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2024 Chelsea Film Festival Lineup Includes Eight Israeli Documentaries, Short Films, Dramas, Comedies
A scene from “The Procedure.” Photo: Provided
The 12th annual Chelsea Film Festival beginning in New York City on Wednesday will include eight films from Israeli directors, including dramas, comedies, and documentaries related to the Hamas-led terrorist massacre in Israel in October 2023.
“The City,” “Drone Pilot.” and “6:30” will screen on Thursday at Regal Theaters Union Square. “The City,” directed by and starring Amit Ulman, is a “noir hip-hop opera” that revolves around a detective investigating the case of a missing woman. When Sarah Bennett arrives at Detective Joe’s investigation office and asks him to find her missing sister, he agrees to get involved while ignoring the advice of his partner, Jack.
“Despite the warnings and Sarah’s mysterious disappearance, Joe continues to investigate the case until he realizes that behind all the intrigue stands the city’s notorious criminal whom nobody wants to mess with,” reads a synopsis of the film. “Now, Joe must extricate himself from the predicament he has entered.”
“Drone Pilot” is a documentary that will be making its world premiere at this year’s Chelsea Film Festival. It focuses on a man named Haitham Abu Tarif and his close army friends as they cope with the trauma and loss of their friend Sergeant Madhat Yosef. The Border Police officer, and member of Israel’s Druze community, was killed in October 2000 while guarding the Joseph’s Tomb burial complex in the West Bank city of Nablus during an attack by a mob of Palestinians.
Another documentary, “6:30,” features testimonies from survivors of the deadly Hamas terrorist attack in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, as well as animations and miniature simulations that chronicle the development of the attack across eight locations in southern Israel. The film is making its international premiere at the Chelsea Film Festival.
On Friday, the Israeli short films “Protected Space” and “The Procedure” will screen as part of the festival’s lineup. “Protected Space” is a 10-minute comedy web series about a group of Israeli college students determined to have normal lives and not let the constant missile attacks in Israel keep them from making the most out of their college experience. “The Procedure” is another comedy, but with a science-fiction twist, about a man who goes to a doctor for a procedure to have his anxiety removed from his body.
“Half An Inch of Skin,” making its world premiere, and “French” are two more short films that will screen on Saturday. The former is about a Parisian couple expecting their first child and the issues that arise when the husband, who is both Black and Jewish, announces to his atheist wife that he wants their future son to be circumcised in adherence with Jewish tradition. The film stars “Call Me By Your Name” actress Esther Garrel and French César-nominated actor Ralph Amoussou.
“French,” starring Hades Yaron and “Fauda” actress Rona-Lee Shimon, revolves around a nail appointment that turns dramatic when the manicurist accuses her customer and friend of betrayal.
“Torn,” a documentary about the “Kidnapped From Israel” poster campaign taking place around the world, will screen on the last day of the film festival. Each of the eight screenings will be followed by a Q&A with the filmmaker and cast.
The 12th Annual Chelsea Film Festival will take place Oct. 16-20 and online until Oct. 31.
The post 2024 Chelsea Film Festival Lineup Includes Eight Israeli Documentaries, Short Films, Dramas, Comedies first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War
Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests
A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan
Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.