Global Sumud Flotilla Vows to Keep Sailing to Gaza; Israeli Drones Accused of Striking Two Boats

We speak to two activists aboard the Global Sumud Flotilla as it prepares to set sail for Gaza in an attempt to break the Israeli blockade. In recent days, two drone attacks on the flotilla ships, which are docked in Tunisia, have been reported. "We know who has interest in stopping these flotillas," says Mariana Mortágua, a Portuguese parliamentarian who has joined the Global Sumud Flotilla and suspects the strikes were the work of the Israeli military. Mortágua says she has joined the flotilla because it's "my duty to be here and to help in any way I can … to show people that Gaza is a real place. It's not an abstract location. Gaza exists. It's there. Real people are living there and are living under attack."

We also hear from Saif Abukeshek, a Palestinian activist based in Barcelona and a member of the Global Sumud Flotilla steering committee. "There is no one mission or campaign that will have a direct outcome impact. But I believe solidarity work is an accumulative process that we have to build in," says Abukeshek. "We have to mobilize people around the world. We have to get pressure on governments, because that's the only way that Israel will listen and will stop their crimes."

We asked Israel's president if he's a war criminal in front of Starmer

Prime minister Keir Starmer avoided questions from Declassified as he welcomed Israel's president to Downing Street yesterday. Isaac Herzog was greeted outside Number 10, where he was said to be on a mission to stop the UK from recognising a Palestinian state. Calling out from the press pen opposite, Declassified asked Herzog: "Are you a war criminal? Are you presiding over genocide in Gaza?” As he stood on the steps of Downing Street with Keir Starmer, we asked the prime minister: "Why are you shaking hands with a man who said there are no innocents in Gaza? Are you complicit in genocide?”

The question referred to comments made by Herzog after the October 7 attack, in which he advocated collective punishment. “It’s an entire nation out there that is responsible,” he said of Palestinians living in Gaza. “This rhetoric about civilians not aware, not involved, it’s absolutely not true. “They could’ve risen up, they could have fought against that evil regime”. Herzog added: “We will fight until we break their backbone.” His words were used as evidence against Israel in the genocide case at the International Court of Justice. He has also hand signed bombs before they were dropped on Gaza.

Mandelson Epstein Scandal FINISHES Starmer

Over one million Palestinians remain in Gaza City and north, Government Media Office says

Gaza’s Government Media Office says more than 1.3 million Palestinians, including 350,000 children, remain in Gaza City and the north, despite Israel’s relentless bombardment and forced evacuation threats.

According to the office, Israeli authorities have reportedly warned that those who leave northern Gaza this time will not be allowed to return – a move rights groups say would amount to permanent forced transfer and a war crime under international law.

The so-called “safe humanitarian zones” in Khan Younis and Rafah, where Israeli forces have forced more than 800,000 people to shelter, have been bombed more than 100 times, killing more than 2,000 people, it said.

The office added that there is no functioning infrastructure, medical care, water, or electricity there, and accused Israel of deliberately cutting water lines to Khan Younis to make life “nearly impossible”.

UNICEF warns Gaza City ‘teetering on edge of survival’

UNICEF has sounded the alarm over an “impending catastrophe” for more than 450,000 children in Gaza City as Israel’s military incursion intensifies.

“The escalating military offensive is having devastating consequences,” said Edouard Beigbeder, UNICEF’s regional director for the MENA region. Children are “teetering on the edge of survival as both famine and deadly violence spread”.

He highlighted the case of three-year-old Wesam, the sole survivor of a midnight strike that killed her entire family in Zeitoun neighbourhood, saying children face “near total collapse” of the remaining lifelines they depend on.

UNICEF confirmed famine in Gaza City, warning that some of the 2,400 children currently being treated for severe acute malnutrition could starve to death if treatment is interrupted.

The agency reiterated its call for an immediate ceasefire, the protection of civilians and vital infrastructure, unimpeded humanitarian access, and safe evacuation for premature babies, injured children and those with disabilities.

“Over 50,000 children have reportedly been killed or maimed in less than two years,” UNICEF said. “How many more are needed before the world acts?”

MSF warns Gaza siege leaving wounded and malnourished children too weak for surgery

Doctors without Borders (MSF) says eight children aged 5 to 16 were medically evacuated from Gaza to its reconstructive surgery hospital in Jordan on September 10, in coordination with the Jordanian Ministry of Health.

Half of the children were malnourished – three with severe acute malnutrition – meaning they cannot undergo surgery until they regain strength. “They face not only complex injuries but also a long and difficult road to recovery”, said Izuddin Rawashdeh, a doctor overseeing the cases.

MSF said this is only the second time it has received Gaza patients in such critical nutritional condition and called it “a grim testament” to the impact of the siege.

Only 40 patients have been evacuated from Gaza to the hospital since October 2023, while the World Health Organization says more than 15,800 people are still waiting for urgent medical transfers.

MSF urged Israel to lift the siege, allow life-saving aid in, and facilitate medical evacuations with guarantees for voluntary return.

Israel bombs UNRWA-run school and makeshift shelter in Gaza City

Israel has attacked a school in the Shati refugee camp that was sheltering displaced Palestinians.

Over 1,800 buildings damaged or destroyed in Gaza City in one month
https://www.cnn.com/2025/09/12/middleeast/satellite-images-destruction-gaza-city-israel-intl-cmd

Israel expanded operations to Gaza City in early August, destroying buildings with systematic bulldozing and airstrikes. Damage has been concentrated in the Zeitoun and Jabalya neighborhoods, with demolitions increasingly moving toward the center of Gaza City, according to CNN analysis of satellite imagery.

_{Sources: Planet Labs PBC; CNN analysis of satellite imagery; CNN reporting Graphic: Thomas Bordeaux and Lou Robinson, CNN}

The most recent comprehensive UN assessment of damage found that around 78% of buildings in the Gaza Strip had been damaged or destroyed.

Conditions in Gaza’s south getting more ‘desperate by the day’ as thousands arrive from north

Olga Cherevko, spokesperson for the UN’s aid coordination office (OCHA) in Gaza, says the situation in Gaza is becoming increasingly “desperate by the day”.

Speaking from Deir el-Balah in central Gaza, Cherevko told Al Jazeera that tens of thousands of people are now being forcibly displaced to the south of the enclave as Israeli forces step up attacks in northern areas, including Gaza City.

“Many are arriving and are not able to find any space,” she said, adding that many were forced to return to the north. “The conditions here were already extremely overcrowded,” Cherevko said. “If you look at the sea, the tents go all the way to the waterline, and every time the tide rises, [the water] swallows more tents.”

Basic services are also absent, with hospitals overwhelmed and operating at up to 300 percent capacity. While there has been some improvement in the amount of aid entering, conditions on the ground remain dire with UN agencies unable to deliver aid safely and adequately, Cherevko said.

‘No mystery’ why GHF in southern Gaza, whistleblower tells AJ+

Former US army Green Beret Anthony Aguilar, the retired lieutenant colonel who blew the whistle on the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) in July, has told AJ+ that GHF has been part of the “Gaza Riviera” plan all along.

“There is no mystery as to why the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation is only in the south, and they’ve staked their claim in the most valuable real estate in all of Gaza,” he told Dena Takruri.

In the few weeks Aguilar worked for GHF as a contractor, his supervisor told him not to question the Israeli army.

“He said, the [Israeli military] are our client. We work for them,” Aguilar said.

UN overwhelmingly endorses declaration on two-state solution for Israel, Palestinians

As we reported earlier today, the UN General Assembly was due to vote today on whether to back a resolution calling for a two-state solution between Israel and Palestine – excluding Hamas.

Now, we are getting reports that the resolution received 142 votes in favour and 10 against, while 12 countries abstained.

The UNGA voted to endorse the declaration outlining “tangible, timebound, and irreversible steps” towards a two-state solution.

The seven-page declaration is the result of an international conference at the UN in July – hosted by Saudi Arabia and France – on the decades-long conflict. The United States and Israel boycotted the event.

Qatari Prime Minister meets US Secretary of State Marco Rubio at the White House

We are getting reports from our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic that a meeting between the Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani and the US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has begun at the White House.

They’re talking about two things – their security arrangement and what that looks like moving forward, and also the strikes that Israel launched on Doha earlier this week.

The concern is that the relationship between Qatar and the United States has become increasingly complicated as a result of those strikes, so they’re looking for a path forward on both of those issues.

With regards to the strikes, the reality is, Hamas negotiators were meeting to discuss the proposal that had been put forward by US President Donald Trump to end Israel’s war on Gaza.

That has been stalled … they’re looking at how they’re going to move forward with that.

Also, given that the US relies on Qatar so heavily for the diplomacy that takes place across the globe, they’re trying to figure out where that stands as well.

Paramount Condemns Israeli Film Boycott After 3,900 Sign Pledge

Fucking Christ...To think they may own Warner Bros soon too.

Syrian president says talks taking place with Israel on security deal

Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa on Friday said that his country is engaged in negotiations with Israel over a security agreement aimed at reviving the 1974 accord or adopting a similar framework.

In a televised interview with Syrian channel Alikhbariya, he said Syria “is holding negotiations on a security agreement with Israel to return to the 1974 [disengagement] agreement or a similar arrangement,” said the president.

Turning to Israel’s policies, the Syrian president said that Tel Aviv “had a plan to divide Syria and drag us into a battleground with Iranians,” adding that Israel was “surprised by the [former President Bashar al-Assad] regime’s ouster”.


That really wasn't a solution, a 'ceasefire' sure but the occupied Golan Heights were not resolved. Israel is occupying Mount Hermon now and more of the UN buffer zone. So it would be back to the status quo before Al-Assad's ouster. 

https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1969-76v26/d88



I doubt Israel will be onboard even with this minimal ask. Who is going to enforce it? The UN isn't doing anything. Syria doesn't have anything Israel wants except (part of) their territory... 



Israel will keep trying to incite civil war in Lebanon and Syria.

Israeli bombardment levels homes and apartment blocks across western Gaza City

Heavy Israeli air raids have continued to pound residential buildings in western Gaza City, targeting areas sheltering thousands of displaced people who had fled from the city’s east and north, Wafa news agency reports.

Citing its reporters on the ground, Wafa said Israeli strikes hit Abu Assi School in Shati refugee camp, the al-Waha and Muhanna apartment towers in Nassr neighbourhood, the Ayesh building, and several other family homes.

Air raids also struck a residential home near al-Karama towers, completely flattening it, while another raid destroyed the prayer area of a mosque in the west of Gaza City.

Israel releases 13 Palestinians from Gaza after months of detention

Israel has freed 13 Palestinians from Gaza after holding them for months under what medical and rights groups described as harsh and degrading conditions.

The detainees were released at the Kissufim crossing in central Gaza and taken by the ICRC to al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir el-Balah, where doctors said they were malnourished and showed injuries consistent with abuse.

Rights groups, including the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society, say thousands of Palestinians from Gaza have been detained since Israel’s war on the enclave began nearly two years ago, with many subjected to forced disappearances, incommunicado detention and severe mistreatment.

Ex-Israeli army chief says Gaza casualties exceed 200,000

Former Israeli army chief Herzi Halevi has said that more than 200,000 Palestinians have been killed or wounded in Israel’s war on Gaza, more than 10 percent of the enclave’s population, according to a report by The Guardian.

“This isn’t a gentle war. We took the gloves off from the first minute,” Halevi said. He added that “not once” did military legal advice restrict his operational decisions during 17 months as chief of staff.

His remarks align with casualty figures from Gaza’s Health Ministry, which Israel has dismissed as unreliable but which international agencies have deemed credible. Experts say Halevi’s comments confirm that Israeli military lawyers acted as “rubber stamps” rather than imposing legal constraints on attacks that have caused mass civilian casualties and displacement.

Spain summons Israeli charge d’affaires over Netanyahu office remarks

Spain has summoned Israel’s acting ambassador in Madrid in response to comments made by the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office that accused the European nation’s leader of threatening Israel.

Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares called in Dana Erlich, Israel’s charge d’affaires in Spain and the highest-ranking diplomat in the country, “to categorically reject the false and slanderous statements from the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office”, an official at Spain’s Foreign Ministry has said.

It is the latest development in an ongoing diplomatic tit-for-tat between the two countries that ensued after Spain’s prime minister announced measures to pressure Israel to end the Gaza war.

These included an embargo on weapons, ammunition and military equipment sold to or from Israel and blocking Israel-bound fuel deliveries from passing through Spanish ports.

In a post on Thursday on social platform X, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez had made a “blatant genocidal threat”, in reference to comments made by the Spanish leader when he announced the steps the Spanish government was taking.

“Spain, as you know, doesn’t have nuclear bombs, nor aircraft carriers or large oil reserves. We alone can’t stop the Israeli offensive,” Sanchez said in a televised address on Monday.

High-level talks in Washington, DC – Qatari prime minister meets top US officials

Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani has met US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Vice President JD Vance at the White House.

Israel’s war in Gaza and Israel’s attack on Hamas leaders in Doha were among the discussion items.

Qatar hosts the largest US military base in the Middle East, and has long been a US ally.

Main events on September 12th

• Israel has freed 13 Palestinians from Gaza after holding them for months under what medical and rights groups described as harsh and degrading conditions.
• The UN General Assembly has overwhelmingly endorsed a resolution calling for a two-state solution, with 142 votes in favour and 10 against.
• Gaza’s Government Media Office says more than 1.3 million Palestinians, including 350,000 children, remain in Gaza City and the north, despite Israel’s relentless bombardment and forced evacuation orders.
• President Trump will be having dinner tonight with US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff and Qatar’s Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani.
• At least 65 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks across Gaza since dawn today, including 48 in Gaza City and the northern Gaza Strip, medical sources have told Al Jazeera.
• Hamas has announced that its Gaza leader Khalil al-Hayya led funeral prayers for his son Humam and others killed in Tuesday’s Israeli air strikes in Doha.
• Top US diplomat Marco Rubio is scheduled to fly to Israel on Saturday.

US abandons Qatar at UN, Pakistan shuts up Israeli ambassador for absurd link

The UN Security Council met last night to discuss the Israeli bombing of Hamas leadership in Qatar. The stand taken by the US and the UK should disappoint Doha as this was another proof of these two countries effectively abandoning their traditional ally by not taking a firm stand against Israel.

The highlight of the session was the Pakistani ambassador’s strong rebuttal to the Israeli representative for comparing the Doha bombing to that of the action taken by the US against Osama Bin Laden. Rifat Jawaid explains why Qatar should worry about its ties with the West and how the Pakistani ambassador stole the show.

Pakistan RIPS Into Isrąel at UN Clash – 'An Irresponsible Rogue State', 'Playing the Victim'!

Mehdi Hasan on Death of Two-State Solution, Possible U.S. War with Venezuela & More

Democracy Now! speaks with Mehdi Hasan, editor-in-chief and CEO of Zeteo, about Israel's recent move to expand settlements in the West Bank in an effort to erase the possibility of a Palestinian state. "They are doing everything in their power to make sure that a two-state solution can never happen," says Hasan.

Hasan also comments on the deadly U.S. attack on a boat off the coast of Venezuela. "There's no scenario in which you can say it was an imminent threat to the U.S.," he says.