As it sows chaos, we must remember: Israel fears “the moral clarity of ordinary people” – Not a Ceasefire, Day 21

Compilation of news reports – IAK staff

(It is difficult to characterize the current situation in Gaza a “ceasefire,” when Israel has killed over 200 Palestinians. If Americans Knew considers Thursday to be Day 755 of Israel’s war on Gaza)

Since the “ceasefire” went into effect on October 11, Israel has reportedly killed at least 211 Palestinians and injured 597 others (including the most recent massacre), and violated the truce agreement at least 125 times (not including the most recent massacre).

Additional statistics below.

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.) 

Some quick notes:

• Hamas has returned the bodies of two more Israeli captives from Gaza as part of the ceasefire agreement; Israel identified the remains as those of Amiram Cooper and Sahar Baruch, as 11 captives’ bodies still remain in the bombarded Palestinian enclave.
• Hamas has been calling for the entry of heavy bulldozers and machines in order to facilitate the process of recovering bodies. But on the ground, Israel is still accusing Hamas of deliberately procrastinating the release of the bodies.
• A Turkish disaster response team is still waiting by the Gaza border for Israeli approval to enter the besieged enclave to help with search and rescue operations, a Defense Ministry source said.

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Israel continues to deny, impede entry of aid supplies to Gaza

OCHA, the UN body that coordinates international humanitarian responses to emergencies, reports that since the ceasefire went into effect on 10 October, Israel has rejected 67 requests submitted by 27 local and international NGOs for the entry of over 3,200 metric tons of relief materials on the grounds that the organizations were not authorized to bring relief items into Gaza.

Nearly $50 million in humanitarian supplies remain stuck at crossings and warehouses, leaving many people without adequate shelter, clean water, or essential supplies ahead of the upcoming winter, the organizations reported.

On 26 October, Israeli forces announced that, beginning the following day, all humanitarian and commercial truck movements through Kerem Shalom Crossing would be rerouted to the Al Rasheed (coastal) Road. This route is unsuitable for high-volume transport because the road is narrow and heavily congested with traffic as it passes through densely populated areas. Congestion along this route has led to delays in aid movements.

There has been some improvement in food distribution. Food Security Sector (FSS) partners are currently producing 1,047,000 daily meals through 172 kitchens across the Gaza Strip; 130,00 bundles of bread are handed out; food parcels are distributed at 43 sites. 

Shelter needs remain largely unmet, even as winter approaches. A UN spokesperson said that with little housing left in Gaza, “people are taking shelter anywhere they can, in destroyed buildings, [and] in rag tag tents by the side of the road.’

Combined with massive destruction of civilian infrastructure and the health system, displacement and poor living conditions are creating the perfect storm for the spread of disease and people remain dangerously exposed to the elements as winter approaches, warns Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF).

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GAZA HEADLINES:

Two Killed, Dozens Wounded, In Renewed Israeli Strikes In Gaza

• The Israeli military claimed a strike on Beit Lahia, in northern Gaza, targeted a “weapons storage site” allegedly linked to an “imminent operation” – however, local sources reported, with no evidence of military infrastructure in the area.

NOTABLE QUOTE: Israel fears “the moral clarity of ordinary people”

Political commentator and human rights advocate Ranjan Solomon from Goa, India, on Israel’s “security” narrative:

A nation can not secure its future on the corpses of children. It cannot bomb its way to legitimacy. It cannot erase a people and expect peace to emerge from the smoldering ruins.

Today’s generation sees through official statements and military briefings. They witness genocide in real time, not through selective geopolitical lenses. Their outrage is reshaping the world’s conscience.

This is why Israel fears not only resistance fighters, but young voices, student protests, global solidarity networks, and the moral clarity of ordinary people.

OCCUPIED WEST BANK/EAST JERUSALEM NEWS & HEADLINES:

(Every day, Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem endure dozens of incidents like the ones below, at the hands of Israeli soldiers and/or settlers. 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 Youth Near Ramallah

Media sources reported that occupation forces shot the child, Yamen Samed Hamed, 15, with live ammunition, and blocked ambulance crews from approaching him for a period of time.

The sources added that soldiers left the wounded child lying on the ground for a short time before allowing ambulance crews to transport him to the Palestine Medical Complex, where he was later pronounced dead.

Wash. Post: Israel has erected nearly 1,000 barriers in the West Bank during the war in Gaza, group says

Israeli military raids throughout the West Bank have also increased, with Palestinians killed or detained. Israel says it is trying to root out militancy (continue reading here).

RELATED:

For pregnant Palestinian women, checkpoints are a matter of life and death

‘I Wished for Death’: A Palestinian Man’s Torture at an Israeli Checkpoint

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WEST BANK HEADLINES:

Thursday: Invasions, Violations, and Abductions Across West Bank

• Israeli occupation forces and illegal paramilitary colonizers launched coordinated invasions and abductions across multiple districts in the occupied West Bank, storming homes, refugee camps, and residential buildings in the northern, central, and southern regions.

Colonizers Torch Vehicles in Burqa Amid Daily Attacks, Land Seizures

• The attack on Burqa is part of a broader pattern of coordinated violence and land dispossession, which rights groups warn amounts to systematic ethnic cleansing under military and settler cover.

Israeli Army Abducts Palestinian Father and Son Near Hebron

• The soldiers reportedly abducted Yousef Makhamra and his son Mohammad after they attempted to remove colonizers who had released their sheep in front of homes in the center of the community.

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NEWS & HEADLINES ABOUT ISRAEL:

According to Israel’s Channel 14, the plan to construct the homes was unanimously approved earlier this week, less than a week after US President Donald Trump criticized Israeli settlement activity in the occupied West Bank.

“Don’t worry about the West Bank. Israel’s not going to do anything with the West Bank,” Trump told reporters at the White House on Oct. 24.

His remarks came a day after the Israeli Knesset (parliament) gave preliminary approval to two draft laws to annex the occupied West Bank and the Ma’ale Adumim settlement bloc (continue reading here).

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Israel plans to approve nearly 2,000 new settlement* units in occupied West Bank

Far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said Thursday that the Higher Planning Council will approve the construction of 1,973 new settlement units in the occupied West Bank during its next session, in addition to the 1,300 homes just approved in the Gush Etzion settlement south of occupied East Jerusalem.

Smotrich said Israeli authorities have approved nearly 30,000 new settlement units in the West Bank this year, describing it as an “unprecedented achievement” for his government.

*NOTE: Israel has illegally built around 280 settlements on Palestinian land in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, which are home to more than 700,000 illegal settlers. Some settler groups have a history of violence against Palestinians, often with the assistance of Israeli military forces (a phenomenon that has grown significantly worse since October 7th, 2023).

In a landmark advisory opinion on July 19, 2024, the International Court of Justice declared Israel’s decades-long occupation of Palestinian land “illegal” and demanded the evacuation of all settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

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ISRAEL HEADLINES:

Israel accused of using captives’ bodies issue to undermine Gaza ceasefire

• One expert accused Israel of spreading “a false narrative that the resistance is manipulating the issue” to justify continuing its assault and maintaining constant tension in Gaza.

Ex-Mossad chief, behind ICJ blackmail campaign, brags Israel has installed a global sabotage network

• Israel has deployed a global sabotage and espionage network which uses “booby-trapped and spy-manipulated equipment” (e.g. Lebanon pager attacks)

NEWS & HEADLINES FROM ISRAELI MEDIA:

(Get a glimpse inside Israel and the turmoil and contradictions within the country, as well as myths and lies that are published there as facts.)

U.S. Opposes an Israeli Plan to Distribute Gaza Aid Near IDF Soldiers*

The United States is opposing a plan submitted by Israel for distributing humanitarian aid in the Gaza Strip.

The Israel Defense Forces and the U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, or GHF, have proposed a plan in which 10 to 20 distribution points would be set up along the so-called Yellow Line, the temporary border along which the IDF is deployed.

The plan is backed by the same officials who had pushed for GHF operating in Gaza. The proximity to the Yellow Line will allegedly allow the IDF to secure GHF operations.

*NOTE: This plan bears resemblance to the previous arrangement with GHF, in which Israeli soldiers watched massive, chaotic distribution of aid at a handful of sites, and shot at the aid seekers at will. At least 1,800 were killed, and thousands more injured.

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HEADLINES FROM ISRAELI MEDIA:

• The house, located in a northern Israeli village, was a protected heritage site; a hearing was scheduled to cancel its demolition – yet police officers raided the village at night and forced out the family, including a 90-year-old.

U.S. Opposes an Israeli Plan to Distribute Gaza Aid Near IDF Soldiers

• A proposal presented by Israel to hand out aid along the so-called Yellow Line – the temporary Israel-Gaza border, where IDF soldiers are stationed – is opposed by the U.S., sources familiar with the details say. The Americans believe aid distribution should occur deep inside the Gaza Strip.

Netanyahu’s Criminal Trial Is the Most Defective in History

• Key witnesses have completely and mysteriously reversed their testimonies. It appears that a hidden hand has been pulling strings.

Ex-Israel Police Officer With PTSD Self-immolates Outside Defense Ministry Rehabilitation Official’s Home

• The officer, a man in his 40s, has long been recognized within the Defense Ministry’s rehabilitation department as struggling with both physical and mental health issues, including post-traumatic stress.

OTHER NEWS:

Calls for Israel’s UN envoy to retract attack against UN expert

Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations is facing growing calls to retract and apologize for recent ad hominem attacks against Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in the occupied Palestinian territory.

Speaking at the UN earlier this week, Danny Danon called Albanese – who has been a prominent voice denouncing Israel’s war on Gaza as a genocide – a “witch”.

“I call on Israel to retract and apologise for this sexist and hateful attack” against Albanese, another UN special rapporteur, Ben Saul, wrote in a social media post. “Such language is completely unacceptable in international diplomacy.”

Francesca Albanese, you’re a wicked witch. pic.twitter.com/XtErl3HGWL

— Danny Danon 🇮🇱 דני דנון (@dannydanon) October 28, 2025

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Spinning genocide: How is Israel using US PR firms to buy back Christian loyalty?

According to its FARA filing, Show Faith by Works has been hired by Israel to run a $3.2m outreach and digital targeting campaign to foster “positive associations with the Nation of Israel” in churches in the US and portray “the Palestinian population” as “extremist”.

In documents enclosed in the FARA filing, Show Faith by Works also promises Israel that it will conduct “the largest Geofencing and Christian Targeting campaign in US history”.

Geofencing targets and tracks the communication devices of users when they come into proximity of a specific location or area – in this case, Christian universities or churches identified by the PR company (continue reading here).

RELATED: Israel wants to pay US pastors a stipend to spread the word

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Committee to Protect Journalists: We can’t let them get away with it

The Committee to Protect Journalists called on October 30, 2025, for radical reform of the systems to investigate journalist killings and hold perpetrators to account, after the deadliest three years for journalists and media workers since CPJ began keeping records. 

More than 125 journalists and media workers were killed in 2024 alone, the majority of them Palestinians killed by Israel. Despite clear evidence of deliberate targeting in many of these cases, no one has been held accountable for their deaths, reflecting a broader and entrenched global pattern, in which the killers of journalists are getting away with murder, which fosters further attacks on journalists, and on democratic norms more widely (continue reading here).

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LEBANON NEWS & HEADLINES:

Lebanese president calls on army to ‘confront Israeli incursions’ after deadly raid

• Israeli troops stormed the southern town of Blida and attacked a municipal building, killing an employee who was sleeping inside.

Israeli troops kill municipal worker after storming southern Lebanese town

• Locals in the area reported screams and cries for help from the building from 1:30 am until the Israeli forces withdrew at around 4 am (0200 GMT). Since the ceasefire began in November 2024, Israeli forces have killed over 100 Lebanese civilians.

Three wounded in Lebanon after Israeli strikes in Shaba’a

• “The presence of this infrastructure in the area constitutes a violation of the understandings between Israel and Lebanon,” an Israeli spokesperson said.

US senator Lindsey Graham suggests that killing of Lebanese civilians is necessary collateral damage

“To my friends in Lebanon, I understand being upset when innocent people are killed or harmed by Israeli military operations designed to suppress Hezbollah, a historical threat to the State of Israel,” Graham wrote Thursday on X.

“However, I firmly believe that Israel’s military incursions into Lebanon are designed to suppress the reemergence of Hezbollah – a radical, Islamic terrorist organization tied to Iran that has been threatening and attacking Israelis, Americans, and Lebanese for decades,” he added.

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MORE HEADLINES:

Wash. Post: Classified U.S. report finds backlog of hundreds of possible Israeli human rights violations

• The State Department’s watchdog says it will take years to review credible allegations against Israeli military units in Gaza, according to officials, raising doubts about future accountability.

France, Spain demand limits on UN veto powers to ensure justice in Gaza

• Paris working ‘for years’ with Mexico to promote an initiative limiting right of veto in cases of atrocities, says French foreign minister. (Read about the US covering for Israel in the UN here.)

Czech officials deny entry to Israeli soldier after Schengen-wide alert

• Over 1,000 legal cases have been filed worldwide against Israeli soldiers for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Gaza.

ICYMI (IN CASE YOU MISSED IT) – A SELECTION OF YESTERDAY’S HEADLINES:

(Read yesterday’s daily update here.)

STATISTICS OCTOBER 7, 2023 – OCTOBER 30, 2025*:

• At least 69,705 Palestinians killed, 180,655 injured – including:
• At least 68,643 killed in Gaza (~22,000 children, 23,000 women) 
• At least 1,063 killed in the West Bank (~213 children)
• At least 170,655 injured in Gaza
• More than 10,000 injured in the West Bank
• At least 463 have died from malnutrition in Gaza, including 157 children
• About 482 bodies have been recovered since the ceasefire began

*NOTE: Thousands of those killed in Gaza have yet to be identified, and an estimated 9,500 more are still buried under rubble. Additionally, the numbers of injured and starved are very conservative estimates. Only the dead who are brought to hospitals are included in the official fatality count.

Reported Israeli death toll from October 7, 2023 – October 30, 2025: ~1,661 – including ~1,139** on October 7, 2023 (~36 children), 471 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 272 Palestinian journalists and media workers; Palestinians have killed 4 Israeli journalists (other groups have tallied between 207 and 326 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)
• Ben & Jerry’s co-founder creating watermelon-flavoured ice cream to support Palestine
• Can MAGA Conservatives and Muslim Americans Unite?
• Arab League chief exposes secret US deal shielding Israel’s nukes
• Manufacturing Consent: How Israel-First Jewish Americans plan to re-monopolize the narratives on Palestine
• A 9-year-old Palestinian Boy Stood at a Distance. An Israeli Soldier Knelt and Shot Him Dead
• This 16-Year-Old American Is Among Hundreds of Palestinian Children Jailed In Israel
• ‘Their lives have been ruined forever’: A bomb in Gaza’s rubble wounds twins who thought it was a toy
• Settler terror devastates West Bank olive harvest
• Why Is Trump’s ‘Peace Plan’ Focused on Deradicalizing Palestinians, Not Israelis?
• Israel and US Scorn ICJ Ruling Against Starving Civilians as Method of Warfare
• The IDF Can’t ‘Protect’ Palestinians From Settler Attacks. Settlers Are IDF Auxiliaries
• Lynch Mobs, Arson, Slaughter of Herds: West Bank Faces Unprecedented Israeli Violence
• ‘Nothing has changed’: Gaza health workers report almost no medical aid entering the strip
• No one fully survived: Shocking statistics expose the devastating scope of Israel’s genocide in Gaza
• Anti-Union, Pro-Israel Billionaires Are Behind Tim Walberg and His Show Trials
• Israeli professor compares Israel to Third Reich
• In Gaza’s collapsing hospitals, mothers watch their babies fight for life amid the ruins of a post-genocide medical system
• Israel’s genocide in Gaza impossible without global complicity, UN report says
• Gaza can be healed, but not by the same hands that destroyed her