The Catalan government has awarded the Premi Internacional Catalunya (Catalonia International Prize) to Israeli activist Yael Admi and Palestinian activist Reem Alhajajra, human rights defenders who advocate for dialogue, reconciliation, and non-violence. They are the driving force behind Mother's Call, a women-led initiative that calls for an end to the violence and the resumption of a negotiated political process as the only possible solution. The award ceremony will take place on January 15 at the Palau de la Generalitat, in an official ceremony presided over by President Salvador Illa. With this decision, the jury highlights the symbolic and transformative power of a women's alliance that challenges the dynamics of the conflict in a context particularly marked by violence, polarization, and a lack of political direction.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez sees how Europe is gradually following his lead in denouncing and confronting Israel over the genocide its army is perpetrating in Gaza. At the same time, always adept at sensing the public's pulse, Sánchez is increasingly embracing the popular sentiment of solidarity with the Palestinians. In contrast, the right-wing PP, following Vox's lead, has entered a drift that places it among the hardest-line of its European counterparts and distances it from a minimum sense of humanitarian common sense.

Pedro Sánchez has stood out, at the European level, as one of the most forceful leaders when it comes to condemning the genocide Israel is carrying out in Gaza and recognizing a future Palestinian state. The increasingly extreme facts are proving him right. Faced with this evidence, France and Germany have begun to change their position. But Sánchez's international political positioning in this area does not fully correspond with domestic events.

Just a few days ago, on July 31, the Palestinian Union of Agricultural Work Committees (UAWC) denounced the Israeli occupation forces' attack on and destruction of the Hebron seed bank in the West Bank and its warehouses, which housed all the agricultural diversity. The committees' farmers believe this attack violates Palestinian identity and affects their survival, because "without it, there are no crops."

"Our position is clear and unequivocal: we condemn the genocide against the Palestinian people," the Sónar festival said in a statement. This position is based on requests received in recent weeks, when The Leap published that The pro-Israeli fund KKR acquired Superstruct Entertainment, the company that until last year owned Sónar.

Artists such as Nexus (B4mba & Mooki6), Rami Abadir, Juliana Huxtable, Kebra and Animistic Beliefs, among others, have canceled performances at the Sónar festival. Élite has withdrawn from participating in the Benicàssim International Festival. Fermin Muguruza, Reincidentes, Non Servium, Kaotiko, Los de Marras, Kaos Urbano, Sínkope, No Konforme, Sons Of Aguirre, Ill Pequeño and Ergo Pro have announced that they will not perform at Viña Rock. These festivals are majority-owned by Superstruct Entertainment, a company that was acquired last year by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR), an American investment fund with ties to Israeli cybersecurity companies.

Sahar Francis is a lawyer and since 2006 has run the Addameer Association in support of Palestinian political prisoners. The Ramallah-based organisation is dedicated to providing legal support to those imprisoned in Israeli or Palestinian National Authority facilities. On 19 October, the Israeli Ministry of Defence designated the entity as a "terrorist organisation", along with five other Palestinian entities, internationally recognised for their track record: Defense For Children International, which monitors children's rights; Al-Haq, which monitors human rights; the Bisan Center for Research and Development, dedicated to socio-cultural promotion; the Union of Palestinian Women's Committees; and the Union of Agricultural Work Committees. The Health Work Committees, to which Juana Ruiz, the Spanish aid worker imprisoned six months ago, belongs, were also banned.

The same image has been repeated every night for the past week: against the backdrop of a night sky, fireballs exploding in the air. On one side of the border that isolates the Gaza strip from the world, homemade rockets launched by Hamas and other Palestinian militias; on the other, Israeli missiles that destroy them in mid-air a few seconds later. It is Iron Dome, the sophisticated pioneering Israeli defence system which intercepts short-range projectiles. With the help of experts, we explain how it works and what has changed since it was put in place a decade ago with US support. The Israeli military claims that since the beginning of this crisis, 3,000 rockets have been launched from Gaza, 90% of which have been intercepted by the shield.