Main events on October 22nd

• Israel returned the bodies of 54 unidentified Palestinians, some showing signs of torture and execution, and they were buried at a mass grave site in central Deir el-Balah.
• The International Court of Justice (ICJ) issued a ruling that found Israel has an obligation as the occupying power to allow aid into Gaza and told it to halt its “starvation” policy.
• Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesperson Oren Marmorstein said Israel “categorically rejects” the ICJ’s advisory opinion, describing it as “entirely predictable”.
• World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said 41 critical patients and their 145 family members were evacuated from Gaza, but 15,000 more requiring treatment abroad still need Israel’s permission.
• Hamas told Al Jazeera it supports seeing the US-brokered ceasefire agreement through but Israel is trying to “evade its obligations”.
• Israel’s Knesset passed a bill seeking to formally annex the occupied West Bank and legalise an illegal settlement, sparking regional condemnation.
• US Secretary of State Marco Rubio arrives in Israel on Thursday to discuss the Gaza truce deal,  and will meet Prime Minister Netanyahu on Friday.

ICJ rules Israel’s ban on Unrwa and aid blockade violate international law

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) delivers its Advisory Opinion on the Obligations of Israel in relation to the Presence and Activities of the United Nations, Other International Organizations and Third States in and in relation to the Occupied Palestinian Territory, on 22 October 2025.

Massive New War Crimes Dossier Just Hit the ICC

A 120-page war crimes dossier has landed at the ICC & Israel is in full crisis mode. This could be the most damning legal case Israel has ever faced.

Israel’s fiercest new enemy doesn’t command rockets or militias — it runs on paperwork. The Hind Rajab Foundation has done what armies, sanctions, and summits never could: it’s dragged Israel’s war on Gaza into a courtroom. In The Hague, not a trench.

In a 120-page dossier, this Brussels-based legal outfit has named twenty-four Israeli soldiers and commanders over the k*lling of a six-year-old girl – the very girl the foundation itself has taken its name from - her family, and two medics — an atrocity Israel spent getting on for two years now, insisting was “fog of war.” Well the fog has apparently cleared. Satellite data, intercepts, and forensic modelling have done the job others wouldn’t. And for once, Israel can’t b*mb the evidence. The world’s most documented war crime has just become Israel’s most uncontrollable crisis.

Israel’s next major battle might not be in Gaza — it’s looking increasingly likely that it will be in The Hague. Just yesterday, a small Brussels-based legal organisation that has for some time been punching well above its weight, dropped a case file that Israel has been dreading for some time. The Hind Rajab Foundation, named after the six-year-old girl in question here, k*lled in Gaza along with her family, have filed a 120-page dossier with the International Criminal Court and Israel is now scrambling to contain the fallout.

'BABYSITTERS': Kushner, JD DESPERATE To TAME NETANYAHU

Ryan and Emily discuss Trump sending JD and Kushner to tame Netanyahu amid the ceasefire

For the UK it's soccer that will lead to its demise lol

Maccabi Tel Aviv Lies COLLAPSE

UK minister faces call to resign on Maccabi comment; rare confession by Sky News

In a fresh twist to the controversy surrounding the Maccabi Tel Aviv’s next match against Aston Villa, a group of independent MPs led by Jeremy Corbyn has asked British Minister Lisa Nandy to return to parliament to explain why she allegedly lied inside parliament while opposing the ban imposed by the west midlands police. Rifat Jawaid says that this should warrant Nandy’s resignation in view of a breach of the parliamentary code. This was after Sky News issued a remarkable clarification on ignoring key facts about the Tel Aviv club’s football fans and their questionable past.

Rubio says Israeli moves to annex occupied West Bank ‘threatening’ Gaza peace deal

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has warned Israel against annexing the occupied West Bank, saying steps taken by the Knesset are a threat to the Gaza peace deal.

On Wednesday, Israeli politicians voted to advance two bills on annexing the occupied West Bank, barely a week after President Donald Trump pushed through a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.

“I think the president’s made clear that’s not something we can be supportive of right now,” Rubio said of annexation as he boarded his plane for a visit to Israel.

“And we think that’s even threatening to the peace deal.”

A number of Arab and Islamic states, which the United States is courting to provide troops and money for a stabilisation force in Gaza, have warned that annexation of the occupied West Bank is a red line.

When asked about increased violence by Israeli settlers against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, Rubio said: “We’re concerned about anything that threatens to destabilise what we’ve worked on.”


Netanyahu slams Knesset vote on West Bank annexation as ‘political provocation’

The Israeli prime minister has referred to yesterday’s Knesset vote on the annexation of the occupied West Bank as a “deliberate political provocation by the opposition to sow discord during [US] Vice President JD Vance’s visit to Israel”.

According to his office, the two bills which passed in their draft stage were “sponsored by opposition members of the Knesset”.

“The Likud party and the religious parties (the principal coalition members) did not vote for these bills, except for one disgruntled Likud member who was recently fired from the chairmanship of a Knesset committee. Without Likud support these bills are unlikely to go anywhere,” his office added.

Earlier, Vance called yesterday’s vote a “very stupid political stunt”.

Trump on Israeli annexation of West Bank: ‘It won’t happen’

The US president, in an interview with Time Magazine, reiterated what Vice President JD Vance said a short while ago, that the US’s firm policy is against Israeli annexation.

“It won’t happen. It won’t happen. It won’t happen because I gave my word to the Arab countries. And you can’t do that now”, Trump told Time.  “We’ve had great Arab support. It won’t happen because I gave my word to the Arab countries. It will not happen. Israel would lose all of its support from the United States if that happened”.

The US president told the publication that he had to stop Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu from continuing the assault on Gaza. “I stopped him, because he would have just kept going. It could have gone on for years”, Trump said. “And I said to Bibi [a commonly used nickname for Netanyahu], ‘Bibi, you can’t fight the world. You can fight individual battles, but the world’s against you. And Israel is a very small place compared to the world.’”

He also said that Israel’s attack on a Hamas delegation in Qatar was a “tactical mistake”, suggesting that this was the event that brought pressure on Israel sufficient to get them to agree to a ceasefire. “I actually told the emir [of Qatar], this was one of the things that brought us all together, because it was so out of joint that it sort of got everybody to do what they have to do.”

On the question of Palestinian leadership post-war, Trump waffled on the future of Mahmoud Abbas, president of the Palestinian Authority, and also said he would be “making a decision” on whether or not to pressure Israel to release Marwan Barghouti, imprisoned by Israel since the early 2000s.

Finally, Trump also said he plans on visiting the Gaza Strip at some point in the future, and that he believes that Saudi Arabia will join the Abraham Accords by the end of the year.


It's all about the money for Trump, salivating at the deals he can make with the Abraham accords.

https://www.newarab.com/news/egypt-and-saudi-construct-first-high-speed-rail-link
https://www.railfreight.com/beltandroad/2025/05/26/egypt-israel-iraq-want-to-tap-into-asia-europe-trade-via-rail/
https://thesecretariat.in/article/the-new-silk-road-us-india-saudis-want-to-build

The new silk route via rail through the Middle East is the big carrot that led to the 'peace' plan.

China is already ahead


The China Iran trade railway is no ordinary transport project. It’s a groundbreaking overland corridor stretching across deserts, mountains, and geopolitical red zones—connecting China's industrial heartland directly to Iran’s energy-rich territory. In this video, we uncover how the China Iran trade railway quietly bypasses U.S.-controlled maritime chokepoints like the Strait of Hormuz and the Malacca Strait.

While most global trade still flows by sea, the China Iran trade railway offers an alternative built on steel and strategy. It’s part of the Five Nations Railway Corridor, a 2,100 km megaproject redefining energy logistics, economic connectivity, and cross-border finance. With oil tankers rerouted onto tracks and payments shifting toward the yuan, this isn't just a rail line—it’s a reconfiguration of global influence.

In a roundabout way, China-Iran relations pressured Trump into 'ending' the Gaza genocide to get in on the new trade route linking China to Africa / Europe via the Middle East. Hence Trump keeps going on about his Arab partners to maintain the 'ceasefire'.

Israel's political landscape is in the way of Trump's plans for world trade bypassing Russia.

Israeli government ‘flabbergasted’ by US pushback on West Bank annexation

You have key leaders in the Israeli government who are really quite flabbergasted about what’s going on.

This is something they had agreed on as part of the agreement to form this government, and now they’re being told by the White House in no uncertain terms that the US would pull the plug on support to Israel.

This is something no one can afford.

Benjamin Netanyahu himself issued several statements and positions to indicate that his party had nothing to do with this, that this was internal politics at play and that Israel was not going to move ahead with annexation now.

That will cost him in the weeks to come with his right-wing base, which voted him in because they wanted annexation.

Far-right Israeli minister slams Saudi Arabia for pushing Palestinian statehood for normalisation

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich says Saudi Arabia should “keep riding camels” if it asks for a Palestinian state as a condition to normalise relations with Israel.

“If Saudi Arabia tells us normalisation in exchange for a Palestinian state, friends, no thank you”, Smotrich said at a conference in Israel. “We’ll keep truly developing – with an economy, a society, a state and all the great and wonderful things we know how to do,” he said.

However, his comments were slammed by Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid, who wrote on X in a post directed at Saudi Arabia and the Middle East, that Smotrich “does not represent the State of Israel” and called on him to apologise.

Israel’s former Defence Minister Benny Gantz also said Smotrich’s comments “indicate ignorance, and a lack of internalisation of his responsibility as a senior minister in the government and cabinet”.

Several countries sign statement condemning Israeli push to annex West Bank

Fifteen countries, the League of Arab States and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation have signed a statement denouncing the Israeli parliament’s first vote approving the annexation of the occupied West Bank and legalising an illegal settlement.

According to the statement, the signatories called the parliament’s decision a “flagrant violation of international law and United Nations Security Council resolutions”.

“They reaffirm that Israel has no sovereignty over the occupied Palestinian territories. These states welcome the Advisory Opinion of the International Court of Justice issued on October 22, 2025, on Israel’s obligations in and in connection with the occupied Palestinian territories,” the statement read.

“These countries warn against the continuation of unilateral and illegal Israeli policies and practices, and call on the international community to assume its legal and moral responsibilities, [and] compel Israel to halt its dangerous escalation and illegal actions in the occupied Palestinian territories.”

Even without annexation, Israeli has imposed ‘almost full’ sovereignty over the West Bank

As the Knesset advances a bill to annex the occupied West Bank, Israel’s control of the Palestinian territory already goes beyond occupation to “almost full Israeli sovereignty,” according to a Palestinian academic.

“[Annexation] doesn’t bring a lot of changes on the ground, but of course has significant political implications in terms of what is the destiny of Palestinians,” Walid Habbas, a researcher at the Palestinian Forum for Israeli Studies, told Al Jazeera.

“We all know that the two-state solution is already dead, however it remains in the international discourse, but annexation would end any ability to manoeuvre in this political discourse.”

Habbas said there is widespread consensus now in Israel that the occupied West Bank should be considered part of “Greater Israel”, but the question now is how to move forward with official annexation and how the international community would respond.

“The United States administration and also Netanyahu think this is not a good time to open such a hot issue from the point of the international community, and maybe later would be more [advantageous],” he said.

“[But] Israel has already de facto moved all the responsibilities from the military to civilians as the settlers are now running the situation in the West Bank.”

Nearly a dozen Palestinians arrested during Israeli raids across occupied West Bank

Israeli forces arrested three people from Ramallah and the el-Bireh governorate in the occupied West Bank at dawn today, according to Palestinian news agency Wafa.

Security sources told the agency that Israeli forces stormed the Jalazone refugee camp, north of Ramallah, and arrested Hamza Muhammad Dalash and Muhammad Abdul Jalil Dalash. In the town of Kobar, northwest of Ramallah, they arrested Muhammad Hisham Shanan after raiding and searching his home.

The agency also reported that seven Palestinians were arrested in Hebron: Saeed Saadi al-Haimouni and his son Fadel, Tariq al-Najjar, Saadi Abu Wahdan, Ahmed Nader Karameh, Atef Rajai al-Haimouni, and Talal al-Najjar.

Security sources told Wafa that Israeli forces stormed several neighbourhoods in Hebron and raided detainees’ homes.

Dozens of Israeli settlers attack Palestinian olive farmers near Ramallah

Israeli settlers have attacked Palestinian olive pickers in Turmus Aya, north of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, according to Wafa. According to local sources, dozens of settlers entered the town and attacked farmers while they were harvesting olives, forcing them to leave their land.

The Palestinian Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission says it has documented a total of 158 attacks against olive pickers since the beginning of the current season, which began about two weeks ago.

It said the Israeli army carried out 17 of the attacks, while settlers carried out 141.

Israeli forces detain two Palestinian children in East Jerusalem, close off village

Israeli forces have detained two Palestinian children in raids on their homes in al-Issawiya, a neighbourhood in occupied East Jerusalem, the Wafa news agency reports.

Meanwhile, Israeli forces have closed off access to the village of Beit Iksa, in the occupied West Bank, preventing residents from entering or leaving.

Israeli settles steal tent, livestock pen east of Tubas

Israeli settlers carried out this latest attack on local Palestinians in the Khirbet Yarza area, east of Tubas in the occupied West Bank, Wafa reports. Mukhles Masaid, head of the Khirbet Yarza village council, said settlers stole a tent and a livestock pen that belonged to a local resident.

Israel bombs eastern Lebanon again

At least two air attacks were conducted by Israeli army warplanes on the outskirts of Hermel, in the far northeastern corner of Lebanon. The Israeli army confirmed it carried out attacks, claiming without evidence that it targeted a production site for “precision missiles” owned by Hezbollah.

Israel has been carrying out regular attacks on Lebanon despite a nearly year-old ceasefire between it and Hezbollah.

Israeli air strike reported in southern Lebanon

We’re getting reports that an Israeli air strike targeted the vicinity of the town of Arabsalim in southern Lebanon’s Nabatieh district.

In a separate incident earlier, the Lebanese Health Ministry said two people were killed and another wounded when an Israeli drone strike targeted a car on Zebdine road in the Nabatieh district.

Israel hoping to scupper Gaza peace plan through ‘artificial barriers’

The biggest obstacles to maintaining the ceasefire in Gaza and moving to the next stage of the peace plan are the “artificial barriers” being put up by Israel, according to Sultan Barakat, a professor at Hamad Bin Khalifa University in Qatar.

“On the Israeli side, the first thing they should have done is to withdraw [their forces] – and they haven’t done this totally in line with the agreement – and then to allow aid in … but they are trying to delay it little by little, in the hope that this will create a crisis and Hamas will react in some form,” he told Al Jazeera.

Meanwhile, Barakat said moves by the Israeli Knesset to advance two bills on annexing the occupied West Bank were “designed entirely to irritate Trump” and his administration.

“It also shows us that the majority of the [Knesset] supports annexation and the issue is not just with a minority of extremists in the Israeli government, it’s much wider,” he said.

ICJ ruling shows international law ‘on the side of the Palestinians’

The International Court of Justice’s ruling that Israel has an obligation as the occupying power to allow basic necessities into Gaza shows that the law is “on the side of the Palestinians” and that the “world’s moral conscience is still alive”, Sultan Barakat, professor at Hamad Bin Khalifa University in Qatar, tells Al Jazeera.

“The Israelis are likely to dismiss it, but deep inside I think they’re very upset,” he said.

“They dismiss all these international rulings, but they know that the wheel of justice will catch up with them – if not today, then tomorrow, or if not tomorrow, then in 10 years.”

10 years seems a bit optimistic, it all depends on how long the USA is still going to shield Israel. The USA has been ignoring ICJ rulings since 1986.

IOC supporting genocide. 

IOC wants no sport events in Indonesia after visa ban on Israeli athletes

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has urged global sports federations not to host any sporting events in Indonesia after it banned Israeli gymnasts from the ongoing Artistic Gymnastics World Championships in Jakarta, a decision the host nation said it took to “maintain public order”.

The IOC’s executive board issued a statement on Wednesday saying it has recommended that world sports bodies cease holding events in Indonesia.

Indonesia, the world’s largest Muslim-majority country, denied visas to Israeli gymnasts earlier this month amid Israel’s genocide in Gaza, meaning they could not take part in the championship that began on Sunday.

Jakarta said the move was in line with Indonesia’s policy of cutting ties with Israel until it recognises the independence of the state of Palestine.

In its strongly worded statement, the IOC said it was also cutting off all discussions about any potential Olympic Games bid by Indonesia until the government provided assurances that all athletes, irrespective of nationality, would be eligible to compete there in future.

Israel’s top court postpones petition demanding media access to Gaza

Israel’s Supreme Court has pushed back the hearing of a petition filed by an organisation representing international media outlets in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory, demanding independent access for journalists to Gaza.

Since the Gaza war began in October 2023, Israeli authorities have prevented foreign journalists from entering the devastated territory, taking only a handful of reporters inside on tightly controlled visits alongside its troops.

On Thursday, Israel’s top court began the hearing of a petition filed by the Foreign Press Association (FPA) seeking access to Gaza. The State Attorney acknowledged “the situation has changed” and requested a further 30 days to examine the circumstances. No date has been set for the next hearing.

Speaking outside the courtroom ahead of the hearing, Nicolas Rouget, an FPA board member said: “We have a right to inform the public, the people of the world, the Israeli public, the Palestinian population.

“We feel we must stand … by our Palestinian colleagues in Gaza, who have been the only ones able to inform the public about this conflict over the last two years,” he added.

Examine what circumstances?

Israel continues to deny foreign journalists access to Gaza Strip

International journalists are still not being granted free access to report from Gaza. The FPA reacted with disappointment on Thursday and accused Israel of using delaying tactics.

Access to the Gaza Strip is entirely controlled by Israel. Since the start of Israel’s genocidal war more than two years ago, foreign journalists have only been able to visit the Gaza Strip sporadically with the Israeli army, and they were only shown very specific areas.

Palestinian journalists continue to bring the world news from the ground, risking their lives to do so – more than 200 have been killed by Israel since October 2023, making it the deadliest conflict for journalists ever recorded.

World knows what’s happened in Gaza in last 2 years thanks to ‘remarkable’ local journalists

Israel has argued for the past two years that the foreign press cannot enter Gaza because it poses a threat to Israeli forces on the ground, and they could not guarantee the safety of these journalists because of the indiscriminate bombing campaign at the time.

There were some journalists who were going in, but only through Israeli military embeds, where the military showed them exactly what they wanted them to see and sold this different narrative.

But it’s worth mentioning that Palestinian journalists on the ground have been covering the war for the last two years, some of whom have paid the ultimate price, as nearly 300 journalists and media workers have been killed in Israel’s war on Gaza, including some of our own colleagues here at Al Jazeera and their families.

They have been reporting day after day for more than two years, knowing the risks and also facing what Palestinians endure there every day – the starvation, the fear for their safety and their families.

So what the FPA is arguing is that they want to show the world what has happened in Gaza. But the world has been seeing it over the past two years thanks to these remarkable journalists on the ground inside the Gaza Strip.

Except Western media has mostly ignored it all and keeps repeating Israeli propaganda.

Hamas urges admission of international media to Gaza

In a statement on Telegram, the Palestinian group says that Israel’s continued barring of foreign press “clearly reveals this entity’s [Israel’s] insistence on continuing to impose media blackout on the horrific crimes and widespread destruction caused by the Zionist war machine in the Strip”.