Netanyahu says, “It’s the opposite of genocide”; UN says Gaza economy is world’s ‘most severe crisis on record’ – Daily Update

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Netanyahu says, “It’s the opposite of genocide”; UN says Gaza economy is world’s ‘most severe crisis on record’ – Daily Update
A view of a tent city as families staying along the coast try to carry on with their lives despite the severe weather conditions, living in makeshift tents amid cold and heavy rain in Gaza City, Palestine, on March 25, 2026. (Abdalhkem Abu Riash – Anadolu Agency)

News roundup for Thursday, September 24, 2026, Day 1,086 since Israel began its 2023 genocide on the Palestinian people. 

Compilation of news reports – IAK staff

NEWS & HEADLINES FROM OPENING WEEK AT UNITED NATIONS:

Susan Sarandon and Hannah Einbinder arrested at anti-Netanyahu protest in New York: Actors detained at Jewish Voice for Peace demonstration against Israeli prime minister’s address to the UN general assembly.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas urged US President Donald Trump on Thursday to honor pledges made to Arab countries to prevent the displacement of Palestinians and the annexation of Palestinian land. He said Palestinians welcomed Trump’s peace plan “but had seen no progress on the ground.”

Palestine’s premier says international recognition should translate into practical results: Mohammed Mustafa demands full UN membership, swift economic mobilization during global ministerial summit.

Read the full text of Abbas’ address at the U.N. General Assembly here. Watch the full speech here.

77 delegations leave UN hall before Netanyahu speech, drawing widespread reaction

Netanyahu’s Speech Drama at UNGA81: Who Left and Who Stayed

Netanyahu’s speech to UN General Assembly earns praise from Israeli leaders

‘Moral Cowards’: Netanyahu Rages as Delegates Abandon His UN Speech

Netanyahu paints Israel’s critics as ‘antisemites’ in angry UN speech to near-empty hall: “Mr Mamdani, since you were elected mayor of this city, many Jews no longer feel safe in New York,” Netanyahu shouted. “Mr Mamdani, you tried to stop me from coming here. You tried to silence me. Well, you can’t silence me. You can’t silence the truth,” he said.

RELATED:

Watch: Walkout at Netanyahu’s arrival, his antagonistic comment:

Read the full text of Netanyahu’s address at the U.N. General Assembly here. Watch the full speech here.

NYC mayor slams ‘lies’ in Netanyahu’s UN speech, cites ICC warrant for his arrest: “As he has done time and again, Prime Minister Netanyahu used his speech to repeat baseless lies meant to sanitize his genocide of Palestinians,” New York City mayor Mamdani said in a statement, local media reported. “Yet no lie can change the fact that he remains the subject of an International Criminal Court arrest warrant alleging war crimes and crimes against humanity.”

MUST-READ: Spying & threats: Israel spent 9 years trying to keep the ICC off the trail of Israel’s war crimes.

Watch: antagonism from Israeli ambassador:

NEWS & HEADLINES FROM GAZA:

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.

IMPORTANT NOTE: The number of Palestinians being killed in Gaza is lower since the October 2025 “ceasefire” began, over 345 days ago – about 4 per day, vs. over 100 per day during the 733 days of the “war.” But Israel is actively working (with Trump’s “Board of Peace“) to ethnically cleanse Gaza of its Palestinian population, even as the low-level killing continues. Genocide experts, along with organizations like the United Nations and Amnesty International, maintain that the genocide is ongoing.

Five Palestinians were killed and 35 others were injured in Israeli attacks across Gaza during the previous 24 hours, as Israeli forces continued violating the “ceasefire” agreement, Gaza’s Health Ministry reported Thursday.

Israel’s genocide has turned Gaza economy into world’s ‘most severe crisis on record’: UN report: Gaza’s annual real GDP per capita in 2025 was just $0.58 per day, while prices remained 274% above 2022 levels; more than 90% of the working-age population was without work.

Gaza winter nears as 162,000 tents become unusable, raising fears of humanitarian crisis: More than 60 per cent of the existing tents can no longer provide even minimum protection, and are unfit to withstand strong winds, rain and cold.

Israeli strike hits vehicle carrying body for burial in Gaza: The strike critically injured several of the victim’s relatives and completely burned the body of the deceased.

Israeli strike hits vehicle carrying body for burial in Gaza
Israeli strike hits vehicle carrying body for burial in Gaza (Mohammed Asad/Middle East Monitor)

UNRWA struggles to survive*, passes that struggle to Gazans: UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres noted, during a high level meeting in New York, that the refugee agency’s workforce in Gaza has suffered severe tragedy, with nearly 400 staff members killed in the war with Israel. UNRWA also grapples with a $100 million cash shortfall, alongside severe administrative blockades, including visa refusals by Israel.

UNRWA Acting Commissioner-General Christian Saunders described catastrophic conditions on the ground in Gaza, noting that 94% of residents lack public shelter and 98% live exposed to raw sewage and rubble.

*NOTE: UNRWA, the United Nations body with a mandate to assist Palestinian refugees, has been serving nearly 6 million registered Palestine refugees refugees in Gaza, the West Bank, and elsewhere for decades as they wait for their internationally recognized right of return to be activated.

After a years-long campaign to dismantle UNRWA, Israel outlawed the organization following an unsubstantiated accusation that 12 employees (out of a staff of 13,000) were part of the October 2023 attack. Israel’s brief dossier, allegedly proving their guilt, offered no compelling evidence. As of June 2026, Israel has still failed to provide evidence to back up its accusations against UNRWA.

To learn the real reason why Israel is targeting UNRWA, read this.

In Gaza, ‘Whoever Survives the Bombing Won’t Survive the Rubble’: Read a gutting dispatch from Gaza City, where, after last week’s building collapse killed 21, Palestinians fear there will be many more similar tragedies unless Israel allows must-needed equipment in.

Surviving a massacre, but scars remain: “Within just a few minutes, the camp was subjected to at least five – in my memory, some friends recounted more – consecutive air raids, the tents around us crumbling, and craters opening up across the camp. Some 40 people were killed instantly, and at least 60 injured, while the rest of us searched for survivors.”

Israel accidentally exposes Gaza military bases and widespread destruction on official map: GovMap, Israel’s official mapping service, has historically blurred the entire Gaza Strip. The maps have been backed up and posted at Soar Atlas. 

Hamas says ready to implement Gaza roadmap, accuses Israel of blocking ceasefire deal

GAZA DEATH TOLL (tentative) since “ceasefire” began Oct. 11, 2025:

NEWS & HEADLINES FROM THE OCCUPIED WEST BANK/EAST JERUSALEM:

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.)

Palestinians in Masafer Yatta are surviving without water after Israeli settlers cut off a lifeline: In Masafer Yatta in the southern occupied West Bank, Israeli settlers are accelerating their attacks on Palestinian farmers and herders in the area by cutting off their water supply.

Israeli authorities approved the construction of 567 new illegal settlement* units Thursday in the Asael and Beit Hagai settlements in the Hebron governorate in the southern occupied West Bank, according to media reports. Another 400 units were advanced near Qalqilia.

*NOTE: More than 780,000 settlers live illegally on Palestinian land in over almost 600 Jewish-only settlements and settlement outposts in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem. Some settler groups have a history of violence against Palestinians, often with the assistance of Israeli military forces. It is noteworthy that settlers are only rarely prosecuted for their crimes. Learn more about Israeli settler violence here and here. 

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.

Israeli army detains more than 150 Palestinians in West Bank raids on Thursday

Israeli settlers burn Palestinian vehicles, spray racist slogans near Ramallah

Israeli Army Demolishes A Palestinian Home Near Nablus

Israeli Forces Uproot 400 Olive Trees in Beit Rima

DEATH TOLL SINCE OCT. 7, 2023 – WEST BANK/EAST JERUSALEM (tentative):

NEWS & HEADLINES FROM ISRAEL:

Israel is a tiny country, about the size of New Jersey, with a population smaller than the US state of Georgia – about 10 million (of which about 20 percent are Palestinians), yet it is in the news constantly. As has been demonstrated again and again, however, mainstream media rarely covers Israel news accurately. IAK gets the facts – sometimes from Israeli media sites, where we can get a glimpse inside this country that is rife with turmoil and contradictions, and that receives $63 million a day from America.

US arms sales to Israel worth $21.6 billion in 20 months

Former Israel-Hamas Mediator Says Israeli Defense Officials Had Urgent Meeting on Gaza Weeks Before Oct. 7: Sufian Abu Zaida, dubbed ‘Coal Eyes,’ said he conveyed the Hamas leader’s threat to his Israeli contacts 22 days before the October 7 attack, receiving a call less than half an hour later before being called into an urgent meeting with officials.

Jerusalem Park Work Uncovers Human Remains, Likely From Muslim Cemetery: An archaeologist called the discovery part of the authorities’ ‘ongoing neglect and lack of transparency,’ saying they treat the park ‘only as a park.’

‘NAZA’ is forcing Israelis to reflect. But we Palestinians are not your mirror: Our suffering cannot be the backdrop for an internal Israeli morality tale: Confronting Israel’s crimes in Gaza means taking action to stop them.

28% of Israeli police officers resigned since Ben-Gvir took office: Report: Figures emerge amid manpower shortage, with around 2,000 vacancies reported in police stations, traffic division.

Israeli election committee rejects bid to bar extremist Ben-Gvir’s party from Knesset elections

US President Donald Trump and Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu hold a joint press conference in the East Room at the White House in Washington, D.C., United States on February 04, 2025.
US President Donald Trump and Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu hold a joint press conference in the East Room at the White House in Washington, D.C., United States on February 04, 2025. (Celal Güneş – Anadolu Agency)

IRAN, LEBANON, & SYRIA – NEWS & HEADLINES:

IRAN

It can not be overemphasized that Israel is the impetus behind US policies and actions vis-a-vis Iran. Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu has been pushing the US to attack Iran for decades, using lies and deception. Under President Trump, he got his wish.

Iran seeks deal with US, not war: President Pezeshkian: “We do not choose war. The war was imposed on us. We do not seek war,” Pezeshkian said in an interview on Fox News. “We did reach an agreement with your president (Donald Trump),” he said. “Based on that, we are willing and still wish to move forward.”

Iran Suggested Reopening Strait of Hormuz in Deal Including Lebanon Cease-Fire

Iran says possible new war with US could expand to Indian Ocean

The US kill count in Iran makes the phrase ‘precision strikes’ absurd: Pulitzer Prize winning war correspondent Azmat Khan says the Pentagon still obfuscates, lies, and manipulates the truth about civilian deaths in war.

LEBANON

Israel has invaded Lebanon seven times in the last half century. Between 1978 and 2000, Israel maintained an 18-year occupation of southern Lebanon — Hezbollah was formed to fight that occupation.

Israel continues artillery fire, airstrikes in southern Lebanon

‘People are destitute’: Lebanon’s spiralling prices fuel fears of social unrest

SYRIA

Although Israel is not at war with Syria, the Israeli army has reportedly carried out over 1,600 violations inside Syrian territory since August 2025, and demanded the demilitarization of southern Syria – but also vowed to permanently occupy some areas.

The Israeli army assaulted a shepherd and ran over several of his sheep, killing them, during an incursion into the countryside of Quneitra in southern Syria on Thursday.

Shepherds Increasingly the Target of Israel’s Southwest Syria Detentions: Tuesday’s detained shepherd released Wednesday, another captured on Thursday.

DEATH TOLL – WARS ON IRAN & LEBANON (tentative):
  • United States: 22 since Feb. 28, 2026 (the Trump admin denies this number)
  • Iran: at least 3,636 since Feb. 28, 2026
  • Lebanon: at least 4,386 people since March 2, 2026
  • Arab states: at least 154 (including Palestine, excluding Lebanon)
  • Israel: at least 60 people (Iran killed 20 civilians; Hezbollah killed 40 soldiers, 4 civilians)

MORE NEWS & HEADLINES:

Senate edges closer to vote on Israeli accountability for US citizens killed in West Bank*, Democrat says: Senator Chris van Hollen pointed to 24 “Democratic senators who have put their names on the resolution, which is definitely progress from where we were two years ago when fighting for human rights for Palestinians… [it] was a lonely effort,” he said.

*NOTE: At least fourteen American citizens have been killed by Israeli forces or settlers – with no criminal accountability whatsoever.

Congress Failed Again to Stop Trump’s Iran War. This Group Is Trying Through the Courts: National Iranian American Council Action on Thursday filed its suit in a Washington federal court asking a judge to declare the war on Iran illegal on the basis that it violates the Declare War Clause of the Constitution.

ISRAELI MEDIA: ‘NAZA’ film to be released free online, screen in NYC as Israeli-American Council fights back: The documentary will make its North American premiere on Saturday at the New York Film Festival. The Israeli-American Council (IAC) planned a rally at the location, where it will show clips from October 7: Bearing Witness to the Massacre, a compilation of graphic footage from the October 7 massacre, and showcase documented material which IAC said contradicted NAZA‘s claims.

“Movies have editors. History does not,” the IAC said. “Our presence here is the message: we will not allow October 7 to be erased from the story*.”

NAZA director Yuval Abraham also announced in a post on X/Twitter that they had offered Israeli cinemas the chance to screen the documentary at no cost (read about the film here).

*NOTE: Israel supporters ignore the reasons behind the October 7th attack, as though history began on October 7th, and Hamas fighters attacked Israel for no reason, or simply because its people are Jewish. But Israel has been oppressing Palestinians since its creation in 1948, and even before that.

Palestinians have made many nonviolent attempts to call attention to the issue; the UN has passed hundreds of resolutions demanding justice – to no avail. Resistance groups saw the attack as their only remaining option.

The people of Palestine have many legitimate grievances for which resistance is an appropriate response. Israel is plausibly committing genocide, illegal occupation, apartheid, extermination, and a targeted campaign of starvation – to name a few.

International law supports resistance against an occupying power, even to the point of armed resistance.

Iranian-American group sues Trump for ‘unconstitutional’ war on Iran

Abdul El-Sayed helps launch the unforgivable rehabilitation of Kamala Harris

US drafted memo condemning UK over West Bank sanctions. It was never released: The September 8 dated document, reportedly driven by David Milstein, an influential aide to US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, proposed that Rubio describe the countries’ actions as “tactics unacceptably [drawn] from the playbook of the antisemitic* boycotts, divestments and sanctions movement**.”

The statement was reportedly not supported by the White House and the State Department’s senior leadership, and was never released.

*NOTE: In reality, world leaders, politicians, and artists (not to mention everyday people) have often chosen silence about Israel’s actions out of fear of being (falsely) accused of antisemitism. Israel’s self-positioning as the global home for Jews is an example of the intentional conflation of Israel with all Jews. This framing makes it easy to insist that criticism of Israel is antisemitic (i.e. that anti-Zionism is antisemitism) – with the ultimate outcome that critics are silenced and Israel enjoys impunity for its actions. 

Israeli leaders and pro-Israel organizations have a long history of conflating Jews with the state of Israel – the so-called “Jewish State” (of which 21% of its residents are non-Jews), but the world has begun to wake up to the dishonesty of calling anti-Zionism a form of antisemitism, and are criticizing Israel more freely.

**NOTE: BDS, the Boycott, Divest, and Sanctions movement, is a Palestinian-led movement for freedom, justice and equality. BDS upholds the simple principle that Palestinians are entitled to the same rights as the rest of humanity. Inspired by the South African anti-apartheid movement, the BDS call urges action to pressure Israel to comply with international law.

US rapper Macklemore announces Free Palestine tour after Ed Sheeran fallout: Macklemore says ‘being apolitical during a genocide doesn’t work’, promises to donate proceeds to Palestinian causes.

38 rights groups back legal challenge to US sanctions on International Criminal Court (original story here)

UK’s New Israel Sanctions Haven’t Actually Suspended Any Weapons Transfers: One anti-arms trade advocate said it showed the UK’s new policy toward Israel was “nothing more than a soundbite designed to appease voters, whilst failing to deliver meaningful policy change.”

Amnesty Int’s accuses France of ‘double standard’ over Netanyahu plane: “Does France not contribute to impunity when it allows access to its territory to the Israeli prime minister, who is wanted for crimes against humanity?” Amnesty said. Macron had made “fine statements” at the UN on Tuesday about defending international law and justice, “but France’s actions must follow its fine speeches,” the group added.

Netanyahu’s transit through French airspace ‘consistent’ with international law despite ICC warrant, says France

Netanyahu’s plane flies through Greek, Italian, French airspace en route to US despite ICC warrant

UK ignored Gaza legal warnings to keep Israel arms flowing: report: A Channel 4 investigation reveals UK ministers continued arms sales to Israel despite legal warnings over its conduct in Gaza.

Thailand investigating Jewish group over ‘network of Israelis’ buying up land: Officials are examining land ownership, building permits and funding at Chabad-Lubavitch centres as public anger grows over Israeli tourists, many of whom are soldiers.

How UK universities briefed BAE Systems on pro-Palestine campus protests: Several universities discussed protests with the UK’s largest weapons maker, raising concerns about influence and academic freedom.

ICYMI, A SELECTION OF YESTERDAY’S HEADLINES:

Israel, aided by “Board of Peace,” blocks entrance of critical medical items, food items to Gaza

Israel Damaged 82 Percent of Gaza’s Buildings. Collapses Are Burying Us Alive

Israeli forces shot and killed 29-year-old Palestinian Mahmoud Mohammad Suleiman

NAZA Filmmakers to Make Film Available for Free Online Amid Israel’s Smear Campaign

The Ellisons Could Make a Killing in Big Surveillance With the Paramount Merger

(Read yesterday’s daily update here.)

Trump's "Board of Peace" continues to enable genocide
Trump’s “Board of Peace” continues to enable genocide (IAK)

STATISTICS OCTOBER 7, 2023 – SEPTEMBER 24, 2026*:

  • At least 75,133 Palestinians killed, 188,030 injured – including:
  • Gaza: at least 73,928 killed (~22,000 children, 33,000 women and girls), 175,030 injured.
  • West Bank/East Jerusalem: at least 1,205 killed (~251 children), 13,000 injured

*NOTE: Thousands of remains in Gaza have yet to be identified, and as many as 15,000 more are still buried under rubble; others are reportedly missing. 

Reported Israeli death toll from October 7, 2023 – September 24, 2026: ~1,663 – including ~1,139** on October 7, 2023 (~36 children), 472 military forces during the ground invasion of Gaza, about 52 military and civilians (by one count, there have been 59 victims) in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Israel (these numbers do not include deaths from the conflicts with Lebanon or Iran). 

**NOTE: It is unknown at this time how many of the deaths and injuries of Israelis on October 7 were caused by Israeli soldiers.

Hover over each bar for exact numbers. Source: IsraelPalestineTimeline.org

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