‘The time for statements, resolutions and bits of paper is long gone’

“History will judge the EU very, very poorly in its response to the Israeli genocide in Gaza,” Carne Ross, former British diplomat, tells Al Jazeera.

“The lessons from various genocides that have taken place, and we’re talking about a genocide… in Gaza, including Bosnia, Rwanda and elsewhere, is that many, many people die before international actors respond, and that is not good enough,” he said via videolink from London.

“Each time this happens, there’s some kind of UN report that says countries need to respond much more quickly to stop mass death, and politicians wring their hands and say, ‘Never again’,” he said.

“The EU is doing nothing; it’s just… having arguments about what it should say. The time for statements, resolutions and bits of paper is long gone. What is clearly needed is substantive sanctions on Israel… and that is not forthcoming from the EU,” he said.


_{Relatives mourn a loved one killed in an Israeli air strike that targeted a tent housing displaced Palestinians in the Nassr neighbourhood of Gaza City}

Several thousand join pro-Palestinian demonstration during Venice Film Festival

The war in Gaza was one of the main talking points in the lead-up to the star-studded festival, due to an open letter denouncing the Israeli government and calling on the festival to speak out.

At the beginning of the protest march, participants held a sign with the inscription, “Stop the Genocide”, and sang pro-Palestinian chants.

The Voice of Hind Rajab, which tells the story of the killing of a five-year-old Palestinian girl in Gaza, is among the films being shown at the festival.

Golden Lion winner Giorgos Lanthimos also wore a badge with the colours of the Palestinian flag during appearances at the festival.


_{Demonstrators during the film festival in Venice, Italy}

Pro-Palestinian chants in Brussels, German police beat more protesters

Footage released by pro-Palestinian activists, verified by Al Jazeera, showed a demonstration organised by many medical professionals in front of the European Parliament headquarters in Brussels, demanding sanctions on Israel.

Participants chanted slogans condemning the attacks against Palestinians and emphasising the need for international action to stop crimes against civilians in Gaza.

After the demonstration in Frankfurt that we reported on earlier, another protest took place in western Germany’s Cologne.

Protesters marched through the city’s streets holding banners that read, “We will not die in your wars” and “No to military mobilisation”. The protesters gathered at Heumarkt Square in Cologne, and German media reported that the police demanded the protesters remove their masks and leave, and violently attacked several demonstration sites, resulting in injuries among the protesters.

1755 Die Polizei geht jetzt gleich an mehreren Stellen brutal in den revolutionären Block, um diesen mehrfach zu spalten. Es gibt zahlreiche Verletzte. #k3008 #RME #RME25 #RheinmetallEntwaffnen pic.twitter.com/BsJoDq4XE5

— Perspektive Online (@PerspektiveOn) August 30, 2025

Translation: The police [in Cologne] are now brutally intervening at several points to split protesters and there are multiple injuries.

People’s Conference for Palestine kicks off in Detroit

Thousands of people are gathering for the second annual People’s Conference for Palestine in the US city of Detroit. The three-day event aims to strengthen the movement for Palestinian liberation in North America.

Al Jazeera’s Shihab Rattansi, reporting from the event, noted that it was “striking” how different the atmosphere was compared with the first conference. He said this has been largely down to the “awareness that was raised by grassroots action”.

“We have 60 percent of Americans in the latest poll calling for an arms embargo on Israel. We have 77 percent of Democrats calling it a genocide in Gaza, 50 percent of Americans overall, and a lot of that’s because of the consciousness raising that happened over the last year,” he said.

US establishment’s ‘attempts to suppress me’ have failed: Mahmoud Khalil

Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil, who was seized off the streets of New York and sent to a detention facility in Louisiana for 104 days, spoke to Al Jazeera at the People’s Conference for Palestine in Detroit.

He said his “main message” was that “all the attempts to suppress me and to oppress the Palestinian voices in this country have failed”.

“Behind me, you see thousands of people who came together to this place to actually speak about Palestine, strategise together towards a mutual vision for liberation in Palestine,” he said.

“There’s a lot going into political education and into building communities, building cross-movement solidarity across different movements”, he said, adding that “the majority of the American public are now awakening to Israeli crimes, awakening to the US complicity in sustaining the Israeli occupation of Palestine”.

“We’re being faced by stubborn politicians, by a stubborn establishment that refuses to see that there is a public shift in the US streets … This is very disappointing to see that the politicians, the establishment, [are] not responding to the change that’s happening on the ground,” he said.

_{Mahmoud Khalil, former Columbia University graduate student}

Israeli police intervene as thousands protest in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem


<sub>A drone photo of people protesting in Tel Aviv, August 30


Israeli police take away a protester from a road in Jerusalem during a demonstration to demand the return of all captives and an end to the war on Gaza, August 30</sub>

Main events on August 30th

The Struggle Continues: The Fight for Palestine in North America | People's Conference for Palestine

In response to the last two years of Zionist genocide in Gaza, a powerful mass movement has erupted. From the streets to the workplace, from university campuses to the classrooms, millions of people across North America and the world have been exposed to injustice in Palestine and in their own lives. In this panel, leaders in the movement for Palestinian liberation in North America will reflect on the last two years of struggle and examine the movement’s current state, its key challenges, and its future direction.

Massive Protests in Venice & Frankfurt Demand Palestinian Freedom

massive protests in Venice and Frankfurt united thousands calling for Palestinian freedom. Demonstrators waved Palestinian flags and chanted for justice, demanding international action against the ongoing occupation. Watch as global solidarity for Palestine grows stronger.

Israel launches air strikes on Lebanon

Deaths, injuries as Israeli forces bomb Gaza City

Our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic are reporting that Israeli forces have bombed tents housing displaced people near al-Maqousi Towers, northwest of Gaza City, killing and wounding several Palestinians.

We are also getting reports that Israeli forces have attacked Palestinians waiting for food aid in central Gaza and launched air raids near the Hamad Towers in southern Khan Younis.

Another Israeli soldier killed in ‘friendly-fire’ incident in Gaza

The Israeli army says a soldier has been killed in a friendly fire incident in southern Gaza.

Israeli media outlet Haaretz reported that an initial investigation found he was killed when another soldier at a guard post accidentally discharged his weapon towards a logistics convoy.

Ariel Lubliner is the 900th Israeli soldier killed since the war on Gaza began in October 2023, the report said.

Child dies in Gaza of malnutrition

A child in Gaza City has died “as a result of famine and malnutrition”, reports Wafa, citing local medical sources.

This brings the total number of hunger-related deaths in Gaza to 333, including 125 children, as Israel continues to severely restrict aid access.

Seven people died of malnutrition in last 24 hours: Gaza’s Health Ministry

A total of seven people have died of “famine and malnutrition” in the last 24 hours, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.

Their casualties bring the total number of hunger-related deaths in the Strip, where the UN warns famine is now spreading, to 339, including 124 children, according to the ministry.


Child shot dead in southern Gaza by Israeli forces

Wafa is reporting that Israeli forces fired on tents of displaced people in southern Gaza, killing a child and wounding several others. They also fired on aid seekers south of Khan Younis, resulting in multiple casualties.

The same report mentions ongoing artillery attacks in several areas of northern Gaza, including Jabalia and as-Saftawi.

Child among three people killed in Israeli attack

An Israeli strike has killed three people, including a child, in northern Gaza’s Jabalia, according to a source at al-Shifa Hospital who has spoken to our colleagues on the ground.

Mother, 3 children killed by Israeli attack

A Palestinian woman and three of her children were killed in an Israeli attack on a house in northern Gaza, an emergency services source said.

More than 30 people, including children, have been killed by Israeli attacks across Gaza since dawn.

Gaza’s death toll rises

Israeli attacks have killed 88 people and wounded 421 in the past 24 hours, Gaza’s Health Ministry reports. Among the victims were 30 people killed while seeking aid.

The casualties bring the war’s total confirmed death toll in Gaza to 63,459 with 160,256 wounded.

US senators say Israel blocks them from entering Gaza, taking part in aid airdrop

Senator Chris Van Hollen says Israel has denied him and Senator Jeff Merkley permission to join a Jordanian aid airdrop flight to Gaza.

“Netanyahu is restricting aid trucks into Gaza – the best way to get food to starving people there – so Jordan is delivering some with air drops,” Van Hollen wrote on X. “The Jordanians said Senator Jeff Merkley and I could join one of those flights to see the devastation, but Israel denied authorisation for our scheduled flight.”

He added that Israel had also denied the duo’s entry into Gaza to “see first-hand the destruction” of Gaza.

UNRWA says Israel blocking Gaza shelter supplies for nearly six months

UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, says children in Gaza are once again being forced from their homes as Israel intensifies its military operations.

“Children in Gaza are not walking to school. They are once again being forced to try to find somewhere safe. But there is nowhere,” UNRWA wrote on X.

The agency said overcrowding and the continued Israeli blockade on aid are leaving families without shelter. “There is not enough space. There are not enough tents,” it added.

UNRWA has been barred from bringing in shelter supplies for nearly six months, a restriction it said is worsening the crisis as thousands of families are displaced with nowhere to go.

“The intensified Israeli military operation is pushing thousands into the unknown,” the agency said, calling once again for permission to bring in lifesaving relief.

Israel detonating buildings in residential areas

Ismail al-Thawabta, director of Gaza’s Government Media Office, says the Israeli army is using “explosive robots” in residential areas and forcibly displacing Palestinians.

In a statement on X, al-Thawabta said the army has detonated more than 80 such devices in civilian neighbourhoods over the past three weeks, calling it a “scorched-earth policy” that has destroyed homes and endangered lives.

He said more than one million Palestinians in Gaza City and the north “refuse to submit to the policy of forced displacement and ethnic cleansing” despite the destruction and starvation caused by the Israeli assault.

Israeli forces arrest 9 people in West Bank raids

Israeli forces have carried out another wave of overnight raids and arrests in the occupied West Bank. According to the Wafa news agency, they:

Israel sets up new illegal settlement neighbourhood near Hebron

Ten families have recently settled in a new neighbourhood near the Israeli settlement of Kiryat Arba in the occupied West Bank, the Israel Hayom newspaper reports.

The new neighbourhood, called Aviad, marks the first Israeli expansion in the Kiryat Arba area in decades.

The Kiryat Arba Council said the settlement aims to “sever the geographical connection between Palestinian lands from Hebron to the Negev Desert and strengthen the connection” between Israeli settlements in the area.

All Israeli settlements in the West Bank are considered illegal under international law.

Jewish Agency chairman cancels South Africa trip over arrest fears

Chairman of the Jewish Agency for Israel, Doron Almog, has cancelled a planned visit to South Africa over concerns he could face arrest, the organisation was quoted as saying by The Times of Israel.

The agency believes anti-Israel activists may seek his arrest in South Africa, which is leading a case at the International Court of Justice accusing Israel of genocide in Gaza.

Almog, a retired Israeli general, is related to several people who were taken captive on October 7, 2023.

Families of captives protest outside Israeli ministers’ homes

Relatives of captives held in Gaza and their supporters have been protesting again outside the homes of Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, Foreign Minister Gideon Saar and Defence Minister Israel Katz.

The Hostages and Missing Families Forum said a proposed ceasefire and captive-prisoner exchange is on the negotiating table but has not been discussed by the security cabinet, which instead continues to seize Gaza City, “endangering both hostages and soldiers”.

“Bring our loved ones home, alive and dead. End the war, return the soldiers and reservists to their families. The Cabinet is bringing destruction upon the people of Israel,” the forum said.

Michal Lavi, protesting outside Katz’s home, directed her anger at the defence minister: “How many more children will we sacrifice? Are you willing to explain what happened since day 629 when you said we must pursue a two-phase deal? Two full weeks that you haven’t discussed the deal that’s on the table, the framework you provided that Hamas agreed to.”

Palestine people’s conference spotlights US role in Israel’s war on Gaza

Grassroots activists have succeeded in breaking through the barriers preventing any discussion of Israel’s genocide in Gaza.

A recent Quinnipiac poll found that 60 percent of American voters are now in favour of an end to US military aid to Israel … so a theme of Saturday’s proceedings was the forces in the US still enabling the genocide, despite that overwhelming public opposition to Israel.

There’s a particular focus on the nominally progressive wing of US party politics, for example, internationally renowned figures, like Bernie Sanders or Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who have held out against the total arms embargo on Israel.

The discussion here is about harnessing overwhelming public opinion to end Washington’s support for Israel. And the key part of that is understanding who is standing in the way of stopping the killing.

Netanyahu and Trump ‘deserve the Genocide Prize’

Israeli columnist Gideon Levy says “no other non-Israeli bears as much responsibility for the bloodbath in Gaza as Donald Trump”.

In a column for Israeli media outlet Haaretz, Levy wrote that Trump could end the war with one phone call. However, “he has not made it”. “Not only has Trump not phoned, he continues to fund, arm and support the Israeli war machine as if nothing is happening.

“If Netanyahu and Trump deserve an award, it is one that, fortunately, has not yet been established: the Genocide Prize,” Levy said.

Unthinkable act by MTG, Tucker Carlson against AIPAC, Netanyahu regime

Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene and journalist Tucker Carlson have stepped up their attack on the Israeli lobby group AIPAC and the government headed by Benjamin Netanyahu. While MTG wrote a powerful note to express her solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza before denouncing the AIPAC, Tucker raised his voice for the condition of Christians in Gaza in the wake of fresh threats to their lives. Rifat Jawaid explains what this means for Donald Trump and negative public perception against him within his own support base.

New Gaza aid flotilla, joined by Greta Thunberg, set to depart Spain

A new activist-led aid flotilla plans to set sail from Barcelona towards Gaza today “to break the illegal siege”, according to its organisers.

The Global Sumud Flotilla will be the “biggest attempt ever to break the illegal Israeli siege over Gaza”, said Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, who is part of the flotilla’s steering committee and will be on board.

In addition to the ships leaving Spain today, dozens of other vessels are expected to leave Tunisian and other Mediterranean ports on September 4, said Thunberg, who was previously arrested and deported from Israel after taking part in a Gaza aid flotilla mission.

As well as Thunberg, the flotilla will include activists from several countries, European lawmakers, and public figures such as former Barcelona Mayor Ada Colau.

“We understand that this is a legal mission under international law,” said left-wing Portuguese lawmaker Mariana Mortagua, who will join the mission.

News conference under way for Gaza-bound Global Sumud Flotilla

Organisers of the Gaza-bound Global Sumud Flotilla are holding a news conference in Barcelona before their departure.

“This is a non-violent mission that is aiming to open a corridor of humanitarian aid,” said Saif Abukeshek, a Spanish-Palestinian activist who is a member of the flotilla’s steering committee.

“We cannot ignore the fact that Palestinians are being starved to death because there is a government that is intentionally starving those people to death.”

_{Activists gesture, with some displaying Palestinian flags, before the departure for Gaza of the Global Sumud Flotilla, in the port of Barcelona, Spain, August 31}

Gaza flotilla an ‘act of symbolic resistance’

A new activist-led flotilla preparing to depart Barcelona for Gaza represents “an important act of symbolic resistance”, Mohammed Elmasry, professor of media studies at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, tells Al Jazeera.

“These organisers know that they are not going to solve the humanitarian crisis in Gaza,” Elmasry said. “But this is about creating a spectacle. And those things are important, especially when they are cumulative.”

“We saw that with antiwar movements in the United States. We’ve seen it with South Africa in the 1980s and 1990s. And we’re seeing it now. Global public opinion has shifted pretty dramatically in 23 months about Israel, and that is due in part to what activists are doing on the ground.”

Elmasry said the flotilla will likely face Israeli interception.

“I think ultimately, they will be detained or otherwise sent back. What’s going to solve the famine is governments doing their job to stop genocide and the deliberate starvation programmes.”