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Forums - Politics - Israel-Hamas war, Gaza genocide

SvennoJ on 07 October 2025

How to make sense of the world after October 7th 2023 | Norman Finkelstein


Political scientist and historian Norman Finkelstein joins this special edition of UNAPOLOGETIC to mark two years since the October 7 Hamas-led attack and Israel’s devastating retaliation in Gaza.

Norman dissects the origins and consequences of October 7, answers moral questions regarding resistance and atrocities , and discusses how Israel’s has used this campaign to ethnically cleanse Gaza. Norman believes that the "genocide is the means" not the end, Israel's current campaign.

He reflects on Israel’s intent, Western complicity, the collapse of international law, and what these events mean for the Palestinian struggle and global politics.


BoyCat: The App Diverting MILLIONS from Israel-Linked Firms


Host Paul Biggar is joined by Adil Abbuthalha, entrepreneur and creator of BoyCat — an innovative app empowering consumers to make ethical shopping choices and support the boycott movement against Israel.

By steering purchasers away from companies linked to Israel, BoyCat has already helped more than a million users divest more than $250 million dollars according to TRT World, making it one of the most impactful tools in the global boycott campaign for Palestinian rights.

Last edited by SvennoJ - on 07 October 2025

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SvennoJ on 07 October 2025

Flotilla is getting hijacked atm








Last edited by SvennoJ - on 07 October 2025

SvennoJ on 08 October 2025

Israel intercepts new aid vessels attempting to break Gaza siege

The Freedom Flotilla Coalition says that nine vessels carrying about 150 activists from about 30 countries were stopped earlier today about 220 kilometres (136 miles) off the Gaza coast.

The group said in a post on X that Israeli naval forces “attacked and illegally intercepted” the ships carrying aid to the besieged enclave.

Confirming the interception, Israel’s Foreign Ministry wrote on X that another “futile attempt to breach the legal naval blockade and enter a combat zone ended in nothing”.

“The vessels and the passengers are transferred to an Israeli port. All the passengers are safe and in good health. The passengers are expected to be deported promptly,” the ministry added.

The latest attempt by the Freedom Flotilla Coalition comes a week after Israeli forces stopped 45 aid vessels from reaching Gaza and detained more than 450 activists, including politicians and activists, and Swedish climate campaigner Greta Thunberg, from the Global Sumud Flotilla.


Turkiye accuses Israel of piracy over flotilla interception near Gaza

Turkiye’s Foreign Ministry has condemned Israel’s interception of a new Gaza-bound aid flotilla as an “act of piracy committed by the genocidal Netanyahu government”.

“This attack on civilian activists, among whom were Turkish citizens and parliamentarians, has gravely violated international law,” the statement said. “By targeting all efforts that defend humanitarian values and use peaceful methods through the use of violence, Israel is escalating tensions in the region and damaging efforts for lasting peace.”

Mathilde Panot, a leading figure in the France Unbowed party, has also said three French parliamentarians were on board the flotilla, calling the Israeli move against it illegal.


Crew of Conscience, a Gaza-bound vessel, sit on board the boat as they are intercepted by Israeli security forces, in this screengrab obtained from a video



SvennoJ on 08 October 2025

Lawmakers from various countries call for release of Global Sumud Flotilla detainees remaining in Israel

Dozens of parliamentarians from the European Parliament, the United Kingdom, Turkiye and several European countries, have signed an open letter, calling on Israel to release all the remaining members of the Global Sumud Flotilla, a Gaza-bound aid flotilla that was recently intercepted by the Israeli army in international waters.

The document condemned Israel’s move as a “blatant breach of international law” and urged governments to press for “the immediate, unconditional release of remaining detainees, with protection from ill-treatment and guaranteed medical care, legal counsel and consular access”.

Last week, the Israeli navy intercepted and detained 45 vessels en route to Gaza that were carrying more than 450 activists and parliamentarians. Later, 308 of the detainees were deported to Turkiye, Greece and Slovakia, “yet many remain in a high-security prison with no clarity on their status”, the open letter said.

“Reports from released detainees cite lack of essential medicines, inadequate food and water, unsanitary conditions, humiliation, denial of counsel and consular access, and arbitrary delays – conduct that, if confirmed, breaches international humanitarian law,” the statement read.

“The Global Sumud Flotilla symbolised the moral courage of ordinary citizens acting where many governments have failed. To detain, humiliate, or prosecute these individuals is to criminalise compassion,” the document concluded.


Mandela’s grandson recounts Israeli detention after Gaza flotilla interception

The grandson of former South African president and anti-apartheid leader Nelson Mandela has arrived in Johannesburg after being deported by Israel, which prevented the flotilla he was part of from delivering aid to Gaza.

Mandla Mandela, who returned home with four other South Africans, said he and the group he was with were held in an Israeli prison for six days before being released and deported via Jordan.

“We were handcuffed with cable ties tied tightly behind our backs, taken off our boats, put on the platform and paraded for all … to see,” Mandela, 51, said at the airport, where he was greeted by supporters waving Palestinian flags.

“But it’s nothing compared to what Palestinians have been subjected to on a daily basis,” he said, referring to Israel’s war on Gaza.


Mandla Mandela



SvennoJ on 08 October 2025

Israeli forces arrest several Palestinians in West Bank

Israeli forces are continuing to target Palestinians in the occupied West Bank. According to the Wafa news agency, this morning, Israeli forces:

  • arrested four people from the town of Hizma, northeast of Jerusalem, after raiding and searching their home;
  • arrested a 19-year-old from the village of at-Tahta, west of Ramallah, at dawn;
  • assaulted, detained and interrogated dozens of Palestinians after a raid in the Arroub refugee camp in the governorate of Hebron;
  • arrested a former prisoner from the town of Beit Fajjar, south of Bethlehem; and
  • arrested two brothers from the city of Tulkarem.

Hundreds of settlers, under the protection of Israeli forces, also stormed Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in occupied East Jerusalem.


Israeli forces shoot, injure Palestinian man near separation wall west of Hebron

A Palestinian man has been shot by Israeli forces with live ammunition in the city of Tarqumiyah, west of Hebron, in the southern occupied West Bank, according to the Wafa news agency.

The report said the 24-year-old was injured in the leg by Israeli bullets near the separation wall. The man was taken to hospital, where his injury was described as moderate.


Israeli minister Ben-Gvir storms Al-Aqsa Mosque compound

Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has entered the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in the occupied East Jerusalem, praying for “victory in the war, the destruction of Hamas and the return of the hostages”.

Under the status quo in place since Israel captured East Jerusalem in 1967, only Muslims are allowed to pray at the site, while a Waqf (Islamic trust) manages it, and Israeli forces maintain security.


Clashes as Israeli forces storm West Bank town

Clashes have broken out between Palestinian youths and Israeli forces as they stormed the town of Burin, south of Nablus, in the occupied West Bank, our correspondent on the ground reports.

According to the Wafa news agency, Israeli soldiers fired live ammunition at Palestinians and their property during the clashes.


Over 11,100 Palestinians held in Israeli jails: Prisoners’ group

The Palestinian Prisoner’s Society (PPS) says more than 11,100 Palestinian prisoners and detainees are being held in Israeli prisons as of the beginning of October.

In a statement, the advocacy group said that this was the highest number of detainees since the second Intifada in 2000. “According to what was announced by the Occupation Prison Administration as of October, the number of sentenced prisoners exceeded 1,460 prisoners,” the statement read.

“The number of prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment and those against whom indictments have been filed in preparation for issuing life sentences is about 350 prisoners, of whom 303 are sentenced, and 40 are indicted for issuing life sentences,” it added.

The advocacy group added that Abdullah Barghouthi has the highest sentence after being issued 67 life sentences, followed by Ibrahim Hamed, who was issued 54 life sentences.

To date, at least 53 women have been detained, including three from Gaza and two girls. Moreover, more than 400 child prisoners have been detained in Ofer and Megiddo prisons.



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SvennoJ on 08 October 2025

Gaza City under attack despite Israeli announcement of defensive operations

Despite Israeli official orders to halt offensive operations and stick to defensive ones, the situation on the ground tells a different story.

We know that Israel is relatively expanding its ground movements inside the urban centres in Gaza City throughout the night and this morning.

We continue to hear loud explosions coming from Gaza City, resulting from the extensive use of remotely controlled armoured vehicles that are laden with tonnes of explosives. Is that enough to destroy entire neighbourhoods?

Red and orange lights were coming out from these destroyed sites as a sign of a continuation of ground activities.

The families still trapped there are reporting horrific use of quadcopter drones and extensive destruction of civilian infrastructure.

Yet the Israeli movement has pulled back in certain geographical locations, but they are still tightening their grip over significant intersections in Gaza City and deploying further bridges in the eastern parts of the Strip.

Israeli forces detonate car bombs in Gaza City’s Sabra neighbourhood

Israeli forces have detonated car bombs in the Sabra neighbourhood of Gaza City, according to our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic.

The attack comes after the Israeli military announced last week that it would only operate in the enclave in a defensive operation, following calls by US President Donald Trump to cease attacks amid ongoing negotiations to end the war.


Two bodies recovered after Israeli air attacks in Gaza City

Two bodies have been recovered after Israeli air attacks on the al-Jalaa and Nassr areas of Gaza City, according to a source at al-Shifa Hospital speaking to our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic.

Moreover, in southern Gaza, an ambulance and emergency source told our colleagues that many people were injured by Israeli fire while waiting for aid.


Israeli forces kill, injure aid seekers near food distribution centre in southern Gaza

At least one person has been killed and others wounded after Israeli forces fired at people waiting for aid near a distribution centre north of Rafah, according to sources at the Nasser Hospital who spoke to our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic.

The Wafa news agency, also citing a medical source, reported that one victim from the attack suffered from a head injury, after Israeli forces fired at people waiting for food near an aid distribution centre in the Shakoush area, northwest of Rafah.


Video shows destruction in Gaza City’s Sabra neighbourhood

Footage posted by a Palestinian journalist and verified by Al Jazeera has showed the extent of damage in the Gaza City neighbourhood of Sabra after the Israeli army blew up several robots.

As we reported earlier, Israeli forces have continued to target Sabra since this morning, despite claims by the military that it was operating purely for defensive reasons during the ongoing negotiations.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DPiuNM1jJtK



SvennoJ on 08 October 2025

Gaza death toll rises

At least eight Palestinians have been killed and 61 others injured in new Israeli attacks across the Gaza Strip in the past 24 hours, according to the enclave’s Health Ministry. Two bodies have also been recovered from the rubble of the previous Israeli attacks in the same time frame, the ministry added.

Israel’s war on Gaza has killed a total of 67,183 Palestinians and injured 169,841 others since October 7, 2023, the statement published on Telegram said.

That's the lowest daily death toll since the last ceasefire, not so for injuries though. It's still only those that get counted, as in bodies reaching a hospital. Bombing is still continuing.


Palestinians say Israeli bombardment less intense in Gaza as negotiations continue

As negotiations for the ceasefire deal continue today in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, the situation on the ground looks extremely bleak as Israeli drones are still targeting residential buildings.

The Israeli military operation has not expanded to reach further urban centres, but is still stationed in their centralised positions that enable forces to have operational support by using quadcopter drones and heavy artillery to target what remains of structures, particularly in Gaza City.

Civilians have said the scale of bombardment sounds less intense in comparison with the days preceding the onset of the current round of negotiations.

For them, they say that might be a sign that mediators are exerting further pressure on Israel to at least mitigate the scale of its bombardment on Gaza, for one reason, it’s to allow for Hamas fighters to retrieve bodies of Israeli captives as part of the first phase of the ceasefire deal.


UNICEF calls for urgent ceasefire as Gaza children continue to be killed

The UN’s children’s agency has made an appeal for an immediate end to the fighting in Gaza, saying that since Saturday, 14 children have reportedly been killed.

“In the last two years, a staggering 64,000 children have reportedly been killed or maimed across the Gaza Strip, including at least 1,000 babies. We don’t know how many more have died due to preventable illnesses or are buried under the rubble,” UNICEF said in a statement.

“Every child killed is an irreplaceable loss. For the sake of all children in Gaza, this war must end now,” UNICEF said.



SvennoJ on 08 October 2025

‘Horrific trauma patients’: WHO official gives harrowing account from Gaza

Rik Peeperkorn, the World Health Organization (WHO) representative for the occupied Palestinian territory, who is in Gaza, has given some harrowing accounts of what he has seen amid efforts by the WHO to supply hospitals there with essential medical and humanitarian supplies.

“Currently in Gaza, everywhere I go, and I’ve been in Gaza City just a couple of days ago, and here in the south and everywhere, people live between anxiety and hope,” he said, referring to the ongoing talks in Egypt to broker an end to the fighting.

“When we were in Gaza City two days back to al-Ahli Hospital bringing in the most needed trauma supplies – IV fluids, saline, IV antibiotics, also some lab equipment and food for patients and staff etc – bombardments were all over the place where we were,” he said at a media briefing.

“We saw a constant stream of trauma patients, horrific trauma patients, young girls with severe burn wounds, boys gasping,” he said.


Doctors Without Borders official describes Gaza as place where ‘death hovers and strikes anyone’

Claire Magone, executive director of the French branch of medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF), has returned from a weeklong visit to the Palestinian enclave, saying: “In Gaza, death is everywhere. It’s not just a feeling, it’s palpable. Death lurks, it hovers, it strikes anywhere, anyone.”

Speaking to French newspaper Le Monde, Magone said she visited MSF teams treating patients as “tanks approached, drones flew over the neighbourhoods, and the water was cut off”.

She told Le Monde: “The army is conducting a strategy of asphyxiation, attacking, for example, water tanker trucks, as it did in mid-September with one of ours, which was clearly identified, and blocking all vital services.”

She added that France had stopped medical evacuations of patients from Gaza since August, and called on the country to “take its share, like the others”.


New documentary captures AFP journalists’ firsthand experiences of Gaza war

A new documentary about AFP journalists trapped in Gaza during the first stage of Israeli attacks on the Strip will be screened at a ceremony for the Bayeux prize for war reporters in France on Thursday.

Independent journalist Helen Lam Trong’s film Inside Gaza will be shown in the presence of six of the seven permanent AFP journalists who covered the conflict’s start, before airing on Arte, a European public service broadcaster, on December 2.

The documentary traces their lives after October 7, 2023. Day after day, the journalists documented the suffering and killing of their own people and their colleagues.

Reporting in Gaza means being surrounded by injured children, dead bodies and victims buried under rubble. With Israel forbidding foreign journalists from entering, Palestinian journalists face these conditions alone – and constant attempts to discredit their work.

AFP journalist Mohammed Abed recalled Western outlets asking him to prove a child had died after pro-Israel groups claimed his photograph showed a doll.

AFP’s seven journalists were evacuated between February and April last year and now reside in Doha, Qatar; Cairo, Egypt; and London, UK, struggling with post-traumatic stress disorder.



SvennoJ on 08 October 2025
Israeli minister says Hamas disarmament essential for Gaza ceasefire deal

Zeev Elkin, a member of Israel’s cabinet, has restated his expectations of any Gaza ceasefire deal, telling the country’s public broadcaster that the government will “set the rules for ending the war” and that the final picture must see Hamas disarmed and no longer in charge of Gaza.

Hamas previously said disarming was a “red line”. Speaking to Drop Site News, senior Hamas figure Mousa Abu Marzouk called on Israel to “lower their expectations a lot in this regard”.

Abu Marzouk told the US outlet that a pledge of a “truce or a ceasefire” should be “more important than searching for how many rifles Hamas has”.



Hamas says lists of prisoners exchanged during Gaza ceasefire talks

The Palestinian group says “the lists of prisoners required to be released” as part of a ceasefire agreement have been exchanged today in Egypt.

Taher al-Nunu, who is part of the Hamas delegation in Sharm el-Sheikh, was quoted in a statement published by the group as saying that the mediators are “making great efforts to remove any obstacles to the steps to implement the ceasefire, and a spirit of optimism prevails among all”.

“Negotiations focused on the mechanisms for implementing the end of the war, the withdrawal of the occupation forces from the Gaza Strip, and the exchange of prisoners,” al-Nunu said.

“The lists of prisoners required to be released were exchanged today according to the agreed-upon criteria and numbers. Indirect negotiations continue today with the participation of all parties and mediators,” he added.



Israel, Hamas stuck at point of troop withdrawral

Sami Al-Arian, professor at Istanbul Zaim University, says the current ceasefire negotiations are at two “irreconcilable positions” – Israel wants the return of the captives without much else commitment, while Hamas wants a guarantee of the war’s end.

“Four of the five conditions that the resistance has said previously in all the different negotiations are being met in this particular Trump deal. The only problem here is the withdrawal [of Israeli troops],” Al-Arian told Al Jazeera.

“Unless the Trump administration presses the Israelis to withdraw to the positions they agreed on [during] previous negotiations, it’s going to be very difficult for this to go through,” he added.

Al-Arian explained that the plan sets out the things that Hamas can negotiate, which include the end of the war, release of captives, aid delivery and reconstruction.

“Other than that, what happens to the future of Gaza, [Hamas] don’t have a mandate to negotiate and therefore this has to go back to the whole Palestinian factions and people to decide on,” he said.



SvennoJ on 08 October 2025

Israel remains main obstacle to peace in Gaza, says Turkish president

Turkiye’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has called on Israel to make greater effort to find peace as talks in Egypt continue for a third day.

Speaking at a gathering of his governing AK Party, Erdogan said: “Peace is not a bird with a single wing. Putting the entire burden of peace on Hamas and Palestinians is not a fair, correct or realistic approach.”

Erdogan said Israel remains the main obstacle to peace and also called on it to stop attacks on Gaza.



Egypt’s el-Sisi optimistic after promising messages from Gaza ceasefire talks

Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi says messages from indirect Gaza talks taking place between Hamas and Israel in Sharm el-Sheikh through mediators have been “very encouraging”.

“Yesterday, delegations from Qatar, Egypt, and envoys of President Trump arrived in Sharm el-Sheikh, and the messages I received from them are very encouraging,” he said, speaking at a graduation ceremony for Egyptian police.

“A ceasefire, the return of prisoners and detainees, the reconstruction of Gaza and the launch of a peaceful political process that leads to the establishment and recognition of the Palestinian state means we are on the right path to lasting peace and stability.”

Earlier today, Egypt’s Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty said “additional Arab countries will sign peace agreements with Israel if the war in Gaza comes to an end.”

Egypt’s el-Sisi invites Trump to attend potential ceasefire signing ceremony

Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has invited Donald Trump for a signing ceremony for the ceasefire in case a deal is reached.

“I invite US President Donald Trump to attend the signing of the ceasefire agreement in Egypt if it is reached. It would be wonderful to have you here,” el-Sisi said earlier today, in another sign of his optimism about a possible breakthrough.