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Satellite imagery analysis indicates that Israel has reinforced a permanent military presence across the Gaza Strip through new construction, infrastructure expansion and the demolition of Palestinian property, despite the ceasefire in force since October.

RELATED:

6 Children Killed: Israeli Attack on Gaza School Sparks Global Outrage

Research conducted by the investigative group Forensic Architecture identified at least 13 new Israeli military outposts built inside Gaza between October 10 and December 2, while 48 previously existing positions were consolidated and expanded. The findings suggest preparations for a long-term deployment rather than temporary military activity.

In #Gaza, the elderly and people with disabilities are exposed to disproportionate risk, due to forced displacement and the collapse of the healthcare system.

Crucial supplies like adult diapers are critically depleted, severely compromising hygiene and dignity. Chronic… pic.twitter.com/dJeXm41Jxk

— UNRWA (@UNRWA) December 21, 2025

According to the analysis, the newly built structures are concentrated along the so-called “yellow line,” east of Khan Younis and near the Israeli border. The reshaping of the terrain in these areas points to sustained control of the territory, with military installations embedded into the landscape.

Israel now controls more than 50 percent of the Gaza Strip and has expanded this control through coordinated construction and demolition in occupied areas. These zones have been interconnected by newly built roads, facilitating logistical movement between military sites and reinforcing what researchers describe as an integrated network of illegal settlements established as part of the occupation.

The investigation also documents the construction of a new road in Khan Younis that reroutes Israel’s Magen Oz military corridor so that it runs entirely within Israeli-controlled territory. Military expansion has been accompanied by the systematic destruction of Palestinian buildings. Structures that were not destroyed during earlier attacks were demolished after the ceasefire came into effect, clearing land for new outposts and military roads.

The peace plan proposed by former U.S. President Donald Trump stipulated that Israel would neither occupy nor annex Gaza and that withdrawal would occur gradually toward an initial “yellow line.” However, since the ceasefire began, Israeli forces have occupied additional areas, marking control through at least 27 yellow blocks located west of the originally designated control zone.

Mouin Rabbani, a former United Nations official and senior analyst on Israeli-Palestinian affairs, said the findings reflect a historical pattern in which the Israeli regime creates irreversible facts on the ground.

Overall, the data reveal a scenario in which the Trump peace proposal has been used to consolidate Israeli control while no tangible progress has been made toward a gradual withdrawal. During this period, Israeli forces have continued attacks on Palestinian territory, actions that have displaced thousands of Palestinian refugees who were forced to leave their areas following Israeli violations of the ceasefire.

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The Venezuelan government categorically denounces the United States’ “theft and hijacking” of a second oil tanker off the country’s coast, vowing to pursue legal avenues against Washington, including filing a complaint with the UN.

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Vaccine expert Hu Haitao, who studied under Drew Weissman, the Nobel laureate and pioneer of mRNA biology, has given up his tenured position at a US research institute and returned to China – a decision that required little explanation in 2025, he said. Even just one year ago, people close to him would have thought it “unbelievable” that he might give up an academic career established over nearly two decades in the United States, Hu told the South China Morning Post. But academic prospects in...

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Two Palestinians, including a teenager, have been killed and two others injured by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank, the Health Ministry said.

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Caracas (OrinocoTribune.com)—Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodríguez reported Saturday that Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) reached its goal of producing 1.2 million barrels of crude oil per day this year. Simultaneously, Washington announced the hijacking of a second Venezuelan oil tanker carrying the South American country’s crude this month, raising international and regional tensions about a disruption in oil supplies and potential military escalation.

Rodríguez highlighted that the nation’s achievement in production results from the efforts of workers who, in both operational and administrative areas, have faced external hostilities and coercive measures (euphemistically referred to as “sanctions”) imposed by US imperialism.

“The best Christmas gift our people can receive, from dignified and free men and women, is the extraordinary effort of our oil workers who confront and defeat imperial harassment, hostility, and illegality,” wrote VP Rodríguez in a public statement.

The top official noted that the oil sector will continue advancing toward new production goals for 2026. “Nothing and no one will stop us,” wrote the vice president. “We will continue on our victorious path of honor and national dignity.”

The publicly owned company is preparing to increase production in 2026 to exceed this year’s levels, ensuring domestic supply and generating income for Venezuela despite ongoing US imperialist threats.

Oil blockade
Meanwhile, US Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who oversees the US Coast Guard, posted a seven-minute video on social media showing a helicopter hovering over a second oil tanker carrying Venezuelan oil. She wrote that the tanker was seized with support from the US Defense Department and that it was last docked in Venezuela. So far, Venezuelan authorities have not issued a statements in this regard.

“The United States will continue to pursue the illicit movement of sanctioned oil that is used to fund narco terrorism in the region,” claimed Noem despite reports that the tanker was not on the US “sanctions list.” Although US officials consistently attempt to frame the tanker seizures as occurring within a legal context, the economic coercive measures (“sanctions”) imposed upon Venezuela by the US are, in fact, illegal according to international law.

In fact, earlier this year, in order to clarify this point, the United Nations General Assembly adopted Resolution 79/193 and proclaimed December 4 as International Day against Unilateral Coercive Measures, to be observed annually beginning in 2025. “We underline that unilateral coercive measures are illegal under international law,” wrote the statement.

On Saturday, Venezuela’s Foreign Minister Yvan Gil announced that Iran offered its cooperation to confront acts of piracy and international terrorism by the US regime. Minister Gil stated that he spoke by telephone with his Iranian counterpart, Abbas Araghchi, to review bilateral relations and discuss “recent developments in the Caribbean, especially threats” and the “theft of ships loaded with Venezuelan oil.”

Gil said that Tehran expressed “full solidarity” with Venezuela and offered cooperation in all areas to confront the illegal US actions.

Combined with Trump’s threats of land strikes on Venezuelan soil, the oil tanker seizures have ratcheted up pressure on Caracas by targeting its economic lifeline, which had already come under strain from new sanctions on the oil sector earlier this year.

Analysts claim that this marks a new stage of US imperialist aggression against Venezuela, demonstrating that the previous stages, including attempted coups, assassinations, misinformation, funding of opposition parties, sabotage, etc., did not produce the desired regime change. Thus, analysts argue that despite attempting to construct the narrative of a “war on drugs” and of “democracy versus authoritarianism,” the US has failed to oust President Maduro due to the cohesion of most Venezuelans in support of Chavismo and against foreign intervention, as well as due to the weakness and lack of cohesion of far-right forces within the country.

Since September 2, the US military has killed 104 civilians, against a total of 29 small boats, in what the United Nations labels as extrajudicial killings. Trump has attempted to sell the attacks as an effort to crack down on illegal drug flows from Venezuela, a marginal actor in international narcotics networks. The US actions are clear evidence of a new drive to overthrow President Maduro, whose ouster White House chief of staff Susie Wiles has suggested is the US regime’s real goal.

Trump’s announcement this week of a “blockade” also underscored the US ruler’s focus on Venezuela’s oil, which he has said belongs to the US, along with Venezuelan soil.

Interior Minister Cabello: Venezuela Will Remain a Territory Of Peace; US Extrajudicial Killings Surpass 100

Despite the clear classification of naval blockades as an act of war under international law, the Venezuelan government has shown restraint to avoid an undesirable military confrontation with the US. However, many analysts claim the latest US moves might aim not only at seizing Venezuelan oil but also at pressuring the Venezuelan military to take action to protect oil tankers, which could provide a minimal excuse for the US to initiate a full military campaign against Venezuela.

The US regime attempts to legitimize its acts of piracy by claiming they are due to Venezuela’s attempts to bypass “sanctions.” However, as noted, under international law, US sanctions are illegal and its actions constitute a violation of free trade and freedom of navigation. Analysts claim that US actions to bypass Chinese sanctions—launched to counter illegal US sanctions—might be used by China to justify seizing US vessels in Asia under the same legal argument.

Other analysts claim that Iran or China might launch similar actions in Asia in retaliation for the effects that US actions have on their economies, as many Venezuelan oil shipments are destined for China in collaboration with Iran.

Special for Orinoco Tribune by staff

OT/JRE/SL

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A BBC investigation exposes a fake cancer charity scam linked to an Israeli man in Canada.

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US tech giant NVIDIA has confirmed plans to build a large new research and development campus in Kiryat Tivon, in northern occupied Palestine.

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China’s top court has ruled that if an employer fires an employee for sexual harassment it should not have to pay compensation to the dismissed worker – a move lawyers said would make it easier for victims to take action. The ruling was among five cases highlighted by the Supreme People’s Court on Tuesday as examples of “promoting core socialist values” in family relations, the workplace and transport. According to a document released by the court, a man surnamed Wu in the southern province of...

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Media advocacy organizations call for the immediate release of pro-Palestine journalist Mohammad Faraj, who was detained in Jordan last Friday.

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Ang Bayan ("The People") is the official publication of the Communist Party of the Philippines, guided by Marxism-Leninism-Maoism. It is published by the Central Committee. AB comes out fortnightly every 7th and 21st of each month. The original Pilipino edition is translated into English, Bisaya, Waray, Hiligaynon and Iloko.

The post Ang Bayan | December 21, 2025 appeared first on PRWC | Philippine Revolution Web Central.

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By Dulce Amor Rodriguez
Bulatlat.com

MANILA — Before the police dragged young protesters by the hair, before batons cracked against ribs inside the notorious blue tent in Mendiola, Vitrum, a convener of Alyansa Laban sa Korapsyon at Brutalidad ng Kapulisan (AKAB), already knew what pushed him to the streets on Sept. 21—stories of billions stolen from the people, flood control funds unaccounted for, and communities that remained underwater despite years of promises.

He did not suffer the beatings that others endured that day, but he carries the weight of their bruises in his fight. As survivors recounted torture, unlawful arrests and inhumane detention, Vitrum said the corruption that pushed people to protest is the same system that now uses police power to silence those demanding accountability. “Even with the repression and arrests, this is where we find our voice,” he told Bulatlat.

For him and the AKAB, backing down is not an option—not after what unfolded in Mendiola, and not while the corruption they protested remains unaddressed.

Protesters blocked amid inhumane detention

On Nov. 30, as thousands gathered nationwide for another anti-corruption mobilization, protesters in the capital, particularly in Luneta, marched toward Mendiola, only to be blocked by a police barricade. Behind them was what appeared to be an intermodal container. Protesters chanted, “PNP, protektor ng korap!” — a phrase born not only from frustration with unpunished corruption, but from the memory of violence many bore after Sept. 21.

Those memories are painful and, for some, still open wounds.

Witnesses and rights groups documented beatings, unlawful arrests, and torture. Development worker Luke Malimban told Bulatlat that police struck him while dragging him into a makeshift detention tent after the rally—a place many have since dubbed the “blue tent.” He said no one arrived there unscathed: “Not a single person arrived in the blue tent without a bloody face and wounds,” he recalled.

Others arrested that day described how men in plainclothes punched, kicked, and baton-whipped them, and how uniformed officers later continued the violence during detention. Amnesty International documented the testimonies, calling the abuses, even against minors, “appalling ill-treatment,” and demanded impartial investigation.

Read: Police violence, torture cases surface as new anti-corruption protest looms

In the view of many affected, the barricades on Nov. 30 were more than concrete and shields, they symbolized a system that protects those who loot public funds, while brutalizing those who demand transparency. The chant “PNP, protektor ng korap” echoed not just anger, but memory of tents soaked in blood, of children detained without cause, of injustice that remains unpunished.

Weaponizing the law

The violence was followed by criminal charges. The Philippine National Police – Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (PNP-CIDG) filed cases against 97 individuals, accusing them of conspiracy to commit rebellion or insurrection, sedition, and inciting to sedition under Articles 136, 139, and 142 of the Revised Penal Code.

Lawyers noted that earlier complaints had already been dismissed for lack of evidence.

Human rights lawyer Maria Sol Taule said authorities consistently target those vocal about corruption while those implicated in fund anomalies face no public accountability. “They’re going after the people who speak out,” she said. “But there is no action against those involved in the corruption issue.”

Taule explained that many cases had been “referred for further investigation,” a clear indication that evidence was lacking. Yet police revived these cases and filed them again, even against bystanders detained during the chaos.

She also warned of the danger of escalating charges. “They are trying to prove that students were leaders of the rally so they can hook them under the Public Assembly Act or even attempt to connect them to more serious offenses,” she said.

Read: Beyond the Philippines: Right to protest under fire in many countries

Vitrum witnessed this firsthand. Some of AKAB’s members who were arrested on Sept. 21 continue to receive subpoenas. “Even after the protest, the police won’t stop. They keep elevating the cases,” he said.

Why AKAB refuses to be silenced

For AKAB, the crackdown only affirmed why organizing is necessary.

Vitrum said corruption has long shaped the daily struggles of ordinary workers—soaring inflation, flood-prone communities, lack of public services, and health and transport systems drained by theft. “People cannot access the services meant for them,” he said.

He pointed out that even after the violence of Sept. 21, no public officials or contractors linked to the alleged anomalies have been held accountable. Meanwhile, protesters face fabricated charges.

“They call us agitators,” he said. “But they are the real cause of the crisis—they are the corrupt, they are the violent ones.”

Vitrum said AKAB will continue organizing forums, solidarity nights and mobilizations because silence only emboldens those in power. “We are all we have. We are the ones who must corner the plunderers,” he said.

Taule said the repression against anti-corruption protesters stems from the state’s attempt to protect a system that benefits the powerful. She warned that the pattern is clear: arrests, fabricated cases, suppression of rallies, and demonization of students.

“The current system is desperately trying to maintain the status quo,” she said. “This is why it’s crucial for people to come together to resist fascism.”

For Taule, the right to protest is not only protected by law, it is a duty. “It is not wrong to join protests. It is our responsibility,” she said.

Despite the torture allegations, unlawful arrests, inhumane detention and criminalization of dissent, AKAB says the protests will continue.

Vitrum believes the movement will grow, not shrink. “The more they do this repression, the more our ranks will thicken,” he said. “The anger will only grow.”

From Mendiola to communities battered by corruption, AKAB vows to continue the fight because it is necessary.

As Vitrum put it, “Dito kami nakahahanap ng boses.”

Here, in protest and collective action, he said, the people reclaim what corruption and state violence have long tried to steal—their power. (RVO)

The post AKAB: The struggle must continue appeared first on Bulatlat.

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MANILA – Right after the police and military raided their boarding house, Manobo indigenous activist Julieta Gomez can still vividly remember when they were paraded as “communist-terrorists” inside the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG).

“Arresting indigenous peoples and activists like me was easy for them– even to the point of planting evidence,” Gomez told Bulatlat in an interview. “But those implicated in the corruption, even with the presence of clear evidence, continue to run free.”

Gomez and indigenous rights activist Niezel Velasco were illegally arrested on July 16, 2021, in a joint military and police operation. They were charged with murder, attempted murder, and illegal possession of firearms and explosives, which were dismissed by the Quezon City Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 91 on April 8, 2025.

Prior to their arrest, the two indigenous rights activists flew to Manila to campaign for justice for the second Lianga Massacre, killing three Lumad-Manobo individuals, including a 12-year-old girl on June 15, 2021, in Sitio Panukmoan, Liangga, Surigao del Sur.

Read: 2 Lumad farmers, 1 student killed in another Lianga massacre

Gomez said the circumstances of their arrest remain etched: state agents forcing their way into the house in the pre-dawn hours blowing the doors open, two guns aimed at their heads as they were ordered outside. Just as troubling, Gomez recalled, was the sudden empty black bag: once full of materials with the sound of heavy metal. When the state agents ordered them back to their boarding house, 40 minutes after staying outside, the police presented what they claimed to have “recovered” – firearms, explosives, and paraphernalia.

Now, the two are fighting back by filing countercharges against the police officials responsible for their arrest at the Office of the Ombudsman. But their case is emblematic of the common pattern of politically-motivated charges against activists – over 700 political prisoners languish in the repeated patterns of illegal possession of firearms and explosives, or the twin-terror laws, or both at the same time.

The terror against dissenters, marginalized

“The political prisoners were the ones who stood in the line of fire against the struggle against corruption and the struggle for justice, freedom and national democracy,” martial law survivor and former political prisoner Bonifacio Ilagan, who also represented the Samahan ng mga Ex-Detainees Laban sa Detensyon at Aresto (SELDA), said in a press conference on December 1.

There are a total of 696 political prisoners based on the joint monitoring of  SELDA and human rights group Karapatan. Of these numbers, 93 are elderly, 136 are women, 89 are sick, 12 are consultants and staff of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) who should be protected under the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG), an agreement signed by the Philippine government and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines in 1995.

Ilagan added, “they are the ones who should be given freedom on the basis of humanitarian reasons, not the likes of Duterte.”

In a protest at the Department of Justice last December 3, SELDA spokesperson and former political prisoner Adora Faye de Vera said, “Most political prisoners are peasant and labor organizers, human rights defenders, development workers and even ordinary citizens slapped by the DOJ with trumped-up criminal cases on mere suspicion of supporting the revolutionary movement.”

She added that the twin terror laws — Anti-Terror Act (ATA) and the Terrorism Financing Prevention and Suppression Act (TFPSA) have been increasingly used by the DOJ against dissenters. Karapatan reported that at least 30 of those charged with violating the twin terror laws are still detained.

“There is rank injustice in targeting those who fight corruption and advance human rights,” said Karapatan deputy secretary general Maria Sol Taule, “but turning a blind eye to the biggest plunderers and fascists like Marcos Jr. and his ilk.”

Attacks on anti-corruption dissenters

Meanwhile, not one has been held fully accountable in the blatant corruption scandal, not even with the establishment of the Independent Commission for Infrastructure (ICI), whose investigations are still ongoing.

Bulatlat’s monitoring recorded that most of the high officials implicated in the flood control corruption scandal denied the allegation, resigned from their posts or left the country, while others were invited to hearings. Among those investigated by the Office of the Ombudsman are former and present politicians implicated by former DPWH undersecretary Roberto Bernardo but the public sees no immediate consequences or follow-through of most of these investigations after the denial.

The same pace of progress goes for the public officials and private entities facing charges before the Ombudsman.

Most of the lawmakers named by the Discaya couple in their affidavit were not subjected to further official investigation after being invited to the Blue Ribbon committee hearings. The sheer volume of individuals linked and indicted constitutes no real accountability emerging from the investigations.

On the other hand, attacks against anti-corruption dissenters have been persistent. According to Mark Vincent Lim, one of the lawyers who responded to the mass arrests during the September 21 protest, there have been 216 victims of unlawful arrest, including 91 minors, and two people died: worker Eric Saber who happened to be a bystander and an unidentified man killed by a stab wound.

“As far as I know, most have already been released on bail,” Lim told Bulatlat. Most of the people arrested are charged with Tumults and Other Disturbances of Public Order (153), while the initial charges for Illegal Assembly and Direct Assault are dismissed by the Manila prosecutor due to insufficiency of evidence.

Most of them have been detained without warrant for more than three days, which is beyond the period allowed by the Revised Penal Code.

Moreover, the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) is going after student leaders from Polytechnic University of the Philippines and University of the Philippines who joined the protest, issuing subpoenas.

In the November 30 protest, three individuals were arrested and shortly released without charges.

Rights violations and resistance inside jails

Meanwhile inside prison, rights of political prisoners and other persons deprived of liberty (PDL) continue to be violated. Gomez said that during their detention, the prison warden in Camp Karingal isolated them from the rest of PDLs.

“We were padlocked in a small room as big as two in a half arm-spans – all three political prisoners – for the majority of detention there in more than two years,” Gomez added. Written outside their room were words: high-ranking communist-terrorists. “We ask them to remove the texts– asserting to them that what they are doing are human rights violations.”

In Negros, political prisoners and other PDLs held hunger strike against the degrading treatment inside the facilities. Karapatan reported that in Negros Occidental District Jail (NODJ), both PDL and political prisoners endure rights violations, arbitrary punishment, and humiliation. The authorities label the political prisoners as members of the “communist terrorist group,” subjecting them to further harassment and punitive measures.

Read: Detainees hold hunger strike due to inhumane treatment

Human rights groups called on the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) National Headquarters and the Commission on Human Rights to conduct a full, impartial, and urgent investigation into the controversial reinstatement of NODJ Warden Crisyrel Awe. They also demand the immediate ending of harassment, unlawful isolation, intimidation, restricted visits, and suppression of rehabilitation programs.

“These acts deepen fear, sustain injustice, and portray PDLs as criminals rather than human beings with inherent dignity,” said Karapatan in a statement.

The group also underscored that the hunger strike exposes the structural injustice in the Philippine penal system, “where the poorest workers, farmers, and urban poor fill overcrowded jails, while the wealthy, corrupt, and powerful evade accountability.”

Congestion in the Philippine jails remains extremely high. The average congestion rate as of May 2025 is almost 300 percent. This overcrowding causes various humanitarian consequences.

The International Committee on Red Cross (ICRC) noted that overcrowding means persons deprived of liberties have limited movement, sleeping spaces, and ventilation. This also means inadequate access to water, sanitary facilities and healthcare– causing disease-causing bacteria and viruses to spread faster.

In the 2025 General Appropriations Act (GAA), there is a total of P4.6 billion for subsistence and almost P1 billion for medical allowance for 182,556 PDLs. This amounts to almost P70 for food and P15 for medical expenses of every PDL. This has been a static budget for PDLs in the last five years.

International solidarity and rights instruments

Three United Nations experts — Mary Lawlor, on the situation of human rights defenders; Gina Romero, on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association; and, Michel Forst, on environmental defenders — signed a collective statement, calling out the global trend of prolonged pretrial detention and long-term imprisonment of human rights defenders.

“Arbitrary detention remains one of the most common and cruel tools used by repressive authorities to silence those peacefully exercising the right to defend human rights and to dismantle civil society,” the statement read.

Read: Double standards in the Philippine’s justice system

The statement also emphasized that such actions foster a climate of fear, creating a profound deterrent effect that discourages the legitimate and essential work of activists, human rights defenders, as well as citizens.

The actions violate the international human rights obligations of the UN state parties like the Philippines on Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and the UN Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.

Moreover, Karapatan stated that the punitive actions against political prisoners and PDLs violate the UN Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (2015 Nelson Mandela Rules), two domestic laws — Republic Act 7438 (Rights of Persons Arrested, Detained, or Under Custodial Investigation) and Republic Act 9745 (Anti-Torture Act), and the own comprehensive operations manual of the BJMP, 2015 edition.

“The existence of political prisoners is a brutal reminder of the oppressive regime Filipinos are facing,” the International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines (ICHRP) stated. “The Marcos Jr. administration claims to seek peace, but in reality, it targets and silences those who are fighting for a just and lasting peace.”

The international group joined the campaign to free all political prisoners in the Philippines and demand an end to illegal arrests and detention.

Political prisoners are detained primarily for their political beliefs or activities or perceived involvement in political movements. The motivation behind the arrest is political, regardless of the charges used against them.
“This misuse and abuse of power destroys lives, livelihoods, families and communities. It stifles and inhibits defenders from carrying out their legitimate and essential work, and discourages others from exercising the right to defend human rights,” the UN experts added in the statement. (With reports from Ruth Nacional) RVO

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