People on Westminster Bridge as they take part in a Palestine Solidarity Campaign march in central London, October 11, 2025
HUNDREDS of thousands of pro-Palestinian protesters took to the streets of central London on Saturday to mark two years since the start of the Israeli invasion of Gaza.
The march, assessed by organisers at over 600,000 people, came as preparations ramped up today to get desperately needed aid to Palestinians in the enclave following Friday’s ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas-led resistance groups.
The protest in London was the 32nd national demonstration and came after the government questioned the need for it given the truce in Gaza. Ministers say they intend to give greater powers to restrict protests by allowing the police to consider the “cumulative impact” of repeated demonstrations.
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Zarah Sultana, the independent MP for Coventry South and a co-founder of “Your Party,” slammed Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood for switching sides on Palestine and for “locking up pensioners and priests for opposing the ban on Palestine Action.”
She told the huge rally outside Downing Street that the Home Secretary “doesn’t want to just ban demonstrations, she wants to criminalise dissent — she want to send a message that if you march for Palestine, if you speak out against genocide, if you demand justice, then the state considers you the problem. Shame on her.”
Independent MP for Islington North and “Your Party” co-founder Jeremy Corbyn told the huge rally in Whitehall that despite declaring the ceasefire in Gaza “the Israeli army killed 17 Palestinians and injured 71 over the previous 24 hours.”
He said: “Peace will only come to Gaza when Israel is forced to leave Gaza. We will be here as often and as long as it takes.”
He slapped down a scheme to install former British Prime Minister Tony Blair in a “board of peace” running Gaza.
“Viceroy Blair will not bring peace,” Mr Corbyn told the Morning Star.
Stop the War Coalition convener Lindsey German compared the demonstration to the far-right “hate march” a few weeks ago.
She said: “This is what a large demonstration looks like. This is a march of solidarity. We should hold our heads up high today.”
But Ms German insisted that “a ceasefire is not enough. We want the war criminals brought to justice.”
Genocide denier and Current UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is quoted that he supports Zionism without qualification. He also confirms that UK air force support has been essential in Israel’s mass-murdering genocide. Includes URLs https://www.declassifieduk.org/keir-starmers-100-spy-flights-over-gaza-in-support-of-israel/ and https://youtu.be/O74hZCKKdpAKeir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza’s hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.Orcas discuss Genocide-supporting and complicit Zionists. Donald Trump, Keith Starmer, David Lammy, Rachel Reeves, Angela Rayner and Wes Streeting are acknowledged as evil genocide-complicit and supporting cnuts.
Palestinians return to their neighborhoods in Gaza amid the third ceasefire deal with Israel. Photo: screenshot
The entry of a minimum quantity of aid to besieged Gaza, the release of all Israeli captives in return for Palestinian prisoners, the return of displaced people to their home areas, and the IOF’s withdrawal to agreed-upon lines are the main points of the first phase.
Over two years after one of the most gruesome genocides in modern history began, claiming tens of thousands of lives in the besieged Gaza Strip and shaking hearts and minds across the world, a ceasefire deal was finally reached. The hope is that it will be permanent, ending the latest and intensified genocidal violence that the Palestinian people have endured.
The current ceasefire deal, which US President Donald Trump announced on Wednesday, October 8, finally went into effect at noon on Friday local time, according to the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF).
The agreement is the third reached during Israel’s merciless, two-year-long genocidal aggression against the Palestinian people in Gaza. The first ceasefire took place in November, 2023, and lasted only 6 days before being violated by Netanyahu’s government. The second was reached in January 2025, before being annihilated by the Israeli occupation two months later.
The ceasefire begins with the IOF’s withdrawal to agreed-upon deployment lines
The ceasefire officially started after the IOF completed the withdrawal of its troops to certain agreed-upon deployment lines within the besieged Gaza Strip on Friday at noon.
The timeline for releasing Israeli captives by Hamas
Now that the ceasefire has taken effect, Hamas was given a 72-hour window to release all 48 Israeli captives held in Gaza (alive or deceased). The deadline for the whole process to be completed was set for Monday, October 13, at noon.
All the 20 living captives, and some of the deceased, should be released by the timeline. However, Hamas made it clear that it will not be able to determine the location of all the 28 dead captives by the established deadline. A fact which Israel has also been familiar with.
Israeli sources reported that the Israeli government has for months been aware of the fact that Hamas does not know the whereabouts of some deceased Israeli captives because a group of them were held by other Palestinian factions in Gaza. Thus their release or retrieval may be beyond Hamas’s control.
Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza have started to return to their home areas
Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, forcibly displaced to southern Gaza, began to return to their devastated home areas in other parts of the besieged strip as soon the ceasefire went into effect on Friday at noon.
Videos went viral of a flood of Palestinian people walking towards Gaza city along the coastal road, weeks after fleeing Israel’s merciless offensive, which flattened the city into rubble.
The majority of the population is seen in the footage walking on foot for distances of about 20 kilometers, carrying shabby luggage sacks on their backs. Meanwhile, others hired donkey carts, a high-price service often unaffordable for many.
Although the IOF withdrew its troops from certain areas in the besieged strip, they informed the people of Gaza that Israeli soldiers are still deployed in other areas, warning them to avoid approaching them. The alarming message has added a level of panic to the already arduous and long return journey.
Aid to start entering Gaza under UN supervision on Sunday
Multiple international media outlets reported on Friday that Israel has finally given approval to the United Nations to begin large-scale aid deliveries to Gaza as of Sunday, October 12.
The prospective aid shipment will include 170,000 metric tons of supplies, which are already stationed in neighboring countries, including Jordan and Egypt. Humanitarian teams in charge of handling the delivery process had also been waiting for Israel’s authorization to resume their operations.
For his part, the spokesperson for the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Stéphane Dujarric, told reporters in New York on Friday that some essential life-saving materials have started to flow into Gaza through the Israel-controlled Kerem Shalom crossing, including fuel, medical supplies, and other critical materials.
The senior UN official further urged Israel to open more border crossings, and guarantee the safe movement of aid workers and civilians alike, especially in areas that were very recently subjected to heavy fire by the IOF during their return journey.
Israel publishes list of Palestinian prisoners to be released as part of the deal, Palestinian Prisoners’ Media Office denies reaching an agreement on the list
The Israeli Ministry of Justice published on its website on Friday, a list of the Palestinian prisoners, who are allegedly intended to be freed as part of the current ceasefire deal.
The published list includes the names of 250 Palestinians sentenced to life imprisonment, and 1,700 other prisoners, including women and children, who were arrested from Gaza after October 7, 2023.
Nonetheless, the published list does not include the names of prominent figures in the Palestinian Prisoners’ movement, whose release Hamas has always held as a condition during every round of Gaza ceasefire negotiations. The eminent prisoners excluded from the list published by Israel are:
Marwan Barghouti
Ahmed Saadat
Abdullah Barghouti
Hassan Salama
Abbas al-Sayed
Ibrahim Hamed
Commenting on the list, the Palestinian Prisoners’ Media Office issued a statement via its Telegram channel, denying that any final agreement has been reached regarding the Palestinian prisoners to be released.
“No official agreement has yet been reached regarding the lists of prisoners included in the exchange deal,” the statement reads.
“If a final agreement is reached, the official lists will be published on the Prisoners’ Media Office’s (social media) platforms,” the office added.
Reports say that Hamas is insisting on the release of the eminent prisoners, making that the most significant sticking point in current negotiations. The group has also affirmed their refusal to disarm.
The ceasefire deal is a victory of Palestinian people and the masses who mobilized against Genocide, says IPA
The International Peoples’ Assembly (IPA) issued a statement on Thursday, October 9, unequivocally saluting “the unyielding resistance and resilience of the Palestinian people, who have bravely confronted unimaginable violence and devastation with steadfastness.”
“This agreement would not have been reached were it not for their strength and determination,” the IPA emphasized.
The IPA considered reaching the agreement a victory that “belongs to the Palestinian people and the masses who mobilized against Genocide, Imperialism, and Zionism.” A victory that was achieved despite Israel’s “widespread atrocities and destruction with the full support of US imperialism”.
The statement asserts that the “Zionist regime has failed in displacing the Palestinian people from their land.” The anti-imperialist assembly also called “on the people of the world to continue taking action, building pressure and mobilizing”.
“We must relentlessly work to isolate Zionism, ensuring that the terms of this agreement are fully upheld by the occupying power. This ceasefire is not an end, but a crucial juncture. We must intensify our efforts until the full demands of the Palestinian people are met, rooted in self-determination and the complete liberation of Palestine from the river to the sea.”
PYM hails Palestinians for remaining steadfast on their land after 732 days of genocide
The Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM), in an Instagram post, reflected the IPA’s commendation of the steadfastness of the Palestinian people on their land after over two years of genocide, which in itself represents a victory:
“The streets of Gaza ring out tonight with the joyful cries of its people. While a ceasefire proposal is announced, Israel’s flagrant and repeated violations of previous agreements give us pause. Still, we find cause to celebrate. That despite the best efforts of Israel, the United States, Canada, Europe, and Arab regimes to conspire against them, 732 days of genocide later, the Palestinian people remain steadfast on their land. Gaza still rises, and with it, the people of the world rise. The joy of our people in Gaza is our joy, their relief is our relief, and their determination must also be our determination: to lift the siege, liberate all prisoners, end the occupation, and free our land. From the river to the sea.”
Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza’s hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.Genocide denier and Current UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is quoted that he supports Zionism without qualification. He also confirms that UK air force support has been essential in Israel’s mass-murdering genocide. Includes URLs https://www.declassifieduk.org/keir-starmers-100-spy-flights-over-gaza-in-support-of-israel/ and https://youtu.be/O74hZCKKdpA
Reactions to the Gaza ceasefire deal signal that European leaders are more interested in advancing neocolonial projects than seeing peace in Palestine.
European government leaders were quick to comment on the recently announced ceasefire deal for Gaza – but their enthusiasm seemed directed less toward a possible respite for the people of Palestine after two years of genocide, and more toward a new opportunity to ingratiate themselves with US President Donald Trump. Early statements overflowed with compliments for the US administration, accompanied by brief acknowledgments of other participants in the negotiations, before moving to promises of what Europe intends to do next.
“The European Union will continue to support the swift and safe delivery of humanitarian aid into Gaza,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen wrote on social media. “And when the time comes, we will be ready to help with recovery and reconstruction.” In her remarks, von der Leyen made no mention of the fact that the EU had failed to take decisive action to ensure the delivery of food and medicine to Gaza throughout Israel’s genocide, or that EU member states continued to ship weapons to the occupation power, thus directly contributing to the destruction she now presumably wants to help Gaza recover from.
Similar statements could be found across communication channels of French, British, and other European officials. Some of the most remarkable reactions, however, came from Italy, whose government representatives had previously described President Trump’s plan for Gaza as the only achievable one and poured praise on his diplomatic skills. The same officials had criticized Italian activists who joined the Global Sumud Flotilla to break the sea blockade of the Strip and deliver essential supplies, failing to protect them from an Israeli terrorist attack and kidnapping in international waters.
Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni announced that Italy “is ready to contribute to the stabilization, reconstruction, and development of Gaza,” while Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani posted videos showing Gazans waving Italian flags alongside Palestinian ones, apparently mistaking their recognition of Italian workers and students – who organized two general strikes and mass demonstrations in solidarity with Palestine, bringing inspiration to the whole region – for gratitude toward the Meloni administration itself.
In reality, Italy’s far-right government has continuously backed Israel throughout the genocide and shipped substantial quantities of weapons to the occupation forces. For this reason, Meloni, Tajani, and Defense Minister Guido Crosetto, along with arms manufacturer Leonardo’s CEO Roberto Cingolani, were recently reported to the International Criminal Court for suspicion of complicity in crimes against humanity.
Reactions from the left were more skeptical of what lies ahead. Jean-Luc Mélenchon of France Unbowed (La France Insoumise) commented: “After so many deaths and months of genocide, a ceasefire could take place in Gaza. How could one not rejoice at this? […] But once again, the Palestinians will have to endure a new foreign political order. And can one really believe Trump? From our continent, let us lend lucid and vigilant support to the ceasefire while remaining attentive and mobilized.”
Progressive politicians in Europe also criticized the EU’s enthusiasm to define Gaza’s political future. Marc Botenga, MEP for the Workers’ Party of Belgium (PTB-PVDA), warned: “The EU needs to pressure Israel to respect the ceasefire, lift the humanitarian blockade, withdraw from the Gaza Strip and other occupied Palestinian territory.” Reacting to EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs Kaja Kallas, who suggested that the bloc should have a seat at the table while the management of Gaza is discussed, Botenga added: “Europe should stand for Palestinian self-determination instead of fighting to be part of a neocolonial administration.”
US President Donald Trump speaking at the State of the Union in March 2025. Photo: POTUS / X
After killing 21 people in a series of airstrikes on boats off the coast of Venezuela, the US closes all diplomatic channels and prepares for further military aggression in the region.
On October 6, US President Donald Trump ordered the termination of diplomacy with Venezuela. Richard Grenell, special presidential envoy, was directed by Trump to halt all diplomatic outreach and talks with Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
The move follows multiple US missile strikes on boats in the Caribbean Sea. Washington claims the operations target drug traffickers, but regional leaders and legal experts say they are escalating into an undeclared war against Venezuela.
Caracas calls for diplomacy, US abandons it for war
Grenell had previously been the primary negotiator between the two governments and was involved in US-Venezuela policy decisions in general.
Back in September, President Maduro sent a letter directly to Trump, calling for diplomacy and refuting the drug-trafficking accusations the White House has levied. He pointed out how crucial Grenell’s work had been in overcoming false reports and misunderstandings that had emerged around deportation flights from the US.
“This issue was swiftly resolved and clarified during discussions with Mr. Richard Grenell. This channel has functioned flawlessly to date,” the letter stated.
Maduro cited UN data demonstrating the country’s “impeccable record in the fight against international drug trafficking”.
“This and other matters will always be open for direct and frank discussion with your special envoy Grenell, so that we can overcome media noise and fake news.”
Weeks later, Grenell’s communication with Caracas was ceased completely by President Trump.
Washington’s total diplomatic disengagement suggests that hardliners like Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who have openly called for regime change in Venezuela, are now freely leading a more aggressive, militaristic approach toward the most oil-rich nation on earth.
The US military has now carried out airstrikes on at least four small boats in the Caribbean, raising the reported death toll of Washington’s current military aggression in the region to 21. Officials say the campaign aims to combat alleged drug trafficking but have provided no evidence for the claim.
Airstrikes began on September 2, when 11 people – later identified as fishermen – were killed in a missile strike on the first targeted ship off the coast of Venezuela.
Colombian President Gustavo Petro recently announced that the fourth bombed boat was a Colombian vessel, accusing Trump of opening a “war scenario” in the region.
“This is no war against smuggling,” Petro said. “It is a war against oil and it must be stopped by the world.”
The Trump administration has denied Petro’s allegation that the vessel was Colombian, however, an anonymous US official confirmed to the New York Times that Colombian citizens were on board.
The uncharged, untried, and largely unidentified victims of the last month of US aggression are accused of being narcotraffickers by the Trump administration.
The US has deployed at least eight warships, a nuclear-powered attack submarine, several P-8 surveillance planes, and 4,000 military personnel to the waters of the Caribbean, as well as F-35 fighter jets to Puerto Rico.
The scale and level of aggression, combined with the lack of evidence for drug trafficking accusations, has raised questions about Washington’s true intentions with Venezuela. Sources inside the Trump administration told NBC News in September, “The goal is to force Maduro to make rash decisions that could ultimately lead to his ouster – without American boots on the ground.”
US is waging an “armed conflict” against “unlawful combatants”, declares Trump
Legal experts, US lawmakers, and anti-war groups have asserted that military force in international waters is illegal, violating both international and US law, bypassing due process and law enforcement norms, and lacking any clear justification.
In an apparent attempt to provide some legal basis for the hostilities, President Trump sent a report to Congress last week declaring that the US military is engaged in a “non-international armed conflict” with drug cartels and has killed “unlawful combatants” in the Caribbean.
The president has “designated [cartels] as terrorist organizations, and determined that their actions constitute an armed attack against the United States,” Earl Matthews, the Pentagon’s general counsel told lawmakers, as reported by CNN.
The report sent to Congress is required by law (Section 1543a United States Code) whenever US military forces are engaged in hostilities, but it doesn’t automatically grant or expand the legal basis for a military campaign.
However, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth already cited the recent “legal justification” by President Trump when pressed on Sunday about the most recent airstrike at sea. “We have every authorization needed,” Hegseth told Fox News. “These [cartels] are designated as foreign terrorist organizations.”
Although some senators have questioned “the legal rationale, the mission itself, and the intel surrounding the strikes”, a war powers bill that would have limited Trump’s power, halting further airstrikes on boats without authorization from Congress, was voted down on Thursday, October 9.
The White House insists that its “armed conflict” is legal and constitutional. Yet experts and critics say Trump is waging a secret war against undefined enemies, without fully informing Congress or the people of the US – who overwhelmingly reject US intervention in Venezuela. Polls show that only 16% of Americans would support a US invasion of the country.
Threats of land strikes
Despite widespread opposition, President Trump has openly threatened a direct US attack on Venezuela. During an event on October 5 at Naval Station Norfolk in Virginia, he praised the Navy for how successful the missile strikes on alleged drug boats have been.
“We’ll have to start looking about the land because they’ll be forced to go by land,” he said.
The threat came days after NBC News reported that US military officials had in fact already drawn up plans for drone strikes within Venezuelan territory.
Venezuela belongs to Venezuelans, declares Maduro
Caracas has attempted to open dialogue with special envoy Richard Grenell, President Trump himself, and now the UN Security Council. Amid its diplomatic efforts, the country has also made massive efforts to increase its security and defense capabilities.
On October 6, Maduro announced that Venezuelan security forces had foiled a “false flag” plot by local extremists to bomb the US embassy in Caracas, in an apparent attempt to justify US military provocation. Maduro assured that his administration would reinforce security measures to protect the embassy “despite all the differences we have had with the governments of the United States.”
As soon as the US military deployment was announced by Marco Rubio in August, Venezuela mobilized its 4.5 million members of the Bolivarian National Militia. However, after enlistment campaigns calling on the Venezuelan people to defend the country’s sovereignty against US aggression, 8 million people signed up to join the militia, raising the total size of the force to over 12 million civilian combatants, according to the government. The country has conducted advanced training across the entire territory and the Caribbean Sea to consolidate its defense forces and prepare for any US attack.
“What they want is war in the Caribbean and South America. For a regime change to impose a puppet government and steal the oil, gas, and gold,” the president of the Bolivarian Republic proclaimed during the inauguration of a massive hospital in Caracas.
“But we have news for the North American empire,” he continued. “That oil, that gas, that gold, this land, and this people will continue to belong to Venezuelans. And we will never allow our homeland to be violated or touched. Never!”
Donald Fuhrump says that Amerikkka doesn’t bother with crimes or charges anymore, not being 100% Amerikkkan and opposing his real estate intentions is enough.Orcas discuss how Trump was re-elected and him being an obviously insane, xenophobic Fascist.
In 2002, former US President George W. Bush meets María Corina Machado, then director of Súmate, an “independent democratic civil society group” funded by the US government to “oversee the electoral process in Venezuela”. Source: White House/Eric Draper
Venezuelan opposition figure María Corina Machado was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, but there’s nothing peaceful about her politics
When I saw the headline María Corina Machado wins the Peace Prize, I almost laughed at the absurdity. But I didn’t, because there’s nothing funny about rewarding someone whose politics have brought so much suffering. Anyone who knows what she stands for knows there’s nothing remotely peaceful about her politics.
If this is what counts as “peace” in 2025, then the prize itself has lost every ounce of credibility. I’m Venezuelan-American, and I know exactly what Machado represents. She’s the smiling face of Washington’s regime-change machine, the polished spokesperson for sanctions, privatization, and foreign intervention dressed up as democracy.
Machado’s politics are steeped in violence. She has called for foreign intervention, even appealing directly to Benjamin Netanyahu, the architect of Gaza’s annihilation, to help “liberate” Venezuela with bombs under the banner of “freedom,” She has demanded sanctions, that silent form of warfare whose effects – as studies in The Lancet and other journals have shown – have killed more people than war, cutting off medicine, food, and energy to entire populations.
Machado has spent her entire political life promoting division, eroding Venezuela’s sovereignty, and denying its people the right to live with dignity.
This is who María Corina Machado really is:
She helped lead the 2002 coup that briefly overthrew a democratically elected president, and signed the Carmona Decree that erased the Constitution and dissolved every public institution overnight.
She worked hand in hand with Washington to justify regime change, using her platform to demand foreign military intervention to “liberate” Venezuela through force.
She cheered on Donald Trump’s threats of invasion and his naval deployments in the Caribbean, a show of force that risks igniting regional war under the pretext of “combating narcotrafficking.” While Trump sent warships and froze assets, Machado stood ready to serve as his local proxy, promising to deliver Venezuela’s sovereignty on a silver platter.
She pushed for the US sanctions that strangled the economy, knowing exactly who would pay the price: the poor, the sick, the working class.
She helped construct the so-called “interim government,” a Washington-backed puppet show run by a self-appointed “president” who looted Venezuela’s resources abroad while children at home went hungry.
She vows to reopen Venezuela’s embassy in Jerusalem, aligning herself openly with the same apartheid state that bombs hospitals and calls it self-defense.
Now she wants to hand over the country’s oil, water, and infrastructure to private corporations. This is the same recipe that made Latin America the laboratory of neoliberal misery in the 1990s.
Machado was also one of the political architects of “La Salida,” the 2014 opposition campaign that called for escalated protests, including guarimba tactics. Those weren’t “peaceful protests” as the foreign press claimed; they were organized barricades meant to paralyze the country and force the government’s fall. Streets were blocked with burning trash and barbed wire, buses carrying workers were torched, and people suspected of being Chavista were beaten or killed. Even ambulances and doctors were attacked. Some Cuban medical brigades were nearly burned alive. Public buildings, food trucks, and schools were destroyed. Entire neighborhoods were held hostage by fear while opposition leaders like Machado cheered from the sidelines and called it “resistance.”
She praises Trump’s “decisive action” against what she calls a “criminal enterprise,” aligning herself with the same man who cages migrant children and tears families apart under ICE’s watch, while Venezuelan mothers search for their children disappeared by US migration policies.
Machado isn’t a symbol of peace or progress. She is part of a global alliance between fascism, Zionism, and neoliberalism, an axis that justifies domination in the language of democracy and peace. In Venezuela, that alliance has meant coups, sanctions, and privatization. In Gaza, it means genocide and the erasure of a people. The ideology is the same: a belief that some lives are disposable, that sovereignty is negotiable, and that violence can be sold as order.
If Henry Kissinger could win a Peace Prize, why not María Corina Machado? Maybe next year they’ll give one to the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation for “compassion under occupation.”
Every time this award is handed to an architect of violence disguised as diplomacy, it spits in the face of those who actually fight for peace: the Palestinian medics digging bodies from rubble, the journalists risking their lives in Gaza to document the truth and the humanitarian workers of the Flotilla sailing to break the siege and deliver aid to starving children in Gaza, with nothing but courage and conviction.
But real peace is not negotiated in boardrooms or awarded on stages. Real peace is built by women organizing food networks during blockades, by Indigenous communities defending rivers from extraction, by workers who refuse to be starved into obedience, by Venezuelan mothers mobilizing to demand the return of children seized under US ICE and migration policies and by nations that choose sovereignty over servitude. That’s the peace Venezuela, Cuba, Palestine, and every nation of the Global South deserves.
Michelle Ellner is a Latin America campaign coordinator of CODEPINK.
People on Westminster Bridge as they take part in a Palestine Solidarity Campaign march in central London, October 11, 2025
