s wedding. He had been detained since November 2024, and told the Electronic Intifada: “I am not on the run. I am simply exercising common sense and refuse to be held as a ‘prisoner of war’ of ‘Israel’ in a British prison…It is outrageous, 23 of my co-defendants, heroic and honorable, remain in prison after our abduction by the anti-terror police.”

Palestinian prisoners freed from Zionist jails by the resistance in the Toufan al-Ahrar exchange and living in exile expressed their support for the hunger strikers as they wage the “battle of empty stomachs” inside British prisons.

On behalf of the displaced Palestinian prisoners in exile, Abdel-Nasser Issa sent a message of support:

Honorable comrades struggling in the prisons of the United Kingdom,
Revolutionary greetings. Peace, mercy, and blessings of God be upon you.

From the reality of the struggle experience inside the prisons and cells of the Zionist occupation, where one of our most important tools was the struggle through hunger strike, or what we call in our literature the “Battle of Empty Stomachs”, we draw near today to your feelings, filled with challenge, positivity, and distinction, as you wage yet another just battle in the course of your struggle against the injustice and oppression whose price you are paying today in the prisons of the British government.

We too are scorched by the fire of its laws, which remain to this moment tools of repression in the hands of the occupation’s courts, just as our children are burned by the fire of its weapons through Britain’s support for the killing machine in Gaza—just as, in the past, it killed thousands of our grandparents and parents, including the hundreds executed by the British Mandate authorities as part of its fulfillment of the accursed Balfour Declaration, whose bitter anniversary coincides with the launch of your just battle.

As we witness your steadfastness and your sacrifices in support of justice and the struggle against oppression, we extend to you our greetings and our pride in you, wishing you victory in your just battle. May your voice and your actions remain high, effective, and accomplished in the ongoing battle of truth against the injustice of Zionism and those who created it.

With pride and honor in you,
The displaced Palestinian prisoners

On behalf of the Palestinian prisoners liberated in the several stages of the Toufan al-Ahrar exchange, Ammar al-Zaben also addressed his solidarity to the Prisoners for Palestine:

In the name of God, the Most Merciful, the Most Compassionate,
To our heroic comrades and prisoners of freedom in the prisons of Britain — greetings of the revolution, the word, and the rifle.

In a time when the genocide against our people in Gaza is met with silence — for now — the echo of your uprising, still inflamed behind the prison bars, has reached us, along with your resolve to launch a hunger strike in defense of your free and principled choices in supporting our Palestinian people, who, thanks to you, have stood firm in the face of the monster of modern colonialism.

Know, O revolutionaries of the world, that you are not alone in this ordeal. Every Palestinian on the face of the earth raises their hat to you, proud that their back is supported by the wall of your steadfastness and revolutionary spirit. The price you are paying for supporting our cause and our people is powerful proof that you are our loyal partners in confronting colonialism and its criminal instrument — the Zionist occupation state.

We are approaching the moment of the end of the occupation, God willing soon, and may colonialism and all its tools fall everywhere.

Your brothers and comrades,
The freed prisoners of the “Flood of the Free” exchange

Abdel-Nasser Issa, born to a Palestinian refugee family in 1968, was imprisoned for 30 years in Zionist jails. He was shot by the occupation twice in 1982 and arrested repeatedly in 1985, 1986 and 1988 before his last arrest, when he was sentenced to two life sentences plus 20 years for his role in the armed resistance movement for Palestinian liberation. In 2005, he established the leadership body of Hamas prisoners inside the occupation prisons as well as a cultural and educational program for the prisoners. He published multiple books and papers from behind bars and obtained his master’s degree in 2014. Last month, he spoke virtually in Athens, Greece, after a concerted effort by Zionist forces to block him from speaking.

Ammar al-Zaben spent 27 years inside the occupation prisons prior to his release in the Toufan al-Ahrar exchange on 22 February 2025. Born in Nablus in 1975, he became the leader of the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades in his area. with one of the mandates being capturing occupation soldiers in order to exchange them to liberate Palestinian prisoners. He was involved in leading several armed resistance operations in occupied Jerusalem, and when he was captured by the occupation forces in 1998, he was sentenced to 27 life sentences plus 25 years. He is married with two sons and two daughters; he is considered the first Palestinian prisoner to use “liberated sperm” smuggled from the prison to a fertility clinic to have children, “ambassadors of freedom,” with his wife — his sons Muhannad, in 2012, and Seif al-Din, in 2014.

The Prisoners for Palestine are on strike to achieve five demands:

An end to the censorship of letters and books, and freedom of expression.
Immediate bail.
The right to a fair trial.
The deproscription of Palestine Action.
The closure of all Elbit weapons factories in Britain.

There is an international day of action to support the prisoners and to demand the deproscription of Palestine Action on Tuesday, 25 November. The date marks the next hearing in the legal case confronting the proscription of Palestine Action, rendering it illegal in Britain. In London, supporters will gather outside the Royal Courts of Justice from 10 am to 4 pm on Tuesday to raise their voices for the prisoners and for the deproscription. Hundreds of people have been arrested across Britain as they hold signs declaring, “I support Palestine Action. I oppose genocide” — a simple act that defies the British “Terrorism Act.” In addition, there is a Break the Chains bloc being organized for the British National March for Palestine in support of the Prisoners for Palestine and the Palestinian prisoners’ movement in Zionist jails. The bloc will gather on Saturday, 29 November at 11:30 am outside the Hilton on Park Lane to march together.

Some prominent individuals have expressed their solidarity with the hunger strikers, including MPs Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana, 30 Irish councillors, freed Irish prisoner Bernadette McAliskey, and novelist Sally Rooney. In France, activists created a mural expressing solidarity with the Filton 24 and the hunger strikers on 19 November, as the start of the trial of the first group of the 24 (Zoe Rogers, Fatema Zainab (Ray) Rajwani, Jordan Devlin, Samuel Corner and Charlotte Head) began; they are accused of causing millions of pounds of damage to Elbit Systems.

Among the many banner drops around the world, Samidoun and the Anti-Imperialist Front posted large banners in Athens in support of the hunger strikers:

The Prisoners for Palestine movement is calling for actions and support around the world. The hunger strikers are not yet receiving the attention and support they need from the global movement in solidarity with Palestine, and Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network urges all to join in the actions on 25 November, the international call to action, and to highlight all of the prisoners — from British to US to German to French to Zionist jails — on the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, 29 November.

Below are some further suggested actions:

Protest at a British embassy or consulate near you

Organize a rally, protest, picket or other action at a British embassy or consulate in your area. Use the demands of the Prisoners for Palestine and demand an end to British imperialist complicity and involvement in genocide, including the persecution of Palestine Action and the Prisoners for Palestine!

Sign a letter

Sign the online letter to call for the implementation of the prisoners’ demands.

Write to our prisoners

Write letters to the prisoners, to break through the censorship and lift their spirits. Just write their prison number alongside their name, and please don’t write about anybody’s alleged action in your letters for legal reasons.

Check out our guide on writing to prisoners.

Contact the prisons

Contact the prison and tell them your concerns about the person that is on hunger strike. Contact details here.

Spread the word

Spread the word! Tell everyone you know about our prisoners and how they continue to resist in prison.
Share our social media posts (insta, x, youtube).
Read and share the prisoners’ writings from inside:
Educate yourself and your friends – organise film nights or a reading group. If you have book or film recommendations send them to us!

Organise

Make your own Prisoners for Palestine placard and take it to your next protest.
Pressure your local MP to advocate for the prisoners.
Organise demos outside the prisons where actionists are held.
Do a banner drop.

Samidoun: Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network

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