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Forums - Politics - Israel-Hamas war, Gaza genocide

SvennoJ on 05 October 2025

Steps needed to end captivity of ‘noble activists’ abducted from Gaza flotilla: Turkiye’s foreign minister

While praising the Gaza aid flotilla and the activists on board, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan says his country needs “to take an operational step as soon as possible to end their captivity” after the “noble activists were detained”.

Israeli naval forces attacked and seized vessels of the Global Sumud Flotilla late on Wednesday and Thursday, abducting about 450 activists from dozens of countries as they sailed towards Gaza to deliver humanitarian aid and challenge Israel’s blockade of the enclave.

Fidan said Turkiye contacted Israeli authorities and security officials through its National Intelligence Organization.

French politicians and flotilla participants detained in Israel launch hunger strike

Four French deputies detained by Israel during the interception of the Gaza-bound Global Sumud Flotilla have declared a hunger strike, according to their party.

The leftist France Unbowed party said two of its national deputies – Francois Piquemal and Marie Mesmeur – and two of its members of the European Parliament – Rima Hassan and Emma Fourreau – began the hunger strike “in solidarity with the Palestinian people”.

“We have no news from them” apart from “brief exchanges with their lawyers and with the French consul who was able to visit them,” France Unbowed member of the European Parliament Manon Aubry told the French radio station Franceinfo.

“Their detention conditions are difficult,” she said, describing more than 10 people per cell and difficulty accessing water.

Aubry called on French authorities to repatriate the detained nationals, numbering 30.

“It is time for France to finally take action,” Aubry said, echoing her party’s national coordinator Manuel Bompard’s calls for “France to finally say something” on French television channel LCI.



LIVE🔴SITUASI TERKINI GLOBAL SUMUD FLOTILLA | CURRENT SITUATION OF GLOBAL SUMUD FLOTILLA - 4/10/25




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SvennoJ on 05 October 2025

Gaza flotilla activists treated ‘like monkeys’ by Israeli forces after abduction

Italian journalist Saverio Tommasi says Israeli soldiers withheld medicines and treated activists “like monkeys” after they were abducted from vessels that were part of the Global Sumud Flotilla.

About 450 activists were detained as Israeli forces intercepted the fleet of 42 boats, and most of those remain in Israeli prison.

Another Italian journalist, Lorenzo D’Agostino, said the activists were repeatedly woken up during the two nights he spent behind bars. They were also intimidated with dogs and by soldiers pointing the laser sights of their guns at them “to scare us”, he said.

D’Agostino added that his belongings and money had been “stolen by the Israelis”.


‘Drank from the toilet’: Malaysian flotilla activists recount detention

Malaysian singers-actors Heliza Helmi and Hazwani Helmi, who took part in the Global Sumud Flotilla mission to deliver aid to Gaza, have described “brutal” and “cruel” treatment by Israeli forces after their vessel was attacked.

A plane carrying activists from the aid flotilla, who were attacked and detained by Israel in international waters, landed on Saturday at Istanbul Airport. As many as 137 people from the humanitarian flotilla, including 36 Turkish and 23 Malaysian citizens, were deported on the flight.

Speaking to the Anadolu news agency, the sisters recounted harsh conditions during their detention. “Can you imagine we drank from the toilet water? Some people were very, very sick, but they [the Israelis] said: ‘Are they dead? If not, then that’s not my problem,’” Hazwani Helmi said. “They are very, very cruel people.”

Heliza Helmi also described going without food for days. “I ate on October 1. Today is my first meal,” she said on Saturday. “So for three days, I did not eat – only drank from the toilet.”


Another 29 flotilla activists deported today, Israel says

Israel’s Foreign Ministry says the activists, who held Spanish, Portuguese and Dutch citizenship, were deported to Spain.



SvennoJ on 05 October 2025

US lawmakers call for release of detained American flotilla activists

US Senator Chris Van Hollen has called on the American ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, to “do his job” and protect US citizens being held in an Israeli prison after their Gaza-bound aid flotilla was intercepted this week.

“The US government says it’s number-one obligation is to protect American citizens abroad, so regardless of what they thought about the flotilla, they have a duty to look out for the safety and security of these American citizens,” Van Hollen said in a video posted on X.

US Congressman Ro Khanna has also been calling for the release of Americans detained in Israel.

Khanna said he had spoken to the sister of activist David Adler, who is being held in Israel’s southern Ketziot prison. “I spoke to his sister last night & their family is deeply anxious,” he wrote on social media, urging his safe return to the US.

Senator Bernie Sanders also expressed support for the mission of the Global Sumud Flotilla, noting that activists were bringing food to Palestinian children “starving in Gaza because of Israeli government policies”. “The United States must demand the immediate release of all detained Americans,” Sanders said.



Global Sumud Flotilla says dozens of detainees on hunger strike

We’ve reported that four French deputies detained by Israel during the interception of the Gaza-bound Global Sumud Flotilla have gone on hunger strike in solidarity with the Palestinian people.

Now, the flotilla says dozens of participants are refusing to be fed by Israeli forces.

In a post on social media, the flotilla posted a list of 42 people on hunger strike, representing activists from 16 different countries.

“In Gaza, starvation is not a tragedy – it’s a policy. Since October 2023, Israel has pursued a campaign of total starvation: cutting off food, water, electricity and fuel, while targeting the fields, farmers and aid convoys that keep people alive,” the group said in a statement.

“As famine spreads and 95 percent of farmland lies destroyed, dozens of Global Sumud Flotilla volunteers remain imprisoned — refusing to be fed by the same regime enforcing starvation on Palestinians.”

https://www.instagram.com/p/DPb571UiJSZ



Israel planning to deport dozens of flotilla activists tomorrow: Lawyers

Adalah, a legal centre for Palestinians in Israel, says the Israel Prison Service has informed the group’s lawyers that it plans to deport about 170 flotilla activists on Monday.

“Adalah attorneys made several [prison] visits today but were denied access to all participants,” the group said in a statement shared on WhatsApp.

Adalah said conditions inside the prison was “relatively stable”, but concerns around the health of activists – particularly those on hunger strike – persist.



SvennoJ on 05 October 2025

Hundreds of thousands of people protest in Amsterdam against Gaza war


Demonstrators in Amsterdam take part in a ‘red line’ protest demanding government action to stop the genocide in Gaza




Huge pro-Palestinian protests held in cities across Europe

Supporters of the Global Sumud Flotilla have taken to the streets in several major cities – including Rome, Istanbul, Athens and Buenos Aires – after Israel intercepted the vessels and abducted the activists on board.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/50TJNVOjqfw

UK group announces ‘mass civil disobedience’ to defy Palestine Action ban

Defend Our Juries has announced plans to escalate its Lift the Ban on Palestine Action campaign before a High Court hearing on the group’s ban under UK “terror” laws.

The group said it will coordinate “mass civil disobedience” across Britain November 18-29, leading up to and during the judicial review hearing.

The group said a new pledge form launched today urges supporters to book time off and indicate where they plan to take action, promising protests “in key cities and towns” as well as “converging on London for the Judicial Review date”.

The UK government proscribed Palestine Action as a “terrorist organisation” in July after activists sprayed two RAF Voyager aircraft with red paint in protest against Israel’s war on Gaza.

Supporting the group now carries a possible prison sentence of up to 14 years under the ban, which has been slammed by civil rights advocates as an assault on freedom of speech and the right to protest.

Defend Our Juries said arrests for defying the ban have reached 2,000 so far.



SvennoJ on 05 October 2025

Thousands march in Johannesburg calling for end to war on Gaza


Demonstrators rally in Johannesburg, South Africa, demanding an end to Israel’s war on Gaza and the release of the detained Global Sumud Flotilla activists


More global protests in support of Palestinians


People hold placards in solidarity with Gaza, in Karachi, Pakistan


Rallies also took place in ITurkiye’s Istanbul


German police violently arrest protester at pro-Palestine demonstration

The footage below, which has been verified by Al Jazeera, shows German police arresting a protester earlier today in the Neukolln district of the capital, Berlin.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DPbnZlDiKWs

In a new act of provocation, pro-Israel supporters held a rally in Neukölln, one of Berlin’s most pro-Palestinian neighborhoods.
During the event, cameras captured the brutal arrest of a protester who stood in solidarity with Gaza’s civilians — another scene of Berlin police suppressing voices calling for justice.



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SvennoJ on 05 October 2025

Senior Hamas official slams Israeli raids, land seizure in West Bank

Mahmoud Mardawi says Israel’s “unprecedented” settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank is part of “a systematic policy” of seizing more Palestinian land, leading to Israel’s “dream of annexation and displacement”.

In a statement released on Hamas’s Telegram account, the official said the expansion coincides with an “unprecedented” military escalation in the West Bank, including raids, arrests, home demolitions, property confiscation and the imposition of a stifling siege on residential areas.

Mardawi said, “These crimes represent a fully-fledged apartheid policy aimed at emptying the land of its indigenous people in a flagrant violation of all international laws and agreements.”


More Israeli settler, military violence across West Bank today

Since the start of the war in Gaza, violence in the occupied West Bank – including Israeli settler and military attacks, arrests and home demolitions – has sharply increased.

Here’s a quick look at some of what happened today, according to reports from the Palestinian news agency Wafa:

  • Israeli forces carried out a wide-scale raid and detention campaign at dawn today in occupied East Jerusalem, targeting several members of Fatah, the dominant party in the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).
  • Israeli authorities approved a plan to seize 35 dunums (8.6 acres) of land from the village of Kafr Qaddum, near the northwestern city of Qalqilya, to construct 58 new settlement units.
  • In the same village, settlers from Kedumim uprooted about 50 ancient olive trees owned by Palestinian residents.
  • Israeli settlers have also raided Palestinian-owned lands in an-Naqura and Deir Sharaf, villages northwest of Nablus, where they stole olive crops.
  • Israeli soldiers have closed the metal gate at the entrance to the village of Atara, north of Ramallah, severely disrupting Palestinian traffic in the area.
  • In a report, the Jerusalem Governorate said that, since October 7, 2023, the Israeli army has killed at least 97 Palestinians and is still holding the bodies of 49 of them. Israeli soldiers have caused 591 injuries to Palestinians, including through the use of live and rubber-coated steel bullets and severe beatings. The report also mentioned 742 demolitions, most of which targeted Palestinian homes and structures.


SvennoJ on 05 October 2025

The toll of two years of Israeli attacks on Gaza

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) has released a fact sheet to mark the two-year anniversary of Israel’s devastating war on Gaza this week.

Here are some key takeaways:

  • Nearly all of Gaza’s residents have been displaced, many multiple times.
  • Nearly 80 percent of all structures are damaged or destroyed across the Gaza Strip.
  • Famine is confirmed in the Gaza governorate and projected to expand in Deir el-Balah and Khan Younis governorates, in central and southern Gaza, respectively.
  • More than 98 percent of Gaza’s cropland has been damaged, left inaccessible, or both.
  • Less than 40 percent of hospitals remain functional, all partially, and there have been at least 790 attacks on health workers, patients, hospitals, and other medical infrastructure.
  • Nearly 92 percent of school buildings will either need full reconstruction or major rehabilitation to be functional again, as 660,000 children are forced out of school.

See more UNRWA’s findings below, particularly related to Israel’s deprivation of water in Gaza:


No let-up in military strikes in Gaza as more Palestinians are displaced

In the past few hours, Israeli forces attacked different areas across the Gaza Strip, especially in Gaza City, where the attacks were concentrated on the eastern parts.

The Bureij neighbourhood and other areas under attack are highly dangerous at the moment, with many Palestinians forced to move to the western parts of Gaza City.

Sources from al-Ahli Hospital tell us that the number of casualties is overwhelming and the doctors are facing many challenges in treating the wounded, especially with the lack of medicine and medical supplies.


‘It’s like a slaughterhouse’

The AFP news agency has collected the harrowing testimony of an Australian doctor who returned earlier this morning from a four-week mission in Gaza.

There are certain things that pictures or footage on global media do not capture, said anaesthetist Saya Aziz. “The things that you didn’t get through the video were the smell, the wailing, the distress of the parents crying, witnessing their children dying, suffering in pain.

“Torn, disintegrated bodies, blood, broken heads, broken arms, chopped limbs – not just chopped, like disintegrated,” she said. “You would never see such scenes in your life, blood everywhere … It’s like a slaughterhouse.”

Palestinian children in Gaza were suffering the most, she continued.

“The hardest has been for the children who are unwell, unconscious, bleeding – you’re having to anaesthetise them knowing they’ve got no surviving family members left,” she said. “Who’s going to tell them, who’s going to look after them?”

 

MSF worker succumbs to shrapnel wounds three days after Israeli attack

Doctors Without Borders, also known by its French acronym MSF, has lost another Palestinian staff worker in Gaza to an Israeli attack, the third in fewer than 20 days as Israel continues to kill an unprecedented number of healthcare workers.

Abed El Hameed Qaradaya, 43, was severely wounded on Thursday after Israel struck a street where MSF teams were waiting to go to work at a field hospital in Deir el-Balah in central Gaza.

“All staff were wearing MSF vests, clearly identifying them as medical humanitarian workers,” the organisation said, which noted that staff member Omar Hayek was killed, and several other people were wounded.



SvennoJ on 05 October 2025

More than 2,700 families in Gaza wiped off civil registry: Authorities

To mark two years of attacks by Israel, the Government Media Office in Gaza has released a series of figures detailing the devastating toll the war has taken on Palestinians:

  • About 90 percent of the Gaza Strip has been totally destroyed by the Israeli military, which controls more than 80 percent of the territory through ground invasion, armed attacks and forced displacement orders.
  • Israel has dropped more than 200,000 tonnes of explosives on the besieged enclave – and has bombed the so-called “safe zone” of al-Mawasi at least 136 times.
  • At least 1,015 children under one year old have been killed by Israel, along with 1,670 medical staff, 254 journalists, and 140 civil defence rescue workers among over 77,000 Palestinians.
  • More than 2,700 families, comprising more than 8,500 people, have been wiped off the civil registry. At least 56,348 children are orphaned.
  • Israel has bombed 38 hospitals out of commission, with another 96 healthcare centres destroyed, and 197 ambulances and 61 civil defence vehicles also targeted.
  • More than 835 mosques have been destroyed and another 180 are damaged, while three churches have been targeted multiple times. Forty cemeteries also were destroyed and bodies taken.
  • The total value of initial direct damages as a result of the genocide is estimated at $70bn, including $28bn worth of damage to housing, $5bn to healthcare, and $4bn to the education sector.


Palestinians look on as smoke rises following Israeli attacks in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 5


One in five Gaza babies born prematurely or underweight: UN

The UN has reiterated its call for humanitarian assistance to be allowed into the enclave, stressing that Palestinian newborns are particularly vulnerable.

“Aid at scale is critical to save lives,” it said in a post on X.


Gaza authorities report 131 Israeli attacks in 48 hours

The Israeli military has killed at least 94 Palestinians across the Gaza Strip over the past two days despite Trump calling on Israel to stop its bombing campaign, according to the enclave’s Government Media Office.

It said in a statement that from dawn on Saturday until the end of the day on Sunday, at least 131 Israeli air and artillery attacks targeted densely populated civilian areas and killed displaced Palestinians, including 61 in Gaza City.

“This ongoing crime falls within the framework of the ongoing genocide crime against our Palestinian people, confirming that the occupation disregards all international calls for calm and insists on continuing the systematic killing of civilians and destroying the means of life,” the media office said.


Smoke rises from Gaza after an Israeli attack on October 5



SvennoJ on 05 October 2025

Israeli bombing must stop for release of captives: Rubio

Israel needs to stop bombing Gaza for an eventual captive release by Hamas to take place, according to the US secretary of state.

“I think the Israelis and everyone acknowledge you can’t release hostages in the middle of strikes, so the strikes will have to stop,” Rubio told CBS News. “There can’t be a war going on in the middle of it.”

As we reported earlier, Rubio also said the war has not yet ended despite the steps taken in recent days after the announcement of Trump’s Gaza plan.


Netanyahu appeasing Trump while seeking ways to undermine plan

We have more from Menachem Klein, political science professor at Bar-Ilan University, who says that while the Israeli prime minister has no choice but to appease Trump and show he is willing to reach a truce, he will try to stop the deal.

“Trump is interested in reaching a deal. Hamas also has no choice but to agree. And I assume that Netanyahu also has no choice, … but he will continue trying to spoil the deal,” Klein told Al Jazeera.

He explained that Trump’s 20-point plan has several loopholes Netanyahu could use to abandon it.

“Netanyahu is trying to cheat everyone while remaining in power as long as he can, but he needs Trump: Israel cannot exist without the United States. He cannot stay in power without Trump’s support. He cannot plan the next war against Iran without the United States. So he must follow Trump,” Klein added.


Trump ‘a president who wants the war to end’

He’s determined to have the war end. Clearly, there are questions about long-term Israeli occupation, viceroy Tony Blair – but even in [his] comments, certainly Rubio is suggesting that those are up for some sort of negotiation.

In the meantime, the White House is leaking all sorts of stories potentially designed to embarrass Benjamin Netanyahu and to make clear that it’s not Netanyahu who’s in charge of this – it’s Donald Trump. “Donald Trump is in charge of this, and Netanyahu will do what Donald Trump says.”

So far Netanyahu is still doing whatever he wants, bombing did not stop despite Trump claiming it did...


Trump suggests ‘some changes’ to Gaza plan possible

The US president is asked by a reporter outside the White House if there is any flexibility on his 20-point Gaza plan.

“We don’t need flexibility because everybody has pretty much agreed to it. But there’ll always be some changes,” Trump replied.

“But the Hamas plan, I’ll tell you – it’s amazing.”

He added: “They’ve been fighting for a plan for years. We get the hostages back almost immediately. Negotiations are going on right now, will probably take a couple of days, and people are very happy about it.”

That doesn't sound encouraging at all.



SvennoJ on 05 October 2025

Here’s what to know about Gaza talks in Egypt

  • Israel says its negotiators are travelling to Egypt tonight, with indirect talks with Hamas scheduled to take place tomorrow.
  • US President Donald Trump has sent his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and his emissary Steve Witkoff as US envoys to Egypt for the talks.
  • Hamas has agreed to release Israeli captives and accepted parts of the plan presented by Trump, but key issues remain over whether Israel will halt its attacks, where its forces will withdraw to, and how Hamas’s disarmament would be carried out.
  • US Secretary of State Marco Rubio says 90 percent of the plan has been worked out, but this next phase on disarmament and demobilisation will be “hard”.
  • He added that the war is not over and there is no set timeline.


Israeli negotiating team made up of Netanyahu loyalists

The Israeli negotiating team is comprised of a few members, headed by Minister for Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer – he is one of Netanyahu’s political allies, one of his confidants – and the hostage negotiator for Israel, Gal Hirsch.

This is a different team that has gone in the past. Previously, we had the head of the Shin Bet [and] the head of the Mossad, who were negotiating on a much more pragmatic level and actually disagreeing with the Israeli prime minister as to what needed to be done for these negotiations.

They had butted heads because there was a difference of opinion, because there were times, according to Israeli media, these security chiefs told Netanyahu, “This is the deal on the table, this is what’s being presented and it’s a good time to take it.” But Netanyahu had reportedly put in more roadblocks, set new conditions.

So this is now a new negotiating team composed of Netanyahu’s loyalists, who want to do his bidding and are not going to defy him or challenge him when it comes to what he wants in these negotiations.

But it is worth mentioning that the Americans were quite clear: They are not going to tolerate a delay from either side.


Israeli negotiators to leave for Egypt tomorrow

The Israeli delegation will be headed by Ron Dermer, Israel’s minister of strategic affairs, according to a statement from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office. The talks will be held in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, it added.


Hamas says negotiating team has arrived in Egypt ahead of talks

The Palestinian group says its delegation, headed by Khalil al-Hayya, will begin negotiations “on the mechanisms for a ceasefire, the withdrawal of [Israeli] occupation forces and a prisoner exchange”.