Posted By: John Phoenix
Day 18
A view from Sheikh Ridwan in Gaza City, Gaza, after the Israeli army withdraws, on October 25, 2025. (Mahmoud Abu Hamda – Anadolu Agency)
Compilation of news reports – IAK staff
(It is difficult to characterize the current situation in Gaza a “ceasefire,” when Israel has killed nearly 100 Palestinians. If Americans Knew considers Monday to be Day 752 of Israel’s war on Gaza)
4 martyrs (including one new martyr, two recovered, and one who succumbed to injuries) and 7 injuries arrived at Gaza Strip hospitals in the past 24 hours, despite the ceasefire.
Since the “ceasefire” went into effect on October 11, Israel has reportedly killed at least 94 Palestinians and injured 344 others, and violated the truce agreement at least 80 times.
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.)
Gazans still lacking most basic necessities
The Israeli military is still not allowing tents and mobile homes to get in as well as other crucial equipment needed for people to survive these difficult living conditions.
Water here is not available all the time. Some food is available, but not an amount that is enough for everyone, and it’s also a question of affordability now as prices are still high, beyond what most families could afford.
Medical necessities are also still not available in hospitals despite the ceasefire with Israel now in its third week.
+++
Red Crescent: Urgent Humanitarian Situation in Gaza
The head of the Palestinian Red Crescent Society, Younis Al-Khatib, stressed that the humanitarian need in the Gaza Strip is no less urgent and desperate now than it was before the ceasefire, and that citizens in the Strip are suffering from psychological shock and extreme despair, stressing that “rebuilding people is more difficult than rebuilding homes.”
Al-Khatib said that the needs for assistance in Gaza are “huge,” noting that the population is “psychologically traumatized and will need psychological support for a long time.”
+++
Palestinian Civil Defense slams ‘double standards’ over recovering bodies in Gaza
The spokesperson of the Palestinian Civil Defense in Gaza has lambasted the “double standards” being shown by some organizations that he says are bringing heavy equipment into the Strip to search for the bodies of Israeli captives while ignoring those of tens of thousands of Palestinians that still need to be retrieved.
“It breaks our hearts that some agencies and organizations have brought in the necessary heavy powerful equipment and bulldozers only to search for the bodies of Israeli hostages while no equipment is available for 10,000 bodies of Palestinian citizens to be recovered from under the rubble,” Mahmud Basal said.
“This represents a double standard that in no way reflects humanity. True humanity requires the same care to be given to Palestinian bodies as is given to Israeli bodies.”
+++
GAZA HEADLINES:
Israel continues to bar int’l journalists from Gaza, part of systematic policy to erase evidence of genocide
- Israel continues, in a deliberate and institutionalized manner, to implement a systematic policy aimed at erasing physical evidence of genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity committed over the past two years in the Gaza Strip.
Quarter million tons of waste threaten residents of Gaza City, authorities warn
- Municipal authorities say mounting waste, sewage leaks, water shortages created ‘environmental and health disasters’ in Gaza City
Over 70,000 Palestinians with Hepatitis C in Gaza
- A spokesperson for the al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Gaza has said that over 70,000 Palestinians in the enclave are infected with Hepatitis C, requiring evacuation from the enclave; he demanded the opening of crossings to limit its spread.
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 Army Escalates Demolitions* Across Occupied West Bank
On Monday, Israeli occupation forces carried out a wave of demolitions targeting Palestinian homes and structures across the occupied West Bank, including al-Funduq, Marj Ghazal, and east Jerusalem.
In addition, one Palestinian was forced to demolish his own home in Isawiya, northeast of Jerusalem, to avoid the excessively high fines and fees he would face if the city council used its workers and equipment to demolish the property. He was charged with building without a permit.
*NOTE: Since October 7, 2023, Israeli authorities have carried out over 1,000 demolition attacks across the occupied West Bank and occupied Jerusalem, targeting at least 3,679 structures, including 1,288 inhabited homes, 244 uninhabited homes, and 962 agricultural and other facilities. During the same period, 1,667 demolition orders were issued against Palestinian properties.
All of Israel’s colonies in the occupied West Bank, including those in and around occupied East Jerusalem, are illegal under International Law, the Fourth Geneva Convention in addition to various United Nations and Security Council resolutions. They also constitute war crimes under International Law.
Israel admits that its construction permit system is highly discriminatory. Between 2016 and 2020, 99.1 percent of Palestinian requests for building permits were rejected, according to data provided by the IDF’s Civil Administration.
+++
Israeli Colonizers Destroy* Irrigation Network in Northern Plains
On Monday night, illegal paramilitary Israeli colonizers destroyed a vital irrigation network in Palestinian-owned farmland in the northeastern Jordan Valley, near Jericho, in the occupied West Bank.
The colonizers not only dismantled the water infrastructure but also cut and uprooted rows of corn crops, inflicting significant agricultural losses on the Palestinian landowner.
*NOTE: This attack is part of a broader pattern of colonizer violence in the Northern Plains. Over the past two years, escalating assaults and land seizures—often carried out with impunity and under the protection of Israeli forces—have forced numerous Palestinian families to abandon their homes and farmlands. Two entire communities in the area have been forcibly evacuated during this period.
WEST BANK HEADLINES:
In a West Bank ‘firing zone,’ Palestinians are erased as settlers lay down roots
- While settlers‘ concrete mixers rumble under the Israeli army’s watch, Palestinian life in Masafer Yatta is being dismantled piece by piece.
Israeli forces arrest 40 Palestinians across occupied West Bank overnight
- The Palestinian Prisoner’s Society has reported that Israeli forces arrested 40 Palestinians overnight in raids on various areas of the occupied West Bank.
Army Abducts 20 Palestinians in the West Bank
- On Monday, Israeli soldiers invaded dozens of homes across the occupied West Bank, abducting at least twenty Palestinians amidst escalating violations by illegal Israeli paramilitary colonizers.
Israeli army demolishes 5 Palestinian homes, farm structure in occupied West Bank
- Palestinians say Israel rarely grants building permits in Area C, effectively preventing construction or land development
Israeli Bulldozers Level Farmland Near Nablus
- The area has been subjected to repeated similar violations, including the uprooting of dozens of trees in recent months, aimed at expanding the perimeter of the illegal Israeli colonies of Ariel and Tappuah.
Israeli Army Blocks Olive Harvest in Central West Bank
- Local sources said troops stormed the area and forced farmers to leave, denying them entry to their own land.
Israeli Soldiers Seriously Injure A Palestinian Youth In Hebron
- 15-year-old Nazeeh Eyad Awad was seriously injured when Israeli soldiers shot him with a concussion grenade directly to the head in in Beit Awwa town, southwest of Hebron, in the occupied West Bank’s southern part.
Israeli Soldiers Shoot One, Assault One in Jerusalem, Injure Children in Bethlehem
- Among other forms of aggression, Israeli soldiers chased school children, and fired live rounds, tear gas canisters, and concussion grenades at them, causing several children to suffer inhalation injuries.
Israeli Army Abducts a Palestinian with Special Needs Near Hebron
- Israeli occupation forces abducted a disabled citizen, identified as Ghassan Jaradat, after storming the town of Beit Ummar, on Monday evening.
NEWS & HEADLINES ABOUT ISRAEL:
Hamas returns partial remains of captive recovered from Gaza
Israel said on Tuesday that partial hostage remains returned by Hamas the previous day belonged to a deceased captive recovered by the military around two years ago.
Netanyahu’s office said that “this constitutes a clear violation* of the agreement” by Hamas and that Netanyahu would meet with heads of the defense establishment “during which Israel’s steps in response to the violations will be discussed”.
Israeli forces found his body in the Gaza Strip while fighting against Hamas, and returned it to Israel. After a postmortem examination, it was determined that he was murdered on October 7 or shortly thereafter. Additional remains of Tzarfati were returned to Israel in March 2024.
Hamas has said that rubble from the war is a major obstacle in locating some of the bodies. An Israeli government spokesperson said Sunday that the militant group knew where the bodies were.
*NOTE: While it is questionable that Hamas’ return of these remains was even a violation, Israel has in fact violated the agreement in many lethal ways. According to the ceasefire deal, all military operations were supposed to be suspended – but Israel has continued them, killing at least 94 Palestinians since the ceasefire began; Israel was supposed to restart sending the full quantity of aid into Gaza (600 trucks a day), along with rehabilitation of infrastructure (water, electricity, sewage), rehabilitation of hospitals and bakeries, and entry of necessary equipment to remove rubble and open roads – none of these commitments have been fulfilled; the Rafah crossing was supposed to be opened in both directions – it has not. Neither Israel nor the US nor any of the other guarantors of the ceasefire has acknowledged this obvious fact.
+++
Israel kills two in attack on Lebanon
Two brothers were killed in an Israeli air strike on southern Lebanon, bringing the total death toll from such attacks to 13 over the past week.
Lebanon’s Ministry of Health said in a statement that the two brothers were killed in an Israeli bombing of the village of al-Bayyad in the Tyre district.
+++
Israeli female sex offenders in the Gaza genocide
Female Israeli soldiers in Gaza have been given free rein, along with the rest of the Israeli military, to pursue their darkest fantasies against a helpless population – and so it is no wonder that these cases of sadistic sexualized targeting of vulnerable boys have emerged, perpetrated by certain women; and there are almost certainly more such cases that have simply not been reported.
Young has observed that female perpetrators of abuse often misuse the banner of feminism to justify their destructive behavior against others: “It is hardly surprising that abusive women are the first to exploit feminism, picking out the parts they like (self-empowerment, assertion, the right to be heard and validated) and ignoring the concepts of cooperation, individual boundaries, equality, and respect for others.”
One might recall here Israel’s minister for women’s empowerment, May Golan, who bragged that she is “personally proud of the ruins of Gaza” and “proud to be racist” (continue reading here).
+++
HEADLINES ABOUT ISRAEL:
Israeli military company establishes first branch in UAE
- The Hebrew newspaper Maariv reports that the Israeli government has approved the establishment of a branch of Controp Precision Technologies Ltd in the United Arab Emirates – an “unprecedented security and economic step” since the signing of the normalization agreements in 2020.
HEADLINES FROM ISRAELI (&PRO-ISRAEL) 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. These news items are taken from Israeli media.)
In Gaza, the Israeli far right may still get its way
- The Trump deal’s ‘constructive ambiguity’ leaves room for the settlement movement’s messianic wing to shape a post-war reality in its image.
Complaints on Jewish Terrorism in the West Bank Surge, but Police Investigations Drop
- Investigations were only opened on a third of Jewish nationalist crime cases in the West Bank. The responsible police unit has not had a commander for almost a year, since the last commander was suspected of deliberately ignoring intelligence on Jewish terrorism
Israel weighing five options if Hamas fails to return hostage remains, security sources say
- In no specific order, the options being explored are extending operational control, targeted escalation, hostage-remains-retrieval operations, diplomatic pressure, and ending existing agreements.
Israeli MKs call on Herzog to pardon Jewish security prisoners
- Leaving Jews in jail while Palestinian terrorists* return to their families is an “injustice,” wrote 55 lawmakers from all coalition parties.
*NOTE: The use of the word “terrorist” for a group that resists occupation and oppression is a political, not fact-based choice. In reality, international law supports the efforts of resistance groups against an occupying power, the UN extending that right to the point of armed resistance.
OTHER NEWS & HEADLINES:
Gaza Tribunal, a ‘Jury of Conscience,’ Finds ‘Israel Is Perpetrating Ongoing Genocide’ in Gaza
A civil society panel assembled in response to Israel’s annihilation and starvation of Gaza delivered its final statement Sunday in Istanbul – detailing nine categories of crimes committed, warning that genocide continues, and calling on humanity to take action to hold the perpetrators legally and morally accountable.
Chaired by Richard Falk, a former United Nations special rapporteur on human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories and a professor emeritus at Princeton University in New Jersey, the Gaza Tribunal held four days of public hearings during which international jurists, experts, and witnesses offered evidence and testimonies of what they said are Israel’s continuing crimes against the Palestinian people (continue reading here).
+++
NYTimes: Revisiting the U.S. Assessment of Israeli Shooting of Journalist Shireen Abu Akleh
After Shireen Abu Akleh, a celebrated Palestinian American journalist, was fatally shot in the West Bank in 2022, the State Department delivered an equivocal assessment.
While shots fired from Israeli military positions were “likely responsible,” it said, American officials “found no reason to believe that this was intentional,” a statement that many saw as the latest instance of the Israeli military dodging accountability for Palestinian deaths.
But some officials are convinced that the shooting was intentional – one of which was sidelined from the U.S. review, the officials said (continue reading here).
FOR COMMENTARY ON THIS STORY, read US Colonel Who Probed Shireen Abu Akleh’s Killing Says Biden Admin Lied About His Findings to Appease Israel
+++
Writers boycott New York Times opinion section over Gaza coverage
A coalition of more than 300 prominent figures – half of them previous contributors to the newspaper – is refusing to write for The New York Times’s opinion section until its demands on Palestine reporting are met.
The group of writers wants the NYT to examine bias against Palestinians in its journalism, withdraw the contested article “Screams Without Words“, and use its editorial influence to advocate for halting US weapons supplies to Israel.
+++
MORE HEADLINES:
Malaysia, Brazil declare support for South Africa’s genocide case against Israel
- These are just the latest in a growing list of nations backing South Africa’s legal action aimed at holding Israel accountable for violations of international humanitarian law.
FIFA, UEFA flayed for disregarding intl law by continuing to include Israel in competition
- FIFA and UEFA are allowing Israel to compete despite credible reports from respected international organizations describing Israel’s actions in Gaza as genocide, said Kat Vilarev, the Palestine FA’s legal adviser and a sports law academic.
ICYMI (IN CASE YOU MISSED IT) – A SELECTION OF YESTERDAY’S HEADLINES:
Update on twins injured when they picked up an unexploded bomb
West Bank: In a Serious Escalation, Occupation Forces Kill 1, Injure 9
Stop listening to “unhinged Israel First bigots”
(Read yesterday’s daily update here.)
STATISTICS OCTOBER 7, 2023 – OCTOBER 27, 2025*:
- At least 69,590 Palestinians killed, 180,402 injured – including:
- At least 68,531 killed in Gaza (~20,000 children, 23,000 women)
- At least 1,059 killed in the West Bank (~212 children)
- At least 170,402 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 474 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 27, 2025: ~1,661 – including ~1,139** on October 7, 2023 (~36 children), 470 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 206 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.https://israelpalestinetimeline.org/death-chart-650px/Hover over each bar for exact numbers. Source: IsraelPalestineTimeline.org
- Human rights reports on Israel-Palestine (regularly updated)
- 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
- These Israeli-backed gangs could wreck the Gaza ceasefire
- Ohio University removes professor Tom Hayes detained by Israel from teaching his class
- How Israel Killed Its Own Soldiers, Blamed Hamas and Violated the Ceasefire again
- Palestinians in Gaza Struggle to Retrieve Their Dead With Little More Than Hammers
- 16-year-old Palestinian-American boy reports deplorable conditions in Israeli prison
- The Burden of Imprecision: on the limitation of statistics
- Meta’s Deletion of Saleh al-Jafarawi’s Instagram Account is Digital Settler Colonialism in Action
- Freed Palestinian prisoners tell of horrific rape, torture in Israeli detention
- It was never a Gaza ‘war’. The ‘ceasefire’ is a lie cut from the same cloth
- ‘Wow’: Observers Surprised After Dem Moderate Rejects AIPAC Cash
- From Long Island to the Baltics: Drop Site Investigation Reveals New Details About Canary Mission’s Operations
- Journalist Ryan Grim discusses the disarming of Hamas & executions in Gaza
- My dream home lies in ruins. I will never forgive Israel, or the world
- The Israeli Scramble for Palestine’s Energy Reserves (Pt. 1)