Welcome to Andy Worthington

As the ceasefire in Gaza enters its third day, I report on what must be the almost unimaginable relief of Palestinians now that the relentless fear of sudden death has come to an end, but how they now face the new challenges of finding out whether or not their homes have survived, and searching for the remains of their loved ones, buried in the rubble or shot in the streets. While I hope that the release of hostages in stages over the next 18 weeks means that Israel cannot resume its deadly violence, I also note the vital return of humanitarian aid, but point out how it also needs to be accompanied by foreign support in rebuilding Gaza’s destroyed hospitals and healthcare system, and the almost unthinkable task of reconstruction in general — not just for its own sake, but also as another crucial obstacle to any attempts by Israel to think that it can resume the policies of extermination that it has been inflicting on Gaza for the last 15 months.

The video of the powerful and poignant online discussion about Guantánamo, hosted by New America, which took place on January 14, marking the 23rd anniversary of the opening of the prison three days earlier, featuring myself, Tom Wilner and Karen Greenberg, and moderated by Peter Bergen. Also included: a link to my one-hour interview with the activist Margaret Flowers for her “Clearing the FOG” podcast on Popular Resistance.

My report about the ceasefire deal for Gaza, which was announced on January 15, and which will begin to be implemented on Sunday (January 19), the day before Donald Trump’s inauguration. I examine how Trump, via his envoy Steve Witkoff, seems to have played a central role, to fulfil his intention of starting his presidency as the “hero” who stopped the war and secured the release of Israeli hostages, the first of whom will be freed as his presidency begins. This would seem to unmistakably show up President Biden and Antony Blinken for their own failures to have ever stood up to Netanyahu, especially as the ceasefire deal is almost identical to one that could — and should — have been implemented eight long months ago. While I have no hopes that Trump, surrounded by rabidly enthusiastic supporters of Israel, will bring peace to the Palestinians, with the most likely scenario being that violence will be ramped up in the West Bank, I’m unwilling to declare that the ceasefire will be broken by Netanyahu after the first of its three phases, as some are discussing, because Hamas has only agreed to free hostages over all three phases of the deal, and the release of hostages is so important within Israel itself that any backsliding could be politically fatal. I also hope that the ceasefire will last because international organizations and observers will have to be allowed into Gaza in significant numbers, and, in addition, because of a creeping war fatigue in the Israeli military, exacerbated by the pursuit of soldiers in courts around the world, following on from the ripples of accountability created by the issuing of arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant in November.

Photos from, and my report about the vigils for the closure of Guantánamo that took place across the US and in London on January 11, 2025, the truly shameful 23rd anniversary of the opening of the prison. Most of those involved are part of the coordinated monthly global vigils that have been taking place on the first Wednesday of every month for the last two years, and which will continue under Donald Trump. With 15 men recently released, the vigils involved a huge sense of relief that Biden had finally taken action after 20 months in which no prisoners were freed, but 15 men still remain, all held in what I describe as “varying states of lawlessness.”

The video of my half-hour interview with the great peace activist David Swanson for his Talk World Radio show, which is syndicated by the Pacifica Network throughout the US, in which I was very helpfully and generously given the time to explain the many crimes of Guantánamo past, present and future. As David helpfully entitled the show, “Close Guantánamo While Its Victims Are Still Alive.”

Wonderful news, as eleven Yemeni men, long approved for release from Guantánamo, have finally been freed and resettled in Oman. I’ve spent two years writing about and campaigning relentlessly for the release of these men, despite indifference from the mainstream media. I’d like to particularly congratulate Tina Kaidanow, appointed by President Biden to oversee resettlements from Guantánamo, for working so hard to free them, even after her efforts were cynically canceled in October 2023. Behind the scenes, however, she continued to press for their release, although sadly she died in October before seeing the results of all her work. With these releases, just 15 men are still held at Guantánamo, and, although it’s worth taking a moment to reflect on what freedom means for these eleven men, after over two decades of imprisonment without charge or trial, it’s also important that we continue to push for justice for the men still held — three others who have long been approved for release, another three “forever prisoners” who have never been charged, and nine men caught up in the military commission system, where justice remains elusive because of the use of torture, and plea deals are the only viable way to bring some sort of closure to the brutal and failed Guantánamo experiment.

Publicizing the imminent 23rd anniversary of the opening of the prison at Guantánamo Bay, on January 11, marked by vigils taking place across the US and around the world, as well as the Close Guantánamo campaign’s ongoing photo campaign, marking 8,400 days of the prison’s existence on January 9. I also stress the urgent need for the Biden administration to resettle 14 men long approved for release before leaving office. in just 13 days’ time. If they’re not freed, they’ll be entombed at Guantánamo for another four years under Donald Trump.

My report about the welcome repatriation of Ridah Al-Yazidi, the last Tunisian prisoner at Guantánamo, who was on the first flight into Guantánamo, nearly 23 years ago, but was never charged with a crime. After eight years of imprisonment without charge or trial, he was one of 156 men approved for release by the Guantánamo Review Task Force, a multi-agency review process established by President Obama to review the cases of the 240 men inherited from George W. Bush. The Task Force’s report was published in January 2010, but Al-Yazidi was one of only three men, out of these 156, who were not freed, and who have been waiting to be released ever since, an intolerably long wait that was blamed by State Department officials on long-standing difficulties in negotiating with the Tunisian government, but which was also complicated by Al-Yazidi’s refusal to accept representation by an attorney or to negotiate with the US authorities.

My latest long read, marking 450 days of Israel’s genocidal assault on the Gaza Strip, in which I review the horrors of the last 15 months, bringing the story up to date with the recent abduction of Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, the director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza, who has since disappeared into Israel’s prisons for Palestinians, where 50 prisoners have been killed since October 7, 2023, including three doctors. I also analyze the grotesque lies peddled by Israel throughout this time, dismissing 75 years of its systematic oppression of the Palestinian people, analyze in depth the deficiencies in its claims to be “targeting Hamas”, and note how, despite no one being able to stop Israel, a noose is tightening around Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defense minister Yoav Gallant, via the repercussions from the ICC’s recent arrest warrant for both men for war crimes and crimes against humanity, as well as various other opinions and reports concluding that Israel is engaged in a genocide in Gaza.

My latest interview with Andy Bungay, recorded for his Riverside Radio show in London as part on an ongoing series of monthly interviews, and made available here as a stand-alone podcast. In a freewheeling 80-minute discussion, we focused on some of the many profoundly dispiriting events dominating our lives as 2024 draws to a close — the imminent return as the US president of Donald Trump, the ongoing genocidal carnage being inflicted by Israel on the trapped Palestinian civilian population of the Gaza Strip, and the growing menace of catastrophic climate change. All are thoroughly depressing topics, of course, but our conversation was threaded through with resistance and hope, based on my assessment that societal tipping points may arrive unexpectedly when we are failed so persistently by our leaders, whichever political party they represent, as is very clearly the case right now.