Compilation of news reports – IAK staff
Israeli forces killed at least 65 Palestinians in Gaza on Thursday, including 15 aid seekers. In total, Israel has killed at least 2,597 aid seekers since the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation opened on May 27, 2025 (learn about aid seekers here).
Among the dead is a Doctors Without Borders employee, Omar Hayek, the 14th member of the medical charity killed since the beginning of the war in Gaza.
The number of known starvation/malnutrition deaths stands at 455, including 151 children.
Additional statistics below. For detail on Israeli attacks in Gaza on Thursday, go here.
GAZA NEWS & HEADLINES:
(For some basic info on the Palestine-Israel conflict, go here. For more critical context, skim this, this, and this. To read about a remarkable but underreported, 20-month-long peaceful protest in Gaza against Israel, go here.)
Israel declares 600,000 in Gaza City ‘military targets,’ cuts off lifeline from south
At least 600,000 Palestinians are currently under siege in Gaza City amid the Israeli army’s ongoing bombardment, encirclement, and expulsion campaign. Those remaining are either unwilling or unable to leave their homes.
On Wednesday, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz announced that all Palestinians remaining in the city must head south, stressing that anyone who stays will be considered a “terrorist” or “terrorist supporter” and targeted by invading Israeli forces.
Now is the “last opportunity for Gaza residents” to move south, Katz said.
Israeli forces have currently blocked all travel northward on the Rashid coastal road. “The only safe road for bringing in food and medicine has been cut,” stated Mahmoud Basal, the spokesperson of the Gaza civil defense.
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Newborn dies and three premature infants evacuated from Gaza City hospital to the southern Strip
A newborn baby died today, Friday, at Al-Helou Hospital in Al-Nasr neighborhood in Gaza City.
Medical sources reported that the baby passed away inside the hospital’s nursery department. At the same time, three premature infants were evacuated from the hospital to medical centers in the southern Gaza Strip in coordination with the World Health Organization.
Ten premature infants are still in the nursery department at Al-Helou Hospital, amid severe difficulty in reaching or leaving the facility.
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“Death is Better Than This Life”: Displaced Palestinians in Gaza Are Being Bombed in Their Tents
Displaced Palestinians in Deir al-Balah, Gaza, on Wednesday were trying to set up their tent encampment when an Israeli drone strike smashed into them. Shrapnel tore through flesh and bone, killing four, wounding nine, and destroying several tents.
Ismail Abu Sharakh, an eyewitness to the Wednesday strike, told Drop Site, “Everyone here is displaced, no one is involved in anything, not in the resistance or anything. They crushed us with a drone strike. They are turning us into sliced meat. No where is safe, it’s all lies. All of Gaza is not safe. No Arab country is safe. Either they kill us all or they force us all out. We don’t have any energy left. My tent is gone now. What am I supposed to without a tent? My things are gone. I can’t take it anymore. Day after day. We are exhausted.
“Death is better than this life,” Abu Sharakh said. “Why injure us? Just kill us and get it over with. This is not a life we are living” (continue reading here).
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More than 10,000 children in Gaza have ‘life-changing’ injuries: WHO
Nearly 42,000 Palestinians in Gaza have sustained “life-changing” injuries, about one-quarter of whom are children, says Rik Peeperkorn, the World Health Organization (WHO) representative for the occupied Palestinian territory.
Peeperkorn told reporters during a UN briefing that the organization has tallied a total of 167,000 injured people in the Gaza Strip since October 2023, consistent with previous WHO estimates.
More than 5,000 Palestinians have faced amputations, Peeperkorn said, with 22,000 injuries to arms and legs, more than 2,000 spinal cord injuries and 1,300 brain injuries also recorded.
FLOTILLA NEWS & HEADLINES:
(Read about the Gaza Freedom Flotilla 2025 missions here and here; learn about the deadly mission in 2010 here; and find out about the global flotilla here. Get live updates on the Global Sumud Flotilla from Al Jazeera here.)
BREAKING: Israel seizes last remaining flotilla vessel
Israeli forces have intercepted the last remaining boat in the Gaza-bound Global Sumud Flotilla, detaining the six crew members on board.
On Friday morning, livestream video showed Israeli soldiers boarding the polish-flagged Marinette, which organizers had previously reported was “steaming” towards Gaza, while all the other boats in the once 44-strong fleet had been seized and redirected to Israel’s Ashdod port.
A live geo-tracker showed the boat was intercepted some 43 nautical miles (about 80km) from Gaza’s territorial waters.
Israel intercepted the Global Sumud Flotilla in international waters, detaining 440+ aid volunteers headed to Gaza. Palestinian human rights lawyer @dianabuttu explains how Israel violated international law on piracy, kidnapping and humanitarian aid. pic.twitter.com/LErs5MO8LH
— AJ+ (@ajplus) October 2, 2025
60 nautical miles? Wow.
If ordinary citizens of the world, with small and underresourced boats can do that, why states don’t break the blockade with their navies?
Is this the world we live in? No, we do not accept it.
Go, go Flotilla! Sail safe.
God’s wind. https://t.co/sOjSBJNi87— Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur oPt (@FranceskAlbs) October 1, 2025
20 Israeli military ships attack unarmed humanitarian flotilla
The aid flotilla reached less than 80 nautical miles (148 kilometers) from Gaza before being attacked by the Israeli Navy.
Activists spotted more than 20 Israeli naval boats approaching the convoy, with the navy ordering them to change course.
The committee accused Israel of using violence against the activists, saying naval forces rammed one ship, deployed water cannons, and forcibly boarded vessels while “brutally mistreating peaceful detainees from 50 countries around the world.”
Flotilla organizers confirmed that the Israeli authorities have detained all 455 participants, including high-profile climate activist Greta Thunberg and member of the European Parliament Rima Hassan.
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Israeli violations to be sent to ICJ as onboard lawyers record seizures
Lawyers on board the flotilla vessels are documenting violations by Israel of international humanitarian and marine law.
The illegal actions by Israel’s navy will then be sent to the UN’s International Court of Justice, Al Jazeera’s Hassan Massoud, on board one of the vessels in the Mediterranean Sea, reported.
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Israel holds deportation hearings for activists detained from Gaza aid flotilla: Legal center
Israeli authorities on Thursday began to hold deportation hearings for activists detained from an international aid flotilla headed to the blockaded Gaza Strip, an Israeli legal center said.
In a statement, Adalah, the first Palestinian Arab-run legal center in Israel, said it had received calls from participants reporting that immigration officials had initiated hearings on their detention and deportation orders at the Port of Ashdod, shortly after Israeli naval forces attacked dozens of flotilla ships late Wednesday and early Thursday.
“These proceedings were initiated without prior notice to their lawyers and while denying participants access to legal counsel,” Adalah said. “This constitutes a grave violation of due process and a denial of the participants’ fundamental rights. Adalah will continue to seek access and will take legal action as necessary.”
Ben Gvir taunts captured activists, gets an earful
Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir confronted detained flotilla activists as they awaited transfer to prison, repeatedly accusing them of being “terrorists.” The activists responded by chanting, “Free Palestine.”
In response, the International Committee said in a statement on X that it was “not surprising for the criminals of genocide to send out their minister, swaggering before activists from 50 countries around the world, surrounded by his guards”, adding that the activists’ chants “shattered the ears” of Ben Gvir.
“These are the flotilla terrorists.”
In a video circulating online, Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir can be seen repeatedly calling Global Sumud Flotilla activists “terrorists” as they were waiting for their transfer to an Israeli prison pic.twitter.com/7OiSMNeIrI
— Middle East Eye (@MiddleEastEye) October 3, 2025
RELATED: Ben Gvir urges PM to throw flotilla activists in prison rather than deport them
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ANOTHER FLOTILLA ON THE WAY: Journalists and Healthcare Workers Sail to Challenge Israel’s Siege and Media Blackout
A boat carrying dozens of international journalists and medical professionals from 25 countries has set sail for Gaza as part of the latest mission organized by the Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC) to break Israel‘s illegal siege. It will join10 boats that already left for Gaza on September 25 and 27.
The vessel, Conscience, bombed by Israel off the coast of Malta in May 2025, has returned to serve as a vehicle for medics and media determined to reach their colleagues in besieged Gaza.
“The Conscience is the latest and largest boat in this historic flotilla — and its name represents not only steadfast resistance to Israel’s illegal blockade, but a call to awaken the conscience of the world,” said Huwaida Arraf, FFC steering committee member aboard the ship.
“As journalists and medical professionals, we carry the responsibility to speak truth and preserve life. This mission is an appeal to our colleagues — and to the institutions that represent us globally — to break their silence, uphold their ethics, and stand on the right side of history,” said Dr. Ricardo Corradini, general surgeon from Italy.
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NOTABLE QUOTES: on Israel’s piracy and kidnapping
Amnesty International’s Secretary General, Agnès Callamard:
Israel’s forceful interception of the Global Sumud Flotilla vessels and detention of its crew off the coast of Gaza is a brazen assault against solidarity activists carrying out an entirely peaceful humanitarian mission. This seizure comes after weeks of threats and incitement by Israeli officials against the flotilla and its participants and after several attempts to sabotage some of its ships.
By continuing to actively block vital aid to a population against whom Israel is committing genocide, including by inflicting famine, Israel is once again demonstrating its utter contempt for the legally binding orders of the International Court of Justice and its own obligations as the occupying power to ensure Palestinians in Gaza have access to sufficient food and lifesaving humanitarian assistance.
This interception is not just about blocking aid; it is a calculated act of intimidation intended to punish and silence critics of Israel’s genocide and its unlawful blockade on Gaza. The incitement and threats that preceded it are also a shameless attempt to demonize peaceful solidarity initiatives seeking to end Israel’s genocide and the cruel blockade.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) deputy executive director, Edward Ahmed Mitchell:
Once again the Israeli occupation has demonstrated that it will kidnap humanitarian activists and engage in piracy in international waters, all to maintain its lawless blockade of the Palestinian people.
Every nation that pays lip service to international law should condemn this illegal attack on the Global Sumud Flotilla and take their own steps to forcibly break the siege of Gaza. In the case of western nations that continue to enable Israel’s genocide – even as their own citizens risk life and limb to stop it – anti-Palestinian racism and the influence of anti-Palestinian lobby groups clearly explain their ongoing complicity.
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OCCUPIED WEST BANK/EAST JERUSALEM NEWS & HEADLINES:
(For background on the West Bank, read this and this. For information on the significance of Israeli settlers in the West Bank, read this and this.)
Israeli Forces Kill a Palestinian, Injure and Abduct Another, Near Ramallah
ISRAEL HEADLINES:
(Get a glimpse inside Israel and the turmoil and contradictions within the country. Often, our news items and headlines are taken from Israeli media.)
HERE’S WHAT ISRAELIS ARE READING:
The Truth Trump Must Finally Acknowledge: Nothing About Netanyahu Is in Good Faith
The New Shin Bet Chief Must Serve Israel, Not Netanyahu
Even if Gaza peace comes, Israel’s reputation cannot be rewritten overnight
OTHER NEWS & HEADLINES:
German weapons giant acts as sales rep for Israel’s “suicide drones”
Genocide is a marketable commodity.
That seems to be the message from Itzik Huber, a leading figure in the Israeli weapons maker UVision.
“Israel is the best playground,” Huber told the website CTech in a recent interview. He praised the “condensed area” for “training and operation,” while observing how the wars against Gaza and Iran have demonstrated the “big flexibility” of drones (in which his firm specializes).
Calling Israel the “best playground” while that state’s military wages a war of extermination against Palestinians is unfathomably grotesque. It is similarly repugnant to present weapons which have inflicted massive pain and destruction as “flexible” (continue reading here).
MORE HEADLINES:
Mamdani, appearing on ‘The View,’ earns applause for calling Gaza war a ‘genocide’
Meet the Palestinian-American Who Just Jumped Into Georgia’s Governor Race
Dozens of rabbis, Jewish activists arrested for blocking Brooklyn Bridge in Gaza protest: ‘We say no to genocide’
Students Stage Walkouts in Dozens of Spanish Cities to ‘Stop the Genocide’ in Gaza
ICYMI (IN CASE YOU MISSED IT) – A SELECTION OF YESTERDAY’S HEADLINES:
Israel’s Katz Says Civilians in Gaza City Have ‘Last Opportunity to Leave,’ Will Be Treated as ‘Terrorists’
Over 150 Doctors Who Volunteered in Gaza Call on Trump To End Military Support for Israel
AIPAC’s and Israel’s influence is falling in Congress, two opposing letters show just how much
(Read yesterday’s daily update here.)
TAKE ACTION FOR GAZA
If Americans Knew has prepared a whole set of resources for educating and informing the public on the situation in Gaza: short videos, statistics, links, and downloadable flyers that you can print and hand out.
Watch this introductory video, and visit the website. Then pitch in to make a difference!
STATISTICS OCTOBER 7, 2023 – OCTOBER 2, 2025*:
- At least 67,337 Palestinians killed, 179,165 injured – including:
- at least 66,288 killed in Gaza (~20,000 children)
- at least 1,049 killed in the West Bank (~212 children)
- at least 169,165 injured in Gaza
- more than 10,000 injured in the West Bank
- at least 455 have died from malnutrition in Gaza, including 151 children
At least 2,597 Palestinians have been killed while trying to access aid parcels from the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which started operating on May 26, 2025.
Since the Israeli army unilaterally broke the January ceasefire on March 18, 2025, it has killed at least 13,420 people. 65 Israeli soldiers (most recent Sept. 28) have been killed during the same time period.
*NOTE: Thousands of those killed in Gaza have yet to be identified, and an estimated 14,000 more are still buried under rubble. Additionally, the numbers of injured and starved are very conservative estimates.
Reported Israeli death toll from October 7, 2023 – October 2, 2025: ~1,658 – including ~1,139 on October 7, 2023 (~36 children), 466 military forces since the ground invasion began in Gaza, about 52 military and civilians in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Israel.
By one count, Israeli attacks have killed approximately 270 Palestinian journalists and media workers; Palestinians have killed 4 Israeli journalists (other groups have tallied between 203 and 323 Palestinian journalists killed – depending on the criteria used).
NOTE: It is unknown at this time how many of the deaths and injuries of Israelis on October 7 were caused by Israeli soldiers.
- Human rights reports on Israel-Palestine (regularly updated)
- Cornell Cut Classes by a Pro-Palestinian Professor After an Israeli Student’s Discrimination Complaint
- ‘Full-throated assault on the First Amendment’: Judge rips into Trump over attempts to deport pro-Palestinian academics
- This Yom Kippur, There Will Be No Forgiveness for Israel’s Sins in Gaza
- Why Trump’s 20-point Plan for Ending the Gaza War Simply Won’t Work
- The destruction of Gaza City is a crime against history
- Israel wants to train ChatGPT to be more pro-Israel
- How Jeffrey Epstein Helped to Broker an Israeli Security Agreement With Mongolia
- Americans’ Support for Israel Dramatically Declines, Times/Siena Poll Finds
- From Netanyahu’s Deceitful UN Speech on Gaza, a Terrible Truth Emerges
- A List of Every House Democrat Calling on Trump to Recognize Palestine
- Israel wins TikTok
- Israel is coercing Gaza families: “Cooperate or be killed”
- Northwestern students blocked from enrollment after refusing controversial antisemitism training
- Israel’s ecocide in Gaza sends this message: even if we stopped dropping bombs, you couldn’t live here
- Over 30 states met during Netanyahu’s UN speech to weigh action against Israel
- Israel and 9/11: What did they know and withhold?
- Washington doubles down on support for Israel
- Collusion and insider trading: Who profited off 7 October?
- No medicine, no beds, no food or water: inside Gaza City’s main hospital
