Pro-Palestinian protesters rally in London


_{Protesters stand at the entrance to Downing Street, where the British PM’s office is located}

SOAS Senate condemns Gaza scholasticide

The Senate at the UK’s School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), the university’s academic governing body, has published a statement condemning what it describes as “scholasticide” in Gaza and demanding a complete government arms embargo on Israel.

Scholasticide refers to the systematic destruction of an education system through killing or detaining teachers and students, while demolishing schools and universities.

The governing body at Britain’s leading Middle East studies institution issued the declaration on Thursday, resolving to protect academics teaching about genocide and calling for international support to rebuild Gaza’s devastated higher education sector.

The statement notes that all of Gaza’s universities have been destroyed and more than 97 percent of schools damaged or demolished. At least 17,000 students and 226 academics were killed between October 2023 and August 2025.

UN experts raised concerns in April 2024 about whether there was an “intentional effort to comprehensively destroy the Palestinian education system”.

UN rapporteur slams Israel for killing ‘Palestinian women in thousands’

Israel’s attacks in Palestine have normalised atrocities worldwide, according to a UN expert.

“What happens in Palestine does not stay in Palestine,” UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women Reem Alsalem said during a UN briefing on Palestinian rights.

“The killing of Palestinian women and girls in the thousands, and the infliction of horrors on them, is really the most defining moment that declares that the world no longer cares,” said Alsalem.

She said the situation has been so normalised “that no one now bats an eyelid about what is happening to women and girls in conflict and crisis elsewhere”.

Alsalem acknowledged that the scale of atrocities defies existing frameworks.

“The current legal terminology, the concepts and the legal frameworks that we have are inadequate in front of the monstrosity and the scale and the horrors of what Palestinians have been going through,” she said.

Lapid slams Haredi protests after Israeli flag burned

The Israeli opposition leader has condemned “the despicable and criminal draft-dodging demonstration” in West Jerusalem.

“They burned an Israeli flag, raised a sign calling Israel an enemy state, incited against the IDF and its fighters, and attacked media personnel, police officers, and passers-by,” he said in a post on X.

He added: “Why isn’t the Prime Minister condemning this? Why isn’t there a minister demanding an investigation? In the capital of the Jewish people, there was an anti-Zionist demonstration yesterday, and the government is silent.”

A mass ultra-Orthodox Jewish rally against military conscription was held in the city yesterday, with packed crowds of mostly men clogging the roads around the Route 1 highway leading into Jerusalem.

Israeli media estimated that about 200,000 people flocked to the rally.

The debate over mandatory military service, and those who are exempt from it, has long caused tensions within Israel’s deeply divided society and has placed Netanyahu under increasing political strain over the past year.

Anti-Netanyahu protest on Tel Aviv beach

Israeli defence minister announces replacement of legal chief amid video leak inquiry

Israel’s Defence Minister Israel Katz has announced that Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi, the army’s chief military advocate, will not be returning to her position.

She had been placed on leave while an investigation examined the leak of a video showing alleged abuse of a Palestinian detainee at the notorious Sde Teiman detention centre.

The footage, first broadcast in August 2024 by Israel’s Channel 12, depicts the mistreatment of a Palestinian prisoner and prompted the arrest of five soldiers.

Authorities are probing how the video became public, with suspicions pointing to associates of the police chief. Tomer-Yerushalmi is expected to provide her account as part of the ongoing inquiry, while a successor to her post will be appointed in due course.

Israel’s foreign minister attacks top military lawyer over detention abuse leak

Israel’s foreign minister has accused the military’s chief legal officer of harming the state over a leaked video of a Palestinian detainee being abused.

In a post on X, Gideon Saar said there was “serious harm to the state, to the [army] and their image, serious harm to justice and legal proceedings”.

His attack on Friday came after Defence Minister Israel Katz announced that Chief Military Advocate Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi will not return to her post following the probe into leaked footage showing alleged abuse of a Palestinian detainee at Sde Teiman detention centre.

Opposition leaders support dismissal of top Israeli army lawyer

Opposition leaders Yair Lapid and Naftali Bennett have expressed their support for a government decision to dismiss the Israeli army’s top lawyer, Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi, following the leak of a video which showed the abuse of a Palestinian detainee.

Lapid said Tomer-Yerushalmi had to “end her role. There is no dispute about this.” He added: “She committed acts that harm the [army] and public trust in it. No one is above the law. And it applies to everyone.”

Bennett called the video’s leak a “very severe incident that subverts Israel’s public trust in senior commanders of the [army]”.

No one is above the law? 

Israeli lawmaker defends alleged rape of Hamas prisoner as far-right protesters rage over IDF troops' detention
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/israel-hamas-war-idf-palestinian-prisoner-alleged-rape-sde-teinman-abuse-protest/



Unrest continues to brew in Israel after a right-wing mob including members of the Knesset broke into two Israeli military bases in an effort to prevent Israeli military police from detaining nine soldiers who were under investigation for gang raping a Palestinian prisoner at the notorious Sde Teiman facility.

+972 Magazine's Oren Ziv, who was at one of the bases reporting on the events, says that the support of Israeli political leaders, including some members of the Knesset who participated in the riots, and the apathy of the military police all indicate that those protesting against the soldiers' charges are “the face of the state,” expressing what are “mainstream” views in Israeli society.

We also speak to Diana Buttu, a Palestinian human rights attorney who has interviewed some of the torture victims and says the extent of their abuse is “appalling.” She calls Sde Teiman a “concentration camp” that the entirety of Israeli society and the international community are “complicit” in.

Army lawyer defends decision to publish alleged abuse video

We’ve been reporting this afternoon about the dismissal of the Israeli army’s top lawyer, Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi, over a video which was leaked last year showing a Palestinian detainee at Sde Teiman detention facility allegedly being sexually assaulted by Israeli troops.

Tomer-Yerushalmi has given her account in a letter, stressing that even though she believed the detainees to be “terrorists”, that “does not detract from our duty to investigate when there is reasonable basis to suspect an act of violence against a detainee”.

She said that officers in the Israeli army’s legal department had already been under great pressure and a campaign of delegitimisation prior to the Sde Teiman incident, but that the pressure “reached its peak” when they decided to investigate it. Their loyalties to their fellow soldiers were questioned, she said.

She said the video was released to the media to counter the pressure her department was facing from other soldiers. “I approved the release of material to the media, in an attempt to repel the false propaganda against law enforcement bodies in the military.”

Israel seeks new top military lawyer with focus on ‘protecting soldiers’

Israel’s defence minister and military chief have announced they will appoint a new top military lawyer capable of meeting “significant challenges”, with the “protection of IDF soldiers” named as the foremost priority.

The joint statement from Defense Minister Israel Katz and Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir on Friday came hours after they dismissed Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi for leaking a video showing alleged abuse of a Palestinian detainee at Sde Teiman.

Tomer-Yerushalmi had defended investigating the abuse, saying even detainees she considered “terrorists” should not face violence.

Qatar warns Gaza may enter ‘no war, no peace’ state

Majed al-Ansari, the spokesperson for Qatar’s Foreign Ministry, has told the British daily The Guardian that Gaza might be heading into a state of “no war, no peace”, an outcome he says Doha doesn’t want.

Qatar has been a key mediator in talks between Israel and Hamas and played a crucial role in brokering the ceasefire, which has seen Israeli attacks significantly scaled back and a partial Israeli withdrawal from parts of Gaza in exchange for the release of captives.

Al-Ansari said the international community needed to “go in, assess the damage, start thinking about reconstruction, working on reconstruction, and to formally keep the peace”, adding that: “This is what will significantly shift the whole process from war to the day after.”

UK MP announces Westminster group to push for sanctions on Israel

Richard Burgon, a Labour MP, has announced the founding of a Westminster Working Group on Sanctions on Israel in Parliament, with his Labour colleague, Imran Hussain.

In a post on X, Burgon said: “At our packed session this week, we looked at how we can ramp up pressure for trade sanctions on Israel – including banning goods and services from the illegal settlements and ending the UK-Israel trade deal, which gives preferential treatment to a state committing genocide, war crimes and grave violations of international law.”

Sanctions helped end apartheid in South Africa - and they can help end Israel’s brutal occupation now.

I've launched a Westminster Working Group on Sanctions on Israel in Parliament with my colleague @Imran_HussainMP.

At our packed session this week, we looked at how we can… pic.twitter.com/gfBJfc8FFw

— Richard Burgon MP (@RichardBurgon) October 31, 2025

Trump loyalist slams Netanyahu for breaking Gaza peace deal; Qatar disappoints

In a blow to Donald Trump, Republican lawmaker Marjorie Taylor Green has criticises the Netanyahu regime for breaking the Gaza peace deal even as the US president claimed that the ceasefire was back on. Rifat Jawaid says that Qatar’s response too wasn’t up to the mark since this gulf kingdom was one of the guarantors of the peace. The development in Gaza came amidst further global isolation of the US at the United Nations.

‘Not Going To Be Forgotten’: Ex-Biden Official on Gaza FAILURE

“[The Gaza genocide is] not going to be forgotten, certainly by the people in Gaza, but it's not going to be forgotten by many Americans either. We saw an administration that said… it was working tirelessly for a ceasefire, and kept providing the weapons that ensured that the fire would never cease.”

Middle East peace negotiator Robert Malley joins Mehdi Hasan on this episode of ‘Mehdi Unfiltered’ as the two discuss the Gaza ceasefire, the Biden administration’s complicity in the genocide and what happened at Bill Clinton’s Camp David Summit in 2000. The diplomat, who has worked under Joe Biden, Barack Obama, and Bill Clinton, also explains why Biden turned down the same ceasefire deal a year ago.

I Went to Palestine's Most Surveilled City to Expose Israel's Wolfpack AI: What I Found Broke Me

Join MintPress director Mnar Adley as she embarks on walking through the city of Hebron, where her family originates from. Known to Palestinians as the city of al-Khalil, Hebron is the largest and most populated Palestinian city in the West Bank. Dubbed by Israel as 'Hebron Smart City' -- this is where Israel tests its Draconian surveillance technology on the Palestinian population as part of what is called the Wolfpack surveillance system.

Mnar Adley takes us along her journey as she crosses through the most heavily armed and surveilled checkpoints in the world where Israel has set up an automated apartheid system to track Palestinian movement. Adley is joined by Palestinian activist Izzat Karake from Youth Against Settlements who chronicles the struggle against settler colonialism where armed Jewish settlers supported by Israeli soldiers are trying to take over the city to Judaize the quarter.

Comoros joins South Africa’s genocide case against Israel at world court

The Comoros has become the latest country to intervene in South Africa’s genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice.

The ICJ announced on Friday that the Comoros filed a declaration on Wednesday under Article 63 of the court’s statute, which allows states party to the Genocide Convention to present their interpretation of the treaty.

South Africa launched the case in December 2023, accusing Israel of violating the Genocide Convention over its actions in Gaza. The court has since issued three sets of provisional measures ordering Israel to prevent genocide and allow humanitarian aid into Gaza.

Here is a list of countries that have intervened: Libya is the only other African nation to have filed, along with several Latin American countries, including Colombia, Mexico, Chile, Bolivia, Cuba, Belize and Brazil, as well as Turkiye, Spain, Ireland, the Maldives and Palestine.

First time I have heard of The Comoros. It's a tiny (3) island nation between Madagascar and Africa, population 850K, 1 airstrip. One of the poorest countries on Earth standing up for Palestine.

https://encircleafrica.org/blog/comoros-travel-guide/

Hamas says far-right Israeli minister ‘legitimising’ killing of Palestinian prisoners

Hamas official Mahmoud Mardawi has condemned Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir for reiterating his call for the death penalty for Palestinian prisoners detained by Israel.

A video clip shared on social media showed Ben-Gvir speaking in front of a line of Palestinian prisoners, lying face down and with their hands cuffed behind their backs.

Ben-Gvir’s “blatant and direct threats … represent a further escalation of the aggressive practices this extremist minister carries out against prisoners”, Mardawi said in a statement shared on Telegram.

“It also represents a continuation of his terrorist government’s violation of all norms, values, and laws that protect prisoners.”

Meanwhile, Jerusalem’s far-right deputy mayor, Arieh King, saluted Ben-Gvir for his remarks, saying “the people are with you”.

“Death penalty for these subhumans,” King wrote on X.

Two Israeli strikes target southern Lebanon

Two Israeli strikes have targeted southern Lebanon, despite an ongoing ceasefire, according to our correspondent on the ground, Zeina Khodr. At least one person was killed during the strike in Kunin, and so far, no casualties have been reported in the second strike in Nabatieh.

In recent weeks, Israel has intensified its strikes while accusing Hezbollah of rearming and rebuilding its capacities. Israeli troops have also continued to undertake incursions into Lebanese territory.

Decimated Gaza health system struggling to meet peoples’ needs: UN

UN chief Antonio Guterres’s spokesperson says the United Nations has been able to deliver 840 pallets of “life-saving medical supplies” to Gaza, including insulin and surgical kits.

But Stephane Dujarric told reporters that the health system in the bombarded Palestinian enclave “continues to face a significant challenge in addressing the immense need faced by people in Gaza”.

Dujarric noted that the Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza has reported that, as of October 7, more than 1,700 health workers have been killed since the war began in 2023.

Israeli forces storm Nablus

Israeli forces have begun a raid on the city of Nablus in the occupied West Bank.

According to Wafa news agency, Israeli forces stormed the city from the at-Tur military checkpoint and reached the Al-Baqah junction. Soldiers also raided a building under construction and deployed snipers on its roof.

Israeli settlers, military attack and harass Palestinians across occupied West Bank

Amid an ongoing ceasefire in Gaza, several Israeli army operations and settler attacks have taken place in the occupied West Bank, according to the Wafa news agency,

Here are the latest updates:

Settlers set fire to three vehicles in the West Bank in the second such attack in hours

Israeli settlers set fire to three Palestinian vehicles in the town of Kafr Qaddum in the north of the occupied West Bank, in the second such attack in a matter of hours, Al Jazeera Arabic reports.

Abdel Qabaja, an activist against the wall and settlements, said the settlers attacked Kafr Qaddum, east of Qalqilya, leading to clashes with residents during which the settlers used live ammunition.

Qabaja said the Israeli army intervened to protect the settlers, using tear gas and live ammunition.

He said settlers burned three vehicles in the town, including a vehicle owned by Murad Ishtawi, director of the Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission office in the northern West Bank.

Earlier on Friday, settlers also attacked the towns of Beitin and Deir Dibwan, east of Ramallah, burning two vehicles and vandalising a mosque by smashing its windows.