Palestinian fighters, Hamas has demanded the release of a prominent prisoner in Israeli custody, Marwan Barghouti who is the leader of Fatah party, considered to be the largest group of Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, PFLP.

Hindustan Times made this known few minutes ago in its report.

Marwan Barghouti, who is seen as a top future candidate to lead the Palestinian Authority, was arrested by Israel in 2002 and is currently serving five life terms for planning three terror attacks during the Second Intifada that killed five Israelis.

New Republic reported that: “Marwan Barghouti is Israel’s most celebrated prisoner and, by all accounts, the person most likely to succeed Palestinian Authority president and PLO leader Mahmoud Abbas whenever the Palestinian Authority—and the PLO—holds elections.

Since 2002, he has been serving five life sentences plus an add-on of 40 years for his role in the Second Intifada.

Barghouti was convicted of the direct murder of five Israeli citizens and for planning additional murders as the head of the Tanzim, the military wing of the nationalist Fatah party (also Abbas’s party), during the 1990s Second Intifada.

Since then, he has renounced violence. In 2012, for example, in his court hearing, he spoke in Arabic, telling the Palestinian people to fight for “peaceful popular resistance of the occupation.”

In another development, Hindustan Times reported that Spain has once again gone against its NATO partner, the US, and poked Israel. According to the news report, Madrid announced that it will contribute voluntarily to the ICJ probe against Israel.

Reuters during the week showed Protests in solidarity with Gaza in Yemen.

Yemenis, according to the live coverage took to the streets of the capital Sanaa to protest in solidarity with Gaza.

Aljazeera report indicated that Israel military continued its relentless bombardment of the Gaza Strip during the week, fueling fear among displaced Palestinians of a new Israeli military onslaught in southern Gaza’s Rafah.

Israeli government in a statement during the week, said, UNRWA, the UN Relief and Works Agency that was established in 1949 to provide aid solely to Palestinian refugees had 12 of its employees involved in the October 7th Massacre, according to security investigation.

Hindustan Times in a report indicated that Israel reportedly carried out airstrikes near Syria’s capital city of Damascus, saying, the attack was reported by Syria’s state-run SANA, citing a military source.

Aljazeera reported that Israel is creating a ‘buffer zone’ around Gaza, which Israeli media reports say will ‘prevent attackers’ from reaching Israeli communities near the Strip. “Critics say it’s an attempt to occupy Gaza”

ChinaDaily in its report in the latest development on the upcoming America presidential election at Harper Woods in Michigan indicated that: “US President Joe Biden campaigned on Thursday in the crucial swing state of Michigan, where growing anger among the public at his pro-Israel policies threatens to cut into already tight margins of support.

Biden was welcomed to the Midwestern state in part by pro-Palestinian protesters accusing him of supporting a “genocide” in Gaza, with a demonstration taking place near his meeting with members of the United Auto Workers union, whose leadership recently endorsed him.

As the Israeli military keeps pounding Hamas in Gaza, Biden is finding himself confronted regularly at public events by protesters and hecklers demanding a cease-fire.

The Democrat began his Michigan visit by chatting with diners in a restaurant popular with African Americans — another demographic whose support he needs as he seeks reelection and the defeat of his likely challenger Donald Trump.

However, he risks losing the votes of the state’s sizable community of Muslims and people of Arab heritage this November. That could be a problem in an election decided by tiny margins.

Michigan is one of a handful of swing states that could go either way in November, playing a decisive role in the electoral math during a close election.

In an illustration of the tensions, Biden’s campaign manager went last week to Dearborn, home to the largest concentration of Arab Americans in the United States, only to be snubbed by the Detroit suburb’s mayor.

Dearborn city’s mayor, Abdullah Hammoud, had earlier written on X that he refused to meet with Biden’s campaign manager.

Biden did not meet with any representatives of the Arab-American community while in the state, though senior administration officials will soon visit Michigan to do so, the White House said”.

Aljazeera reported in the week under review that Palestinians who were detained in Gaza and taken to Israel for questioning said they were beaten, tortured and humiliated while in the custody of Israeli forces. The International news media showed videos of the victims of the alleged maltreatment and some of them showing the injuries sustained.

Aljazeera report also indicated that: “The Israeli military plans to expand its ground assault into Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, where most Palestinians in the besieged enclave have been forced to seek shelter amid heavy bombardment of the rest of the enclave.

This has spread fear among the displaced and concerns from global aid organisations as the last place designated as a “safe zone” by the Israeli army in Gaza comes under threat while Israel continues to hamper the flow of aid.

“The Khan Younis Brigade of the Hamas organisation is disbanded, we will complete the mission there and continue to Rafah,” Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said in a post on the social media platform X late on Thursday. “We will continue until the end, there is no other way.”

About 1.9 million of Gaza’s 2.3 million people are crammed into Rafah near the border with Egypt, staying in residential buildings or sleeping in the streets without protection or basic infrastructure.

AlJazeera’s Hani Mahmoud, reporting from Rafah on Friday, said the displaced population there lacks basics, including toilets and sufficient clean water. They are also “unprepared for winter” with no blankets or suitable clothing, all of which puts them at risk of getting sick, he said.

Mahmoud said Gallant’s statement “shows a total lack of caring” for people in Rafah, who are already facing desperate conditions.

“For many, it’s increased the level of panic. They don’t have anywhere else to go to. This is the last refuge for Palestinians in Gaza. Beyond, it is only the Egyptian border,” he said”.