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A secret specialized unit within the Israeli police force has been uncovered monitoring foreign journalists seeking entry to Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories, new reporting from Israeli outlet Haaretz has revealed. The surveillance unit operates in close coordination with Israel’s Population and Immigration Authority, with personnel posted at international border crossings and the Allenby Bridge Crossing, the primary entry point from Jordan into the occupied West Bank.

Haaretz obtained internal police documents detailing the surveillance of Italian freelance journalist Alessandro Stefanelli, who has made multiple trips to Israel and the West Bank over his career. Israeli authorities labeled Stefanelli as critical of the Israeli state, describing him in official records as a reporter and photographer who produces “one-sided coverage of Israel”.

In July of last year, Stefanelli received formal notice that his Israeli visa had been revoked, with the Israeli embassy in Rome offering no explanation for the sudden cancellation. When the journalist attempted to enter the West Bank via the Allenby Bridge Crossing several months later, he was turned away by immigration officials.

Stefanelli later filed a court petition challenging the entry ban, prompting Israeli police to add additional damning accusations to their file against him. The police report claims Stefanelli “calls for international intervention against ‘settler violence’ and draws a one-sided map” of the region, and further alleged he maintains “in contact with militants”.

For Stefanelli, the unsubstantiated claims are deeply alarming. Speaking to Haaretz, he called the accusations “ridiculous in the extreme”, noting they place him on official watchlists alongside suspected terrorists. “I have trouble understanding how a police officer in a democracy can write such things,” Stefanelli said, adding that such documents are only prepared under the assumption that sitting judges will accept their unvetted claims at face value.

His attorney, Tamir Blank, has condemned the surveillance program as a direct attack on press freedom. “It’s astonishing and disappointing that the police… are investing resources into monitoring journalistic articles and restricting freedom of expression,” Blank told Haaretz, warning the unit is barely distinguishable from authoritarian “thought police” that target dissenting opinion.

Israeli police have defended the program, telling Haaretz all operations comply with existing domestic legislation that grants authorities the power to bar foreign nationals from entering the country if the individual or their affiliated organization is found to act against Israeli state interests.

The surveillance of Stefanelli is part of a broader, escalating crackdown on press freedom across Israel and the Palestinian territories that has accelerated sharply since October 2023. Since that date, Israel has banned all independent journalist entry to the occupied Gaza Strip, requiring all reporters to enter under mandatory Israeli military escort. Just last month, Israel’s Supreme Court delayed its ruling on whether to lift the entry ban for the 11th time, after failing to receive any formal response from the Israeli government on the issue.

Three major press freedom and journalist organizations – the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), Reporters Without Borders (RSF), and the Foreign Press Association in Israel (FPA) – have joined a longstanding court petition demanding the ruling go forward and unimpeded access be granted to Gaza. Despite the advocacy, Supreme Court deputy president Noam Sohlberg rejected the request for an immediate ruling and granted the state another extension to prepare its response.

Foreign journalists working within Israel already operate under severe restrictions, with the Israeli government moving to ban prominent international news outlet Al Jazeera on unproven claims it poses a threat to national security. In Gaza, the situation is far deadlier, the CPJ says: Israel is carrying out “the deadliest and most deliberate effort to kill and silence journalists” in modern history.

The group’s statement confirms that Palestinian reporters are routinely targeted for their work: “Palestinian journalists are being threatened, directly targeted, and murdered by Israeli forces, and are arbitrarily detained and tortured in retaliation for their work.” Official CPJ data puts the death toll of journalists at 263 killed by Israeli forces since October 2023, with an additional 174 injured and 107 detained in Israeli prisons.

The long-running humanitarian crisis in Gaza has entered a new, more tense phase this week, as organizers of the Global Sumud Flotilla, a major initiative delivering aid to the blockaded Palestinian enclave, confirmed that 10 of their vessels remain en route to Gaza after Israeli naval forces intercepted 41 boats in international waters. According to the flotilla’s coordination team, the closest remaining ship is currently just 145 nautical miles from Gaza’s besieged coastline.

Israeli authorities have made their opposition to the aid mission clear: the country’s Foreign Ministry stated Monday that it would not permit any breach of its long-standing naval blockade of Gaza, and issued an immediate demand for all remaining flotilla vessels to reverse course. Earlier the same day, organizers reported that Israeli troops had surrounded 38 of the original 54-vessel fleet when the convoy was 250 nautical miles off Gaza’s coast, detaining roughly 300 international activists on board. In a formal statement, the Global Sumud Flotilla condemned the interception as unlawful high-seas aggression, accusing Israel of consistent, systematic violation of international maritime law, the right to freedom of high-seas navigation, and the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. This latest interception comes just two weeks after Israeli forces intercepted 22 other flotilla vessels off the Greek coast, detaining 181 humanitarian volunteers in that operation. Among the current detainees are 11 Australian citizens, including medical professionals, students and academics, and the Australian government confirmed Monday it is urgently working to verify their safety and status.

Parallel to the standoff at sea, the catastrophic humanitarian situation inside Gaza continues to deteriorate, according to updates from United Nations and global medical aid groups. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) warned in its most recent situation report that conditions in the enclave remain dire: the vast majority of Gaza’s population has been displaced, with most residents exposed to persistent threats to public health and environmental safety. Israeli military operations across the enclave have intensified in recent days, with reports of sustained air strikes and ground gunfire in major population centers including Deir al-Balah, Khan Younis, and Gaza City. A string of deadly Israeli attacks on civilian areas between May 13 and 17 has killed multiple civilians, including two Palestinian brothers in Jabalia on May 14, one civilian near Jabalia’s Abu Hussein school on May 16, and three community kitchen workers at a food distribution site in Deir al-Balah on May 17. The deadliest of these recent attacks came on May 15 – Nakba Day, the annual commemoration of the 1948 displacement of Palestinians – when an Israeli strike on a Gaza City residential building killed Izz al-Din al-Haddad, leader of Hamas’s armed wing, along with his wife, daughter, and four other civilian residents.

Updated official figures from Palestinian medical sources put the total death toll in Gaza since the start of the conflict on October 7, 2023, at 72,763, with an additional 172,664 people wounded. Thousands more are still missing and presumed dead beneath the rubble of destroyed buildings. Even after the temporary October ceasefire, violence has continued: at least 871 Palestinians have been killed and 2,562 injured, while recovery teams have recovered 776 bodies from destroyed structures in that period.

Gaza’s already crippled healthcare system is now on the brink of total collapse, according to the enclave’s Ministry of Health. Official data shows that 76 percent of Gaza’s medical imaging equipment has been destroyed or rendered unusable by Israeli attacks and strict aid restrictions. All nine MRI machines that previously operated across the enclave have been destroyed, leaving no MRI services available anywhere in Gaza. Just five of 18 existing CT scanners are still functional, and only 33 out of 88 X-ray machines remain operational. This catastrophic loss of diagnostic capacity has severely hampered the ability of medical workers to treat wounded and sick patients, the ministry added.

Overcrowded displacement camps across Gaza are now facing a fast-spreading public health outbreak, according to UN agencies and Medical Aid for Palestine (MAP). Skin infections and other diseases linked to unsanitary conditions and rodent and insect infestations are spreading rapidly, driven by contaminated food supplies, unsafe overcrowded housing, and the total collapse of basic sanitation services. Children are disproportionately affected by the outbreaks. Mohammed Ibrahim Salem, a community health worker with MAP in central Gaza, reported that scabies is particularly widespread among displaced populations, and warned that critical medication supplies are already exhausted. “The current stock is completely inadequate to handle the rising number of skin infections in overcrowded camps, leaving thousands of displaced people without access to essential treatment,” Salem said. The World Health Organization has also warned that Gaza’s rehabilitation services are overwhelmed, with more than 43,000 people across the enclave – one quarter of them children – having sustained permanent, life-changing injuries that require long-term care.

Aid access remains severely constrained, even as needs grow exponentially. OCHA data shows that between May 1 and May 11, only half of all aid trucks arriving from Egypt were able to offload supplies at Israeli-controlled border crossings into Gaza. Severe restrictions on imports of fuel and flour have also driven a catastrophic bread shortage, forcing most local bakeries to close and forcing the World Food Programme to cut back on life-saving food distribution. As of April, WFP data shows that 77 percent of Gaza residents still face extreme levels of acute food insecurity, facing chronic hunger and risk of famine.

The rising violence is not limited to Gaza: in the occupied West Bank, settler violence and Israeli military operations have killed two Palestinian teenagers in recent days. On May 13, 16-year-old Youssef Kaabneh was killed by Israeli fire near the village of Jiljilya, north of Ramallah, during a settler incursion that left another child with a critical chest wound. The Palestinian Red Crescent Society confirmed its medical teams were able to treat the wounded child, but reported increasing restrictions on access for emergency responders. On May 16, a second 16-year-old, Fahd Awais, was shot and killed by Israeli forces in al-Lubban ash-Sharqiya, south of Nablus. In that incident, the Red Crescent said Israeli forces blocked ambulances from reaching the wounded teenager before he died.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu acknowledged in a recent televised address that Israeli military forces now control roughly 60 percent of Gaza’s territory, an area that exceeds the “yellow line” boundary agreed to during the October ceasefire, further escalating tensions over the expanding military operation.

One of Southeast Asia’s most popular tourist destinations, Thailand, has announced a major shakeup of its entry rules for international visitors, ending the sweeping 60-day visa-free exemption that has been in place for travelers from 93 countries since July 2024. That policy was introduced as a core government initiative to reignite the country’s critical tourism sector after it was devastated by the COVID-19 pandemic, but just a year after implementation, officials have approved plans to roll back the broad exemption and replace it with a customized, country-by-country system that tailors maximum allowed stays based on reciprocal agreements between Thailand and individual nations.

The Thai government cited two key drivers for the policy reversal: growing national security concerns tied to a string of high-profile arrests of foreign nationals linked to transnational crime, and widespread confusion created by overlapping multiple visa exemption rules that left many travelers unsure of their entry eligibility. In recent months, Thai law enforcement has detained dozens of foreign citizens for a range of illegal activities, from drug smuggling and sex trafficking to unauthorized employment. High-profile cases have included UK nationals charged with moving illicit substances, and a raid on an unlicensed international school in Bangkok in April this year that resulted in the arrest of 10 foreign teachers working without valid work permits.

Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul confirmed the change, noting that a policy review found the original 60-day exemption needed adjustments “to be more suitable for the current situation, both in terms of the economy and national security.” Under the new framework, most travelers that previously qualified for the 60-day entry — including citizens of major source markets such as Australia, China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Spain, the United States, and the United Kingdom — will only be allowed to stay visa-free for up to 30 days. Travelers hoping to stay longer than that window will be required to apply for an official visa in advance of their trip. A small number of nationalities will receive adjusted exemption periods, either shorter or longer than the 30-day standard, aligned with existing reciprocal travel agreements between Thailand and their home countries.

The new rules will officially go into effect 15 days after they are published in the Royal Gazette, Thailand’s official publication for all legal and regulatory announcements. Thai foreign ministry officials added that the overhaul will eliminate conflicting overlapping exemption terms that previously created unnecessary confusion for international visitors planning trips to the country.

Tourism has long functioned as one of the foundational pillars of Thailand’s national economy, drawing nearly 40 million international visitors in pre-pandemic 2019 before global border closures sent arrivals plummeting. The sector has only steadily rebuilt over the past two years, with official data showing nearly 12 million international travelers have already entered the country in 2025 as of the latest count, putting the recovery on solid but still incomplete footing compared to pre-COVID volumes.

In the occupied West Bank, two disturbing incidents of animal cruelty perpetrated by Israeli settlers have sparked renewed attention to the escalating pattern of settler violence targeting Palestinian communities and their property, just weeks after a broader regional escalation that began last year. The most recent incident, captured on camera on Monday, unfolded during an active Israeli military raid in the town of Atara, located north of the Palestinian administrative center Ramallah. Viral footage shared widely across social media platforms shows a settler lifting a heavy concrete block and throwing it directly at two stray cats in the area. This attack came only days after another widely circulated video documented a far more brutal assault on a domestic dog owned by a local Palestinian family in the same town.

In that earlier incident, the settler approached the 18-month-old dog, named Lucy, who was chained securely to a fixed location as a guard animal and posed no imminent threat to anyone. The video footage captures the attacker repeatedly striking the restrained animal with thick wooden sticks, as a second chained dog watches and barks frantically nearby. By the time the assault ended, Lucy had sustained life-threatening catastrophic injuries and required urgent emergency veterinary care. According to Israeli newspaper Haaretz, which first reported on the details of the case, Lucy has since been stabilized after treatment. Still, the veterinarian who treated her described the animal’s condition immediately after the attack as devastating. “There was severe bleeding from her eyes and her head was literally crushed,” the vet told the outlet. “She was almost unconscious. She couldn’t stand or move at all.”

The Palestinian owner of Lucy, who chose to remain anonymous out of well-founded fear of retaliatory violence from settlers, emphasized that the dog never presented any danger to the attacker. “She wasn’t loose, she didn’t attack him or bite him,” he said. “He attacked a tied-up dog.”

Both of these recent attacks took place in close proximity to an unauthorized Israeli settler outpost, constructed last year on privately owned Palestinian land in Area B of the occupied West Bank. The Oslo Accords, signed in the 1990s to framework Palestinian-Israeli relations, divided the West Bank into three administrative zones: Area A, covering 21 percent of the territory, falls under full Palestinian civil and security control; Area B, which makes up approximately 18 percent of the land, is managed by Palestinian civil authorities with Israel retaining exclusive security jurisdiction; and Area C, which accounts for more than 60 percent of the West Bank, remains under full Israeli civil and security control. Unauthorized outposts such as the one near Atara are considered illegal even under Israeli domestic law, unlike fully authorized Israeli settlements, which are deemed illegal under international law for occupying Palestinian land.

Settler violence against Palestinian people and property has been a persistent reality in the occupied West Bank for decades, but human rights organizations and local residents confirm that this aggression has intensified dramatically since the start of the Israel-Gaza war in 2023. Alongside attacks on Palestinian people and property, abuse and violence against Palestinian-owned animals has surged, with numerous recorded testimonies and video footages documenting routine beatings, intentional killings, and poisonings of domestic and working animals. Rights groups have also documented widespread theft of entire herds of livestock by settlers, a tactic that experts and local residents frame as part of a deliberate campaign of intimidation designed to force Palestinian families off their ancestral land, farms, and homes.