NAZARETH, Israel (AP) — In the streets of Nazareth, Israeli and Palestinian activists wore stickers replicating the ‘Press’ insignia emblazoned on flak jackets and other clothing worn by journalists as they rallied for peace in Gaza. Their message: Journalism is not a crime.
A throng of people wearing blue-and-white ‘Press’ stickers — used to identify journalists in dangerous areas — gathered in the Israeli town on Friday to call for an end to the war in Gaza, which has killed nearly 200 journalists among tens of thousands of others. Some held photos of Palestinian journalists killed.
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Freelance journalist Mariam Dagga, 33, who had been working with The Associated Press and other outlets during the Gaza war, takes a selfie surrounded by children at a school used to shelter displaced Palestinians in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Oct. 31, 2023. Dagga was one of several journalists killed, along with other people, in Israeli strikes on Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis on Monday, Aug. 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
Palestinian and Israeli activists and journalists take part in a protest against the killing of Palestinian journalists in the Gaza Strip, as they gather in Nazareth, Israel, Friday, Aug. 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)
Palestinian and Israeli activists and journalists take part in a protest against the killing of Palestinian journalists in the Gaza Strip, as they gather in Nazareth, Israel, Friday, Aug. 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)
Freelance journalist Mariam Dagga, 33, who had been working with The Associated Press and other outlets during the Gaza war, takes a selfie surrounded by children at a school used to shelter displaced Palestinians in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Oct. 31, 2023. Dagga was one of several journalists killed, along with other people, in Israeli strikes on Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis on Monday, Aug. 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
Palestinian and Israeli activists and journalists take part in a protest against the killing of Palestinian journalists in the Gaza Strip, as they gather in Nazareth, Israel, Friday, Aug. 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)
’’Don’t assassinate the truth," read a banner the protesters held. Some banged on empty pots to symbolize hunger in the Gaza Strip and protest the killing of journalists.
Mariam Dagga, a 33-year-old who freelanced for The Associated Press, was among the war's victims. She and four other reporters were killed earlier this week when Israeli forces struck Nasser Hospital in the Gaza town of Khan Younis, along with 17 other people.
Dagga was among a group of journalists who regularly based themselves at the hospital during the war, which began on Oct. 7, 2023, when an attack by Hamas militants inside Israel claimed the lives of 1,200 people and resulted in 251 people being held hostage. Israel's retaliatory military operation in Gaza has so far killed more than 63,000 people, according to the territory’s health ministry.
Mariam sought to bring to the world the travails of ordinary Palestinians displaced by the war, as well as the work of doctors and nurses treating the wounded or caring for malnourished children.
The Israeli military said it targeted what it believed was a Hamas surveillance camera in the hospital attack, without providing evidence, and that the journalists weren't the targets. The prime minister called the attack a ‘’mishap.''
All that doesn’t mean much for Mariam’s father, Riyad, sitting in his tent in Khan Younis, nearly 180kilometers (111 miles) away from Nazareth. Poring over the last photos taken by his daughter, he recalled the utter shock he felt when he heard what happened.
“I couldn’t walk. And I didn’t know what was around me when I heard the news,” he told the AP. “The person who told me the news said that Mariam was martyred, and I collapsed,” he said, his eyes welling with tears as he watched a video of his daughter and him.
Mariam’s sister, Nada, was with her at the hospital when she was killed. Nada recalled vividly the last look the two sisters exchanged when the second of two rounds of strikes hit the hospital’s stairwell, where Mariam was killed.
“Mariam, my sister, was on the stairs filming. I watched her and looked at her,” Nada said. “The last look between me and her. She looked at me and smiled.”
It was Mariam’s brother, Mohamed, who rushed into the stairwell in search of his sister, finding her among the bodies of her colleagues.
“I pulled her out and took her from the fourth floor to the operations (room),” Mohamed said. “They told me to go downstairs at the reception until you receive (the body).”
Mariam’s last photos showed the damaged stairwell outside Nasser Hospital, where she would be killed moments later. The photos show people walking up the staircase after it was damaged in the first strike, while others look out the hospital’s windows.
Palestinian and Israeli activists and journalists take part in a protest against the killing of Palestinian journalists in the Gaza Strip, as they gather in Nazareth, Israel, Friday, Aug. 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)
Palestinian and Israeli activists and journalists take part in a protest against the killing of Palestinian journalists in the Gaza Strip, as they gather in Nazareth, Israel, Friday, Aug. 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)
Freelance journalist Mariam Dagga, 33, who had been working with The Associated Press and other outlets during the Gaza war, takes a selfie surrounded by children at a school used to shelter displaced Palestinians in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Oct. 31, 2023. Dagga was one of several journalists killed, along with other people, in Israeli strikes on Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis on Monday, Aug. 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
Palestinian and Israeli activists and journalists take part in a protest against the killing of Palestinian journalists in the Gaza Strip, as they gather in Nazareth, Israel, Friday, Aug. 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)
NUUK, Greenland (AP) — A bipartisan U.S. congressional delegation on Saturday sought to reassure Denmark and Greenland of their support following President Donald Trump's threat to punish countries with tariffs if they don’t back the U.S. taking over the strategic Arctic island.
Delegation leader Sen. Chris Coons, a Delaware Democrat, said the current rhetoric around Greenland is causing concern across the Danish kingdom. He said he wants to de-escalate the situation.
“I hope that the people of the Kingdom of Denmark do not abandon their faith in the American people,” Coons said in Copenhagen, adding that the U.S. has respect for Denmark and NATO “for all we’ve done together.”
Meanwhile, Danish Major Gen. Søren Andersen, leader of the Joint Arctic Command, told The Associated Press that Denmark does not expect the U.S. military to attack Greenland, or any other NATO ally, and that European troops were recently deployed to Nuuk for Arctic defense training.
He said the goal isn’t to send a message to the Trump administration, even through the White House hasn’t ruled out taking the territory by force.
“I will not go into the political part, but I will say that I would never expect a NATO country to attack another NATO country,” he told the AP on Saturday aboard a Danish military vessel docked in Nuuk. “For us, for me, it’s not about signaling. It is actually about training military units, working together with allies.”
The Danish military organized a planning meeting Friday in Greenland with NATO allies, including the U.S., to discuss Arctic security on the alliance’s northern flank in the face of a potential Russian threat. The Americans were also invited to participate in Operation Arctic Endurance in Greenland in the coming days, Andersen said.
In his 2 1/2 years as a commander in Greenland, Andersen said he has not seen any Chinese or Russian combat vessels or warships despite Trump's claims that they were off the island's coast.
But in the unlikely event of American troops using force on Danish soil, Andersen confirmed a Cold War-era law governing Danish rules of engagement.
“But you are right that it is Danish law that a Danish soldier, if attacked, has the obligation to fight back,” he said.
Thousands of people marched through Copenhagen, many of them carrying Greenland’s flag, on Saturday afternoon in support of the self-governing island. Others held signs with slogans like “Make America Smart Again” and “Hands Off.”
“This is important for the whole world,” Danish protester Elise Riechie told The Associated Press as she held Danish and Greenlandic flags. “There are many small countries. None of them are for sale.”
Other rallies were planned in Nuuk, the Greenlandic capital, and elsewhere in the Danish kingdom.
Coons’ comments contrasted with that emanating from the White House. Trump has sought to justify his calls for a U.S. takeover by repeatedly claiming that China and Russia have their own designs on Greenland, which holds vast untapped reserves of critical minerals. The White House hasn’t ruled out taking the territory by force.
“There are no current security threats to Greenland,” Coons said.
Trump for months has insisted that the U.S. should control Greenland, a semiautonomous territory of NATO ally Denmark, and said earlier this week that anything less than the Arctic island being in U.S. hands would be “unacceptable.”
During an unrelated event at the White House about rural health care, he recounted Friday how he had threatened European allies with tariffs on pharmaceuticals.
“I may do that for Greenland, too,” Trump said. “I may put a tariff on countries if they don’t go along with Greenland, because we need Greenland for national security. So I may do that,” he said.
He had not previously mentioned using tariffs to try to force the issue.
Earlier this week, the foreign ministers of Denmark and Greenland met in Washington with U.S. Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
That encounter didn’t resolve the deep differences, but did produce an agreement to set up a working group — on whose purpose Denmark and the White House then offered sharply diverging public views.
European leaders have insisted it is only for Denmark and Greenland to decide on matters concerning the territory, and Denmark said this week that it was increasing its military presence in Greenland in cooperation with allies.
“There is almost no better ally to the United States than Denmark,” Coons said. “If we do things that cause Danes to question whether we can be counted on as a NATO ally, why would any other country seek to be our ally or believe in our representations?”
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Niemann reported from Copenhagen, Denmark. Associated Press writer Stefanie Dazio in Berlin contributed to this report.
A patch of the Joint Arctic Command is seen on o jacket of Major General Søren Andersen standing onboard a military vessel HDMS Knud Rasmussen of the Royal Danish Navy docked in Nuuk, Greenland, on Saturday, Jan. 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
People gather for a pro- Greenlanders demonstration, in Copenhagen, Denmark, Saturday, Jan. 17, 2026. (Emil Helms/Ritzau Scanpix via AP)
People gather for a pro- Greenlanders demonstration, in Copenhagen, Denmark, Saturday, Jan. 17, 2026. (Emil Helms/Ritzau Scanpix via AP)
People march during a pro- Greenlanders demonstration, in Copenhagen, Denmark, Saturday, Jan. 17, 2026. (Emil Helms/Ritzau Scanpix via AP)
Icicles hang from the roof of the US consulate in Nuuk, Greenland, on Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
A Danish serviceman walks in front of Joint Arctic Command center in Nuuk, Greenland, on Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
Senator Chris Coons from the Democratic Party speaks during a press conference with the American delegation, consisting of senators and members of the House of Representatives, in Copenhagen, Denmark, Saturday, Jan. 17, 2026. (Ida Marie Odgaard/Ritzau Scanpix via AP)
