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Aid trucks loaded with humanitarian supplies remain stranded at the Rafah Border Crossing on the Egyptian side due to Israeli attacks and closed border crossings, the delivery of aid is limited and delayed in Rafah, Egypt on August 6, 2025. [Mohamed Elshahed – Anadolu Agency]
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said Thursday that around 170,000 tons of humanitarian aid are waiting to enter the Gaza Strip, pending approval from the Israeli occupying authorities that control all border crossings.
Speaking after the announcement of the first phase of US President Donald Trump’s plan to end the war on Gaza, an OCHA spokesperson said the aid—comprising medicines, tents, and other critical supplies—could reach nearly two million Palestinians facing severe shortages of food and basic necessities once access is granted.
OCHA reported earlier this week that Israel has blocked the entry of 45 per cent of registered aid convoys since the genocide began in October 2023, severely limiting relief efforts. The spokesperson emphasised that effective delivery requires open crossings, security guarantees for aid workers and civilians, visas for international staff, and unrestricted entry of supplies. He also underlined the need to revive Gaza’s private sector to restore minimum living conditions.
At dawn Thursday, Trump announced that Israel and Hamas had agreed to the first stage of his proposed peace plan, which includes a prisoner exchange and an Israeli withdrawal to the so-called “Yellow Line” as an initial step.
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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.Vote Labour for Genocide.
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Smoke rises after Israeli airstrikes targeted residential areas in the Gaza Strip, as seen from Israel near the border, on October 07, 2025. [Mostafa Alkharouf – Anadolu Agency]
A new report has accused London’s £34 billion ($45.43 billion) public sector pension fund of investing billions in companies allegedly complicit in Israel’s human rights abuses against Palestinians, Anadolu reports.
The Blood Money report, released Thursday by the campaign group Shake The CIV, claims that the London Collective Investment Vehicle (LCIV) — which manages £34.2 billion on behalf of 32 London local authorities — has over £7 billion ($9 billion) invested in firms “enabling Israel’s violations of Palestinian human rights.”
The fund represents the deferred wages of around 700,000 Londoners.
According to the report, LCIV’s investments include almost £1 billion ($1.4 billion) in arms manufacturers, such as £10 million ($13 million) in Israeli weapons producer Elbit Systems and £228 million ($305 million) in British firm BAE Systems.
The report also highlights £5.2 billion ($7 billion) in technology companies accused of facilitating Israel’s surveillance and control of Palestinians, including over £2.5 billion ($3.3 billion) in Microsoft.
For the first time, the report reveals the names of elected councilors who sit on LCIV’s Shareholder Committee — information the organization has refused to make public despite multiple Freedom of Information requests.
LCIV, which quietly sold £6.7 million ($9 million) in Israeli government bonds in 2024, has faced growing protests and says it is reviewing its investments in 12 unnamed companies.
However, the fund has refused to disclose the names of those companies, even to the councilors representing the local authorities whose pension funds it manages.
The report also criticizes LCIV for deleting a July 2024 statement on Gaza from its website, later replacing it in July 2025 with a post claiming to be “neutral” on the issue.
Campaigners say this stance “belies its claims to be a responsible investor,” noting that LCIV took “swift action” over the Russian invasion of Ukraine but not in response to Israel’s actions in Gaza.
Shake The CIV is calling on LCIV to “immediately, completely, and permanently divest from all companies complicit in Israel’s genocide and apartheid against Palestinians.”
Cllr Liam Shrivastava, a member of Lewisham Council’s Pension Committee, said in a statement: “At stake here are not only the lives of millions of human beings but also local authorities’ right to make democratic decisions about financial matters. In the 1980s, many London councils made history by cutting financial ties with apartheid South Africa and recently, many have divested from fossil fuels. Genocide is the crime of crimes — we have to do whatever we can to stop it.”
Five boroughs — Waltham Forest, Islington, Tower Hamlets, Southwark and Lewisham — have announced plans to divest following local campaigns.
However, their pension funds remain invested through LCIV portfolios, and campaigners say progress has been slow.
Since October 2023, Israeli attacks have killed over 67,000 Palestinians in the enclave, most of them women and children.
The relentless bombardment has left Gaza largely uninhabitable, leading to widespread starvation and diseases.
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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.
This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Franciszek Sterczewski speaks at a press conference in Warsaw, Poland, on September 8, 2025, following the arrival of Polish activists from the Global Sumud Flotilla deported from Israel. [Photo by Marek Antoni Iwanczuk/NurPhoto via Getty Images]
Four Polish activists detained by Israel after a Gaza-bound aid flotilla was raided last week returned to Warsaw on Wednesday, accusing Israeli forces of brutality and rebuking Poland’s foreign minister for downplaying the assault, Anadolu reports.
The delegation, arriving on a flight from Athens, included ruling Civic Platform (PO) lawmaker Franciszek Sterczewski, activists Omar Faris and Nina Ptak, and journalist Ewa Jasiewicz. Faris, Ptak, and Sterczewski were deported to Greece on Monday, while Jasiewicz had left Israel earlier.
Sterczewski sharply criticized both Israel and Poland’s foreign minister, Radoslaw Sikorski.
“Why, at a time when we were doing everything we could to end this genocide and draw the world’s attention to what was happening there, did Minister Sikorski downplay the situation?” Sterczewski said, adding that he had learned firsthand that “Israel is a barbaric and terrorist state, just like, for example, Russia.”
“We expect that if Sikorski can accuse Putin of his war crimes, we expect him to be consistent and accuse Benjamin Netanyahu of the same crimes, or even worse,” he added.
Sterczewski said the five days he spent in Israeli detention were marked by mistreatment. “It wasn’t pleasant. We weren’t allowed to sleep. Guards shone flashlights in our eyes for hours and played music from Israeli propaganda films. We were set on by dogs. We were spat on. We were threatened with weapons,” he said.
The MP added that around 11,000 Palestinians, including more than 400 children, remain in Israeli detention. “We point out that they are treated even worse there. They are often murdered, and all human rights are violated,” he said.
The four Poles were among 470 activists from 47 countries participating in the Global Sumud Flotilla (GSF), a humanitarian convoy attacked in international waters by the Israeli navy last week. Forty-two ships were seized during the overnight raid from Wednesday to Thursday.
At Warsaw Airport, Faris told reporters: “We must all stand together against the genocidal war in the Gaza Strip.”
“They treated us absolutely brutally. For several hours, I’m 73 years old, they tied my hands behind my back and put me on rocks,” Faris said.
He added that during interrogation in an Israeli prison, the activists were questioned about possible links to Hamas. “Our problem is the occupation, which began 42 years before the founding of Hamas,” he said. “You won’t be able to kill us. And we don’t want to kill you either. We want a solution like in South Africa — a democratic state for all, regardless of religion.”
Pro-Palestine protesters in NYC (Photo: Wyatt Souers)
Pro-Palestine organizers credit “how the movement for Palestine has intervened,” for seismic shift in public opinion
US popular discontent over Israel’s war on Gaza has grown over the past two years, a Pew Research poll finds. Currently, 39% of those polled said that Israel’s military action against Hamas has gone too far – up from 31% a year ago and just 27% in late 2023. Six in 10 have an unfavorable view of Israel’s government. This survey was conducted before Trump and Netanyahu announced their so-called “peace plan”.
The Pew Research poll revealed that the percentage of those who believe President Donald Trump favors Israel too much has risen by five points since March, from 31% to 36%. Republicans remain far more likely than Democrats to back Trump’s handling of the conflict and view him as balanced between Israelis and Palestinians. Yet among voters of both parties, more people now believe he’s siding too heavily with Israel since previous polling in March.
Polling conducted by the New York Times and Siena University revealed a dramatic decline in support for Israel among US voters. Following October 7, 47% of US voters said their sympathies lay with Israelis, while just 20% sided with Palestinians. Today, that gap has vanished: 34% now say they back Israel, 35% back Palestinians, and 31% say they’re uncertain or support both equally. A majority of voters now oppose sending additional aid to Israel, at 51%.
Although the claims of antisemitism have been levied against the pro-Palestine movement, especially by the US government, Jewish people in the US have vastly shifted their stance against Israeli action in Palestine. According to a poll conducted by the Washington Post, 61% of surveyed Jewish people in the US believe Israel has committed war crimes in Gaza, and 39% said Israel is guilty of genocide.
“The movement for Palestine has intervened”
According to Miriam Osman, an organizer with the Palestinian Youth Movement, these drastic shifts in public opinion reveal “the massive gap between the policies of the ruling class and the vast majority of people who are not represented by them.” Osman says that the cause of this change is “first and foremost the result of Israel’s brutal genocide, live-streamed to our phones daily unlike any other atrocity we have seen,” but also credits “how the movement for Palestine has intervened, expanded, and kept Palestine front and center, building mass protests and organizing infrastructure over the last two years.”
Groups like the Palestinian Youth Movement have been active in organizing mass mobilizations since the beginning of Israel’s war on Gaza on October 7 – including taking part in a march of half a million in Washington, DC on November 4, 2023, which to date is the largest demonstration in support of Palestine in US history.
Since then, the movement for Palestine has taken a constant array of diverse forms, engaging potentially millions of people in the US. These include the wave of Gaza solidarity encampments protests, started by students at Columbia University and quickly spread across the country and around the world. Visits to the United States by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have seen mass demonstrations in July of 2024 in Washington, DC, and September during UNGA week in both 2024 and 2025.
The waves of pro-Palestine organizing in the United States have been sustained by a variety of organizations and coalitions, some in existence prior to October 2023 and some coming on the scene after. While the Palestinian Youth Movement has been active for decades, two years ago the Palestinian diaspora organization joined forces with other groups including the ANSWER Coalition and the People’s Forum to form “Shut it Down for Palestine”, a coalition which holds public meetings in New York City each week.
List of US citizens killed by Israel grows
The victims of Israel’s genocide and occupation includes US citizens, but the Israeli government has faced not accountability from the US for these killings. These include Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi, an activist shot by Israeli forces while at a protest in the West Bank, and Sayfollah Musallet, a Palestinian-American beaten to death by Israeli settlers while visiting family, also in the West Bank.
The US Department of Justice launched investigations against the alleged killings of US citizens by Hamas during October 7, and charged Hamas leaders with terrorism. However, when it comes to Israeli killings of US citizens, the US government has deferred to Israel to conduct its own internal investigations.
Establishment digs heels in
Demonstrations have also targeted members of the political establishment who have refused to respond to the sea change in constituent opinion and shift their stance in support of Israel. These include those in the liberal wing of politics, such as Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer – who has faced waves of activist pickets both outside his office and his home in New York City.
Some activists, notably, members of the anti-war group CODEPINK have taken to filming direct confrontations with politicians in the halls of Congress over their support for Israel – including those in the Democratic Party. When campaigning as Kamala Harris’ running mate last year, Tim Walz was called out by CODEPINK activists while at a DNC women’s caucus event for his support for Israel.
After 2 years of Israel’s genocide and war on Gaza, the US government shows no sign of changing its unwavering financial and political support for Israel. Although the Trump administration has been especially staunch in its support, establishment leaders of the Democratic Party have also remained, in many ways, just as supportive as two years ago. As recently as April of this year, establishment Senators including Schumer, fellow New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, and Cory Booker of New Jersey, voted down a Bernie Sanders-led effort to limit US arms sales to 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.
Protesters take part in a demonstration outside the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) in Whitehall, London, calling for the government to protect the crew of Madleen, June 9, 2025
Jewish campaigners condemn Starmer’s claim that demonstrations against genocide are ‘un-British’
JEWISH campaigners have condemned Sir Keir Starmer’s “insulting” claim that demonstrations against genocide were “un-British.”
The Prime Minister’s remarks, made today, came ahead of several student protests on the anniversary of October 7, and the national march for Palestine this weekend.
An inter-university march set off in the capital from King’s College at 2pm, before passing the London School of Economics, University College London and ending at the gates of SOAS.
Joining them was Mark Etkind, the son of a Holocaust survivor, who said: “As we speak today, weapons made in Britain are contributing to the deaths of children and others in Gaza — that has to stop now in order to save those lives, so these brave student protesters have to keep demonstrating until that genocide stops.”
He accused the government of having slandered the students, making them out to be insensitive to October 7, “while ignoring the obvious fact that their priority is to … oppose the ongoing conflict which Britain unfortunately is complicit in.”
Rallies also took place in Sheffield, Glasgow and Edinburgh, where the institution’s principal emailed students warning them to “think carefully about their actions” ahead of the protest.
Edinburgh’s Justice for Palestine Society called it a “blatant attempt to suppress campus discourse on an ongoing genocide.”
Writing in the Times, Sir Keir said it was “un-British to have so little respect for others,” echoing comments made by Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood, who described Palestine protests held following Thursday’s attack on a Manchester synagogue as “fundamentally un-British.”
Naomi Wimborne-Idrissi, media officer for Jewish Voice for Liberation, said: “Those who protest are in despair at our government’s abject failure to take any kind of meaningful action to make the bombing, shooting, burning and starvation stop.
“For leaders of that government to accuse protesters of ‘un-Britishness’ is both insulting and counterproductive.
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.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.Vote Labour for Genocide.
Protesters take part in a demonstration outside the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) in Whitehall, London, calling for the government to protect the crew of Madleen, June 9, 2025