Report finds Israel arbitrarily imprisoning Palestinian children at record rates

The organisation Defense for Children International-Palestine (DCIP) has said that the number of Palestinian children being held in Israeli administrative detention has nearly quadrupled over the last year.

As of September 30, the group said Israel was holding 85 children in administrative detention, a provision Israel uses to imprison people without trial or charge for indefinite periods of time. The group says the figure is the highest it has seen since it began monitoring child detainees in 2008.

“Israeli forces are arbitrarily detaining Palestinian children without charge or trial at a rate we have never seen before,” said Ayed Abu Eqtaish, accountability program director at DCIP.

“Palestinian children held under administrative detention orders issued by Israeli military commanders have no idea when they will be released and reunite with their friends and family, which causes immense stress, anxiety, and depression for the children.”

US Muslim rights group slams Likud support for settlements in Gaza

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a US-based Muslim rights group, has taken aim at an upcoming event promoted by Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s Likud Party in support of resettling Gaza.

“The Israeli government has made it clear that it intends to expand its war across the region and resettle territories whose native populations they decimate,” the group’s national executive director said in a statement.

“These are the actions of a rogue government that the Biden administration must stop enabling before more innocents are slaughtered and more chaos spreads.”

Earlier today, Riyad Mansour, Palestine’s UN envoy, waned the Security Council that Isreal’s aim is to annex the Gaza Strip after ethnically cleansing it.

 
US says reports of Israel using Palestinians as human shields was ‘disturbing’

US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller has said that reports published in the New York Times documenting Israel’s use of Palestinians as human shields in Gaza are “incredibly disturbing” but did not suggest the US is considering potential penalties.

“If the facts presented in that report are true, they’re completely unacceptable,” he said. “I know that the [Israeli army] has announced that they’re investigating the claims in that report. That is entirely appropriate for them to do,” he added.

disturbing, concerning, unacceptable, heard it all before. Still no action, let the murderer investigate itself. The only 'disturbing' thing to Miller is that the NYT reported on this.

US Senator Bernie Sanders says government must end support for ‘cruel and illegal’ war

Progressive United States Senator Bernie Sanders has said that the US must end the transfer of offensive weapons to Israel, which he accused of carrying out a “cruel and illegal” war.

“When Congress returns, the Senate will be voting on my resolution to block offensive arms sales to Israel. How many thousands more children must Netanyahu starve, kill, or orphan before the US changes its policy?,” Sanders said in a social media post.

“We must end our complicity in this cruel and illegal war.”

Senior Hamas official: No peace in region without Gaza resolution

Basem Naim spoke to Reuters news agency in an interview in Istanbul, saying that even a permanent ceasefire in Gaza will be difficult to reach without solving the issue of Gaza, which he called the origins of the entire current Middle East conflict.

Here are a few of the other key comments Naim made during the interview:

Five killed in Gaza City, says civil defence

The rescue organisation says that its crews recovered the bodies of five people who were killed in an Israeli attack on a family home in Gaza City. The attack hit the home of the al-Halou family, the civil defence said in an update, which is located on as-Sina Street near the Jordanian Hospital.

Gaza civil defence: Dozens of killed in Jabalia are unreachable

The rescue organisation says in a statement there are dozens of uncounted dead bodies in the Jabalia refugee camp, killed by Israel’s intense siege, that cannot be reached by its crews. The bodies are trapped under rubble, and some are lying on the roads.

Here are a few of the civil defence’s points:

Israeli soldiers shoot 14-year-old in leg during raid on West Bank’s Salfit

A 14-year old boy was shot in the thigh when Israeli forces fired live ammunition during a raid on Salfit in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian Wafa news agency is reporting.

The Palestinian Red Crescent Society said it transferred the boy to hospital, Wafa added.



Canadian group urges government to expand sanctions against Israeli settlers

The advocacy groups Independent Jewish Voices and Just Peace Advocates have called on the Canadian government to take action against organisations that support illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.

In a report in collaboration with Brock University professor, Miles Howe, on surging anti-Palestinian violence and displacement by Israeli settlers, the groups said that Canada has a responsibility to “take immediate and meaningful action”.

“The violence against Palestinians in the West Bank, enabled and perpetuated by organizations like the World Zionist Organization’s [WZO] Settlement Division, has reached unprecedented levels,” the report states. “As settlers continue to commit atrocities – including murder, arson, and the systematic displacement of Palestinian communities – Canada must no longer remain complicit.”

Three killed by Israeli bombing in south Lebanon

The country’s Health Ministry says that the three were killed when the Israeli army attacked the village of Tayr Debba, a few kilometres east of the major southern Lebanese city of Tyre.

US lawmaker urges Biden to do more to obtain ceasefire

Progressive US Congresswoman Cori Bush has called on the Biden administration to use leverage such as arms sales to Israel to push for a ceasefire.

“We introduced our #CeasefireNOW Resolution #OTD [on this day] a year ago. A permanent ceasefire then could have saved thousands of lives [and] helped free hostages and those arbitrarily detained,” Bush, who lost her recent re-electing bid to a pro-Israel opponent after a massive spending campaign by pro-Israel groups, said in a social media post.

“President Biden can save lives today by imposing an arms embargo [and] securing a permanent ceasefire.”

Why has the US changed its tone regarding Israel’s ‘starvation policy’ in Gaza?

Al Jazeera’s senior political analyst, Marwan Bishara, highlights the shift in tone from the US ambassador to the UN, noting that while American diplomats have historically balanced their support for Israel with occasional reservations, this latest statement goes further.

He emphasises that it feels more like a reprimand, especially when addressing the “so-called policy of starvation”. Bishara suggests that this change is significant, not just in rhetoric, but because it reflects the stark reality on the ground.

Main events on October 16th

• The Lebanese Health Ministry has said Israeli strikes across the country have killed 27 people and injured 185 over the last 24 hours, including in Nabatieh, where an attack killed 16 people – including the town’s mayor – and injured 52 people.
• The UN’s peacekeeping force in Lebanon, UNIFIL, has said Israeli forces once again fired on one of its positions in the south, damaging a watchtower.
• Gaza’s Health Ministry says Israeli attacks have killed 65 people and wounded 140 in the besieged enclave during the latest 24-hour period.
• In northern Gaza, where an Israeli siege is entering its 13th day, civil defence crews say they are unable to recover dozens of bodies trapped under rubble and in the streets of the besieged Jabalia refugee camp, as 200,000 Palestinians go without food, drinking water or medicine.
• European and Gulf countries have called for a ceasefire in Israel’s ongoing wars in Gaza and Lebanon at the first European Union and Gulf Cooperation Council summit.
• Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani has said there has been no engagement in Gaza ceasefire talks over the last three to four weeks.
• UNICEF Deputy Executive Director Ted Chaiban has urged the international community to respond to the humanitarian crisis created by Israel’s military operations in Lebanon, which he said has displaced 1.2 million people, 400,000 children among them.
  

Gabor Mate ‘It’s like we’re watching Auschwitz on TikTok’



“Had there been YouTube and Instagram and TikTok around Auschwitz, this is what we would have seen, people burning alive. And it’s beyond horrendous, it’s beyond comprehension.”

In an online meeting with French activist and film producer Frank Barat on Monday, Canadian physician Gabor Mate explored the psychological complexities of witnessing atrocities in Gaza and Palestine, saying: “It’s like we’re watching Auschwitz on TikTok.”

They delve into the emotional and historical roots of violence and oppression, highlighting the trauma, guilt, and helplessness experienced by observers. Mate stresses the need to acknowledge these emotions and examines the normalisation of violence, while contemplating the future implications for Gaza and global society.



Small excerpt:

"As to your statement about you thought that it would end at some point, actually it's the other way around when people like this are empowered and encouraged and allowed and supported and perpetrating their Horrors they get more crazy, they get more cruel, they get more remorseless, more Relentless, more ruthless."

"That's what happened to the Nazis. The Nazis did not start off with gas Chambers you know but then they started killing their their mentally ill people in gas vans. Then they started shooting Jews in Eastern Europe and then they end up with the gas chambers. So it's a progression of Madness and cruelty that's almost inevitable on the part of the perpetrator and especially when it's encouraged by all the Imperial Powers."


This is not going to stop until the US stops enabling and protecting Netanyahu.

Israeli military bombs Syrian port city: Report

The Israeli military has attacked Syria’s Mediterranean port city of Latakia, according to Syrian state media network, SANA. It described the attack as “aggression”, without offering more details.

Fire breaks out in Syria’s Latakia city after Israeli attack: Report

Syrian state news agency SANA has now reported that “anti-aircraft defence intercepted hostile targets above Latakia” and fires broke out after the attack. “Fires were triggered by the Israeli aggression” at the entrance to Latakia, SANA said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), a UK-based monitor, said the Israeli strike “targeted a weapons depot in Latakia city”.

Though Israel’s military has launched hundreds of strikes against targets in Syria in recent years, it rarely admits to its military campaign against what it says are Iran-aligned and supported armed groups in the country.

Yemen’s capital Sanaa, Saada city hit by US air strikes: Reports

Yemen’s Houthi-affiliated Al Masirah TV has reported air strikes on the capital Sanaa and the city of Saada while US outlet ABC News said that the US military attacked weapons storage facilities in the country overnight.

“US Central Command forces conducted multiple air strikes on numerous Iran-backed Houthi weapons storage facilities within Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen,” ABC News reports, citing a US defence official.

Al Masirah TV said the attack was carried out by US and UK forces.

US military says underground weapons facilities attacked in Yemen

US Central Command (CENTCOM) has confirmed that it struck multiple sites in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen, hours after Yemen’s Houthi-affiliated Al Masirah TV reported attacks on the capital Sanaa and the city of Saada.

“These actions were taken to degrade the Houthi’s capability to continue their reckless and unlawful attacks on international commercial shipping and on the US coalition, and merchant personnel and vessels in the Red Sea, Bab al-Mandeb Strait and the Gulf of Aden,” CENTCOM said in a statement shared on X.

The statement said the US attacked “hardened underground facilities housing missiles” and other weapons.

“US forces targeted several of the Houthis’ underground facilities housing various weapons components of types that the Houthis have used to target civilian and military vessels throughout the region,” US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in a new statement.

B-2 bombers conducted precision strikes against five underground weapons storage locations, Austin said, adding that use of the long-range stealth bomber demonstrates “US global strike capabilities to take action against these targets when necessary, anytime, anywhere”.

The US and UK have repeatedly carried out strikes aimed at curbing the Iran-backed group’s ability to target shipping, but the rebels have continued to attack merchant vessels transiting the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.

“At the direction of President Biden, I authorized these targeted strikes to further degrade the Houthis’ capability to continue their destabilizing behavior and to protect and defend US forces and personnel in one of the world’s most critical waterways,” Austin said.

The Houthis, part of the “axis of resistance” of Iran-linked groups, have targeted ships they say have connections to Israel since November, in what they describe as support for Palestinians during the Israel-Hamas war.

Houthis promise response to US attack

Yemen’s Houthis have promised to retaliate after the US conducted multiple strikes on weapons storage facilities in areas controlled by the group. “We confirm that the American aggression will not pass without a response,” said a statement from the Houthis’ political bureau.

Earlier, the US announced its B-2 Spirit long-range stealth bombers targeted the facilities that “demonstrate US global strike capabilities to take action against these targets when necessary, anytime, anywhere,” US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in a statement.

Islamic Resistance in Iraq claims attack on Eilat

The coalition of Iran-backed fighter groups in Iraq said it launched a drone attack on Israel’s southernmost city, located on the Red Sea near Jordan. The Islamic Resistance in Iraq statement came several hours after sirens sounded in communities north and west of Eilat.

There have been no reported injuries or property damage.

IRGC chief warns Israel of ‘painful’ retaliation if it attacks

The chief of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), Hossein Salami, has warned of further retaliation if Iranian assets are hit in an attack Israeli officials have pledged to carry out following Iran’s missile strike against Israel on October 1.

“If you make a mistake and attack our targets, whether in the region or in Iran, we will strike you again painfully,” Salami said on Thursday, during the funeral of an IRGC general who was killed last month in an Israeli air strike alongside Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in Lebanon.

Salami also said an advanced air defence system deployed to Israel by the US will not prevent Iranian retaliation.

“We do know about your weakness, and you know too,” he said, referring to Israel.

The Israeli military reported intercepting “a large number” of the 180 ballistic missiles fired during Iran’s attack earlier this month.