Compilation of news reports – IAK staff
Israeli forces killed at least 50 Palestinians in Gaza on Sunday, including 5 aid seekers. In total, Israel has killed at least 2,571 aid seekers since May 27, 2025 (learn about aid seekers here).
Additional statistics below. For detail on Israeli attacks in Gaza on Sunday, 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 shells Gaza City hospital treating premature babies
The Israeli occupation army targeted Al-Helou Hospital in Gaza City on Sunday evening with two artillery shells, according to medical sources.
The hospital houses several departments, including a cancer ward and a neonatal unit with 12 premature babies.
The sources added that more than 90 people – medical staff and patients – remain trapped inside as Israeli tanks surround the facility, blocking both entry and exit.
RELATED: Palestinian Doctor Abu Safiya’s Health in ‘Alarming’ Condition, Israeli Rights Group Warns
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Israeli army bombs new high-rise tower in Gaza City, displaces hundreds
The Israeli army bombed the Mecca Tower in Gaza City on Sunday, shortly after ordering residents to evacuate, witnesses said.
The building had sheltered hundreds of displaced Palestinian families, while hundreds of tents housing other displaced civilians were spread around it.
The Israeli army has bombed dozens of high-rise towers and hundreds of residential buildings across Gaza City in recent weeks, in what Palestinian officials and human rights groups say is a policy aimed at forcibly displacing residents and emptying the city ahead of occupying the area.
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Armed wing of Hamas says it lost contact with two captives in Gaza City
Hamas says its armed wing, Qassam Brigades, has lost contact with two Israeli captives, Matan Angrest and Omri Miran, as a result of Israeli military operations in the Sabra and Tal al-Hawa neighborhoods of Gaza City.
“The lives of the two prisoners are in real danger,” the group said on Telegram, calling on Israel to immediately withdraw to the south of Highway 8 and halt air attacks for 24 hours starting from 6pm (15:00 GMT) today so that the duo can be rescued.
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Hamas says it has received no new proposals, negotiations stalled since Doha attack
The Palestinian group has said negotiations for a ceasefire in Gaza have been suspended since Israel’s attack on Hamas’s negotiating team in Qatar’s capital, Doha, in early September, adding it has not received any new proposals from mediators.
In the statement published today, it added it is ready to consider any proposals by mediators “positively”.
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Draft of Tony Blair’s Gaza Plan Outlines Remote Governance, Little Palestinian Representation
Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s plan for running the Gaza Strip after the war proposes a multilayered, hierarchical structure in which senior international diplomats and businesspeople are on top and the Palestinians running things on the ground are at the bottom.
According to the document, which Haaretz is publishing in full for the first time, the Gaza International Transitional Authority will be run by an international board.
Its chairman will be Gaza’s top political executive, but he will work “in close consultation” with the Palestinian Authority. As Haaretz has previously reported, Blair himself is slated to hold this position, according to an Israeli government source.
Read the full 21-page document here.
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ISRAELI MEDIA: Gaza clans massacred after refusing Israeli offers to govern Gaza, undermine Hamas
Israeli officials attempted to recruit major clans in the Gaza Strip to form local governing bodies in certain areas in an attempt to reduce Hamas’s grip on the territory, according to a report published in the Saudi-owned Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper and security officials in Gaza City.
The reported offers included intelligence sharing, taking up arms against Hamas, and assisting in political efforts intended to prevent a future Israeli withdrawal and hinder the formation of a Palestinian authority in Gaza.
Following the clans’ refusal to participate, airstrikes reportedly struck both occupied and evacuated homes belonging to members of the families. In one incident, 30 members of the Durmush clan were reported killed in an airstrike in Gaza City’s Sabra neighborhood, with another 20 said to be trapped under the rubble. A separate strike on a home in the southern part of the al-Shati refugee camp reportedly killed six members of the Bakr clan and wounded 11 others.
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.)
Palestinian Man, Israeli Soldier Killed in West Bank Shooting, Possible Friendly Fire
On Sunday, September 28, 2025, Israeli occupation forces shot and killed 24-year-old Mahmoud Hassan Abdul-Rahman Aqqad near the village of Jit in the occupied West Bank. The killing followed an incident in which Aqqad allegedly fatally wounded an Israeli soldier, Staff Sergeant Inbar Avraham Kav, 20—though multiple sources suggest the soldier may have been killed by friendly fire.
Kav, a soldier in the Paratroopers Brigade’s 890th Battalion, was traveling in a military jeep on Route 60 with another soldier when they reportedly suspected a Palestinian truck driver behind them was attempting to ram their vehicle.
According to Israeli military sources, the soldiers stopped at the junction, and the truck accelerated, striking one of them. The second soldier opened fire, killing the driver. Kav was critically injured during the exchange and later died at Beilinson Hospital.
Israeli outlets including Ynetnews, JPost, and Haaretz reported that a knife was found in the truck and that the army is investigating whether Kav was killed by friendly fire.
Israeli Colonizers Cut Power to Bedouin Community Near Jerusalem
Sunday: Israeli Invasions, Violations In West Bank
Israeli Colonizers Establish Outpost On Stolen Land in Salfit
Israeli Colonizers Escalate West Bank Attacks
ISRAEL NEWS & 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.)
Israel’s Knesset gives preliminary approval for bill mandating death penalty for ‘terror’ convictions
The Knesset’s National Security Committee has voted to advance a bill that would make the death penalty mandatory for convicted murderers whose crimes are deemed acts of “terror”, according to Israeli media reports.
According to the bill, the death sentence would apply to anyone “who is convicted of murder motivated by racism or hostility towards the public, and in circumstances where the act was committed with the aim of harming the State of Israel and the resurrection of the Jewish people in its land”.
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ISRAELI MEDIA: Israel seeks legal protections for Israeli leaders, IDF troops in ceasefire deal
Israel is seeking to ensure that any agreement to end the war will also resolve the wave of international legal action against IDF soldiers and the country’s leaders, Israel Hayom has learned.
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) is currently hearing a case accusing Israel of war crimes and genocide. Meanwhile, the International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. Israeli officials fear that additional secret warrants may exist, targeting IDF officers and soldiers whose personal details were exposed in the media and on social networks.
Israel has reportedly raised these concerns during ceasefire negotiations, insisting that any agreement must address them. It remains unclear whether this issue will be included in the so-called “21-point plan,” since addressing these legal challenges involves complex processes with third countries and international bodies (continue reading here).
Israel launches new airstrikes in southern Lebanon despite ceasefire
Israeli forces raid village in Syria’s Quneitra
WHAT ISRAELIS ARE READING:
Likud MK says it’s in Israel’s interest to expel all Arabs from the West Bank
Israeli weapons manufacturer secures $120 million drone deal with undisclosed buyer
Ben-Gvir’s Top Aide Investigated for Allegedly Trying to Influence Jewish Terrorism Probes
‘All the talk about Hamas disappearing is disconnected from reality’, says Hamas expert
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 Flotilla from Al Jazeera here.)
Global Sumud Flotilla approaches Egypt’s northern coast, organizers say
International campaign plans to send journalists, doctors aboard Gaza-bound boat
The International Committee for Breaking the Siege on Gaza said Sunday it will dispatch a boat carrying journalists and medical professionals to the Israel-blockaded Gaza Strip.
In a statement, the committee said the vessel, set to sail on Oct. 1, will carry over 100 international media workers and doctors.
Organizers say the step marks a new and different approach to challenge the Israeli blockade, underscoring the critical role of both the press and medics in highlighting the dire humanitarian conditions in Gaza.
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ISRAELI MEDIA: Gaza flotillas should be met with a heavy hand
OTHER NEWS & HEADLINES:
A third of US college students think Palestinians better ally than Israel – poll
A third of American undergraduate students believe that the Palestinians are a better ally for the United States of America than Israel, according to a poll published on Thursday by the Buckley Institute.
The Eleventh Annual National Undergraduate Student Survey found that among a sample of 820 students under the age of 25 and from across the country, 38% weren’t sure whether Israel or the Palestinians were a better ally for the US, while 33% thought the Palestinians and 29% Israel.
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A human rights organization is demanding answers about why the Center for American Progress — an influential center left think tank — awarded a board seat to former Secretary of State Antony Blinken despite his alleged complicity in war crimes in Gaza, according to an open letter shared exclusively with Responsible Statecraft.
The letter, drafted by Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN), accuses Blinken of providing Israel with “essential military, political and public support to ensure it could continue its atrocities” in Gaza. “We believe that Mr. Blinken is not an appropriate choice to serve as a board member of an organization that aims to ‘promote peace and shared global prosperity’ in light of his well-documented role in aiding and abetting Israeli war crimes,” the letter says.
Raed Jarrar, DAWN’s advocacy director, said Blinken’s appointment “damages the reputation” of the Center for American Progress (CAP). “It’s truly shocking for a non-profit in Washington DC to place someone like Blinken, with his shameful record, on their board of directors,” Jarrar told Responsible Statecraft (continue reading here).
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47 House Democrats supported my letter to recognize a Palestinian state. 30 signed a letter explicitly opposing it. The tide is turning, but we have work to do. https://t.co/YkI4wmSK7O
— Ro Khanna (@RoKhanna) September 28, 2025
ICYMI (IN CASE YOU MISSED IT) – A SELECTION OF YESTERDAY’S HEADLINES:
Nearly half of Gaza war deaths reported in areas Israel called ‘safe’
The Israeli occupation is coercing Gaza families: “Cooperate or be killed”
Israel hit with nearly $1 billion in scrapped defense contracts as global fury over Gaza war grows
Northwestern students blocked from enrollment after refusing controversial antisemitism training
(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 – SEPTEMBER 28, 2025*:
- At least 67,102 Palestinians killed, 178,346 injured – including:
- at least 66,055 killed in Gaza (~20,000 children)
- at least 1,047 killed in the West Bank (~212 children)
- at least 168,346 injured in Gaza
- more than 10,000 injured in the West Bank
- at least 442 have died from malnutrition in Gaza, including 147 children
At least 2,571 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 13,187 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 – September 28, 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 269 Palestinian journalists and media workers; Palestinians have killed 4 Israeli journalists (other groups have tallied between 203 and 322 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)
- 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
- ‘Tunnel vision’: how Israel is using archaeology to win US support for goals
- Post-Paramount sale, Shari Redstone is ‘full speed ahead’ on addressing antisemitism
- NEH Announces Largest Grant in Agency’s History—$10.4 Million—to Israel advocacy organization
- Collaborate or leave: Israel’s cruel ultimatum to humanitarian groups in Gaza
- BBC, AFP, AP and Reuters launch film calling for Gaza access
- In move that could Bring in NATO, Spain joins Italy in Sending Rescue Ship for Sumud Gaza Aid Flotilla
- How a little-known embassy aide hijacked US Israel policy
- The Last Two New England Democratic Senators Unconditionally Supporting the Gaza Genocide
- The opaque lobby of high-ranking Israeli officers in Brussels
- Israel’s genocide in Gaza: Whatever happened to South Africa’s case at the ICJ?
- How Israel Captured TikTok
- More and More Evidence Shows – Most of the Gaza War Deaths Are Civilians
- Israeli army detonates 17 booby-trapped vehicles daily in Gaza City, each equivalent to a 3.7-magnitude earthquake
- Infiltration: A Cardinal Function of the Zionist Movement
- Gideon Levy: What Kind of Life Awaits the Six Babies Born in Gaza This Weekend?
- US sixth veto of resolution on ceasefire, hostage release is a greenlight for Israel’s campaign of annihilation in Gaza
- If Israel’s settlement plan goes through, the West Bank will soon cease to exist
- Total communication blackout in Gaza City as Israeli tanks push in
