Epal European Palestinian Media Center Bulletin, Issue No. 2443, Date: Saturday, May 16, 2026

1. 8 martyrs in two Israeli airstrikes on Gaza

At least seven civilians were killed and around 50 others injured in two Israeli airstrikes on Gaza City, amid Zionist reports about an assassination operation targeting one of the resistance leaders.
Local sources confirmed that Israeli warplanes fired at least two missiles at a residential apartment in Al-Moataz building in Gaza City, resulting in the death of 4 people, including a woman, in addition to around 50 injuries in a preliminary toll after an entire floor was destroyed and caught fire.
Later, a citizen died from wounds sustained by Israeli occupation forces’ gunfire in central Gaza, while ceasefire violations continue.

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2. Raids and Talmudic rituals at Al-Aqsa Mosque on the anniversary of the occupation of Jerusalem

Occupied Jerusalem witnessed a new escalation around Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Old City, as dozens of settlers stormed the mosque courtyards under heavy protection from Israeli occupation forces, coinciding with the Hebrew anniversary of the occupation of Jerusalem in 1967. Palestinian groups warned against attempts to impose new realities inside Al-Aqsa under Israeli political and governmental cover.
In a statement, the governorate said that Rabbi Israel Ariel, founder of the so-called “Temple Institute,” led these rituals near the Lions’ Gate, alongside calls by settler groups for mass incursions into Al-Aqsa Mosque during what they call “Jerusalem Unification Day.”

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3. The occupation implements the most dangerous project to impose Judaization on Al-Aqsa

Occupied Jerusalem is going through what is described as its most dangerous phase in years, amid accelerating Israeli measures inside Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Old City, alongside the growing influence of extremist religious and nationalist currents within the Israeli political scene.
Scenes of mass incursions, Talmudic prayers, and the raising of Israeli flags in Al-Aqsa courtyards have become part of a daily reality that raises Palestinian fears that the occupation is moving from a policy of “managing the conflict” to imposing new sovereign and religious realities by force.

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4. Settlers attack worshippers in Al-Wad neighborhood and physically assault them

Settlers assaulted residents and worshippers in the Al-Wad neighborhood adjacent to the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque before prayers, while Israeli occupation forces arrested 9 residents after assaulting them.
The settlers attacked residents and worshippers with punches and kicks, while some residents attempted to confront them, leading occupation police to arrest them and transfer them to the Al-Qishla interrogation center.
Settlers also assaulted residents and worshippers in several other locations, including attacks on elderly people.

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5. The 78th Nakba: Palestinians commemorate the memory of displacement amid genocide and renewed forced migration

The 78th anniversary of the Palestinian Nakba comes this year while Palestinians are living through one of their bloodiest and most complex periods since the displacement of 1948, amid the continuation of the Israeli genocidal war on the Gaza Strip and the escalation of killing, displacement, and destruction operations in the West Bank and occupied Jerusalem. Palestinian officials warned of attempts to impose a new Nakba through different military and political means.
Every year on May 15, Palestinians commemorate the Nakba, during which hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were displaced from their cities and villages by Zionist militias, coinciding with the declaration of the Israeli state on most of historic Palestine in 1948.

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6. Plan to build 60,000 settlement units in the West Bank within 3 years

Far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich announced Israeli government approval of a plan to build around 60,000 settlement units in the occupied West Bank over the next three years. He called on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to adopt a plan aimed, in his words, at the “final erasure” of internal borders within the West Bank.
The minister said that since the current government took office in December 2022, it has worked on what he described as the “legalization of new settlements,” noting the approval of more than one hundred settlement sites and outposts in the West Bank, including Homesh, Sanur, Ganim, and Kedim.

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7. More than 23,000 arrests in the West Bank since the start of the genocide in Gaza

The crime of imprisonment in occupation prisons remains one of the fundamental pillars of the Zionist colonial project, as a systematic tool targeting the Palestinian presence and breaking the social and national structure of the Palestinian people through policies of repression, isolation, abuse, torture, and enforced disappearance, which have escalated at an unprecedented pace since the beginning of the genocidal crime against our people in the Gaza Strip.
Prisoner institutions stated that occupation authorities have arrested nearly 23,000 people from the West Bank since the start of the genocide in Gaza, including women, children, wounded individuals, and former prisoners. This figure does not include the thousands arrested from Gaza, while the occupation continues the crime of enforced disappearance against hundreds of detainees from the Strip, refusing to reveal their fate, places of detention, or health and humanitarian conditions.

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*European*

8. Spanish Prime Minister: Boycotting Eurovision because of Israel puts us on the right side of history

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez affirmed that his country’s boycott of the Eurovision Song Contest due to the Israeli genocidal war on Gaza and the aggression against Lebanon places Spain “on the right side of history.”
Sánchez said: “In the face of illegal war and genocide, silence is not an option. We cannot remain indifferent to what is happening in Gaza and Lebanon.”

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9. Activists stage sit-in outside Maersk over continued weapons shipments to the occupation

In protest against the continued shipment of weapons to Israel, activists in Denmark staged a sit-in at the entrances of Maersk headquarters in the capital Copenhagen before police intervened to disperse them using batons and police dogs.

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10. Israeli legal center threatens Canadian Human Rights Museum over Nakba exhibition

The Israeli center “Shurat HaDin” issued a legal notice against the Canadian Museum for Human Rights in Winnipeg, demanding the cancellation of the exhibition “Uprooted Palestine: Nakba Past and Present,” claiming it creates a “hostile environment for Jews.”
The center demanded that the exhibition be frozen and subjected to legal review, threatening legal action within 14 days, in a move that comes amid growing pressure to restrict the Palestinian narrative and criminalize the presentation of the Nakba within Canadian cultural institutions.

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11. Australian calls to turn off screens during Israel’s Eurovision performance

More than 1,100 international artists, including Peter Gabriel, Massive Attack, Macklemore, and Kneecap, called for a boycott campaign, while a petition with nearly 10,000 signatures urged Australian broadcaster SBS to withdraw from the 2026 edition.

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12. Professor dismissed in Canada after pro-Israel statements

The University of Guelph-Humber dismissed Canadian professor Paul Finlayson after social media posts and statements in which he expressed support for Israel following the events of October 7, 2023.
According to the case details, the professor posted comments described as offensive and inflammatory against Palestinians, leading to an internal university investigation followed by his suspension and eventual dismissal in July 2025 after being found in violation of the institution’s human rights, anti-discrimination, and anti-harassment policies.

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13. Protest banner in Innsbruck condemns hosting Eurovision and Israel’s participation

The Austrian city of Innsbruck witnessed the hanging of a banner on the famous Golden Roof reading “No to Eurovision Song Contest 2026,” in protest against Austria hosting the 2026 Eurovision Song Contest and Israel’s participation in it.
Activists said the action reflects broad opposition to hosting the event in Austria, arguing that Israel’s participation grants it an international platform despite committing genocide crimes in Gaza.

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14. Shutdowns target arms factories and companies linked to the occupation in Britain

Pro-Palestine activists shut down the “L3 Harris” factory in Brighton because it produces detonation systems used in F-35 aircraft involved in bombing Gaza, while around 50 activists blocked the entrances of “BAE Systems” in Lancashire for more than two hours in protest against its role in supplying military components to the occupation.
In Slovakia, activists also confronted “Elbit,” “Rafael,” and “Israel Aerospace Industries” companies at the IDEB arms exhibition in Bratislava.

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15. German intelligence report links symbols of solidarity with Palestine to “extremism”

A recent report issued by Germany’s domestic intelligence agency sparked widespread controversy in political and human rights circles after classifying symbols and slogans associated with the pro-Palestine movement as part of what it described as “secular Palestinian extremism,” reflecting the escalation of German security approaches toward pro-Palestinian activities since the outbreak of the war on Gaza.
According to a translation published by Al-Araby Al-Jadeed newspaper, the report released this May under the title “Secular Palestinian Extremism” focuses mainly on the pro-Palestine scene in Germany, especially in Berlin, arguing that the movement has become a space that includes groups, networks, and individuals united, according to the report, by “hostility toward Israel” and rejection of “its right to exist.”

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*International*

16. Lawsuit accuses U.S. official of funding trucks to smear anti-occupation activists

The movement “Jewish Voice for Peace” in South Florida filed a lawsuit accusing Miami Beach Commissioner David Suarez of paying thousands of dollars to hire billboard trucks to smear and isolate movement activists.
The billboards described “Jewish Voice” as an “extremist group” and personally attacked activist Alan Levine and his wife Donna Nevel by labeling them “antisemites” because of their pursuit of companies complicit in the genocidal war on Gaza and their opposition to the Zionist project.

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17. Occupation threatens to intercept the “Global Steadfastness Flotilla” heading to Gaza

Occupation authorities raised the highest level of alert after dozens of ships departed from Turkish shores toward Gaza carrying more than 500 activists from various countries, including doctors, lawyers, and journalists.
Israeli media revealed that naval commando units are preparing to seize the vessels.

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18. Euro-Med Monitor: Israeli attack on The New York Times aims to cover up torture of prisoners

The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor said that the organized official Israeli campaign targeting The New York Times and human rights organizations reached its peak with statements issued by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar.
The incitement against the newspaper came after it published an article by journalist Nicholas Kristof titled “Silence in the Face of the Rape of Palestinians,” which included testimonies from 14 men and women about rape, various forms of torture, and sexual violence inside Israeli detention centers.