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Palestinians, including children, in Gaza city, where the Israeli army launched ground attacks following airstrikes, are migrating towards the southern regions through Al-Rashid Street with whatever belongings they can take with them in Gaza City, Gaza on September 19, 2025. [Mohammed Nassar – Anadolu Agency]
Amnesty’s Crisis Response Manager, Kristyan Benedict, said on Sunday that: “Recognition is no doubt significant but will be a hollow gesture if the UK does not also seek to end Israel’s genocide, illegal occupation, and system of apartheid against the Palestinian people.
Speaking in response to the UK government’s recognition of the State of Palestine Benedict said: “For recognition or any ‘political solution’ to be effective, it must be firmly rooted in respect for human rights and international justice.”
“The UK needs to take action now to ensure Israel lifts the blockade on Gaza, dismantles illegal settlements, ends apartheid, respects Palestinians’ right to return, and upholds the rights of victims on all sides to justice and full reparation.
“Words alone won’t stop the atrocities. Recognition must be tied to real accountability: the UK must halt UK arms exports, divest from arms companies that continue to sell arms to Israel, sanction Israeli officials implicated in crimes under international law and stop trade with settlements.”
A statement issued by the rights organisation emphasised: “The occupation and apartheid system must be ended, and justice must be delivered – anything less while Palestinians continue to be slaughtered by Israeli forces in an ongoing genocide is just empty words.”
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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.Vote Labour for Genocide.
“It is clear that Israel is paving the ground for an attack on the flotilla. World public opinion needs to mobilize against Israel’s next war crime. Now!”
Evidence posted over the weekend online appears to show that tech giant Google has allowed the government of Israel to purchase sponsored content spots so that online users searching on the Global Sumud Flotilla will be shown inaccurate, propagandized content accusing the flotilla particpants as being allied with violent, terrorist elements.
The Sumud Flotilla—a group of international humanitarians and peace activists sailing toward the coast of Gaza with over 40 vessels in its fleet as a way to break the unlawful blockade of life-saving supplies imposed by Israel and its allies amid an ongoing genocide—has no documented connection to any terrorist organization and has made clear repeatedly that it is a completely nonviolent effort by independent groups and individuals who want to see an end to the suffering, starvation, and death taking place in the besieged Palestinian enclave.
In Arabic, sumud translates as steadfastness and resilience. On its website, the groups says, “We are a coalition of everyday people—organizers, humanitarians, doctors, artists, clergy, lawyers, and seafarers—who believe in human dignity and the power of nonviolent action.”
David Adler, an American economist and co-coordinator general of Progressive International who is traveling as part of the flotilla, posted a screenshot Saturday of search results showing the sponsored content, calling it “very terrifying.” Many others online reported getting the same results, though the appearance of the sponsored content seemed to depend on the user’s location or other variables.
This is really terrifying 🤯.@Google is allowing the State of Israel to “sponsor” top search results with absurd accusations that we are “harboring terror.”
This is pure incitement — and puts the lives of all participants at risk.
Yanis Varoufakis, the former finance minister of Greece and co-founder of Progessive International, posted a similar screenshot earlier in the day, describing the coordinated ad buy as part of an escalating “smear campaign against the flotilla” by the Israeli government.
“First, they called it the Hamas Flotilla, deploying the usual tactic of slapping the Hamas logo on anyone whom they are about to murder, maim or mutilate,” said Varoufakis. “Now, with the full cooperation of Google, they are ensuring that top search results—received by anyone who Googles ‘Global Sumud Flotilla’—identify the brave women and men who are sailing to Gaza to end the blockade and genocide of 2 million people are people ‘harboring terror.’ It is clear that Israel is paving the ground for an attack on the flotilla. World public opinion needs to mobilize against Israel’s next war crime. Now!”
🚨 URGENT MESSAGE FROM THE FLOTILLA: we need your help & attention to keep the flotilla safe.
Israeli propaganda is predictive of Israeli conduct: when they want to ridicule a flotilla, they call it a ‘selfie yacht’.
DropSite Newsnoted on Satuday that a team of its journalists reported earlier this month that Google “was in the middle of a six-month, $45 million contract with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office to run ads and spread online propaganda, including on YouTube.”
“A search for the Global Sumud Flotilla humanitarian convoy carrying aid to break the Gaza siege shows the Israeli government’s incitement as the top result,” the outlet noted on Saturday, pointing to Adler’s post. “The campaign has also promoted content denying the Gaza famine.”
Earlier this week, Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs characterized the flotilla—which has now been targeted at least twice by drone attacks—as a “jihadist initiative,” which led to immediate concerns that Israel was trying to build a case in the arena of public opinion for what would eventually be an Israeli attack on the ships or an interdiction at sea.
On Tuesday, as Common Dreamsreported, the foreign ministers of 16 nations—Bangladesh, Brazil, Colombia, Indonesia, Ireland, Libya, Malaysia, Maldives, Mexico, Pakistan, Qatar, Oman, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, and Türkiye—warned against “any unlawful or violent act against the flotilla” and called on all parties “to respect international law and international humanitarian law.”
The ministers said that “any violation of international law and human rights of the participants in the flotilla, including attacks against the vessels in international waters or illegal detention, will lead to accountability.”
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/O74hZCKKdpAVote Labour for Genocide.
Honor guards carry coffins during a funeral procession of 31 Yemeni journalists killed in Israeli airstrikes on September 16, 2025, in Sana’a, Yemen. (Photo by Mohammed Hamoud/Getty Images)
The Committee to Protect Journalists said Israel’s attack on a media complex in Sana’a last week killed 31 journalists.
Israel’s airstrikes on a media complex in Yemen last week resulted in the largest single attack on journalists the world has seen in 16 years, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.
In a report released Friday, the group said that 31 journalists from two government-run newspapers based in Sana’a were killed in the strikes on September 10, along with four others, including one child.
Nasser Al-Khadri, editor-in-chief of the newspaper 26 September, called the attack on his newsroom an “unprecedented massacre of journalists.”
“It is a brutal and unjustified attack that targeted innocent people whose only crime was working in the media field, armed with nothing but their pens and words,” Al-Khadri told the CPJ.
According to CPJ, it was the second-largest attack on the press they’ve ever recorded, and the worst since 2009, when 32 journalists were massacred as part of a political ambush in the Philippines.
The Israeli government has often defended its attacks on civilian infrastructure by claiming that it houses militants. But in these strikes, the IDF’s media desk acknowledged that it was targeting what it referred to as the “Public Relations Department” for the Houthis, also known as Ansar-Allah.
Shortly after Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza began in 2023, the militant group, which controls large parts of Yemen, began to launch drone and missile strikes against shipping vessels in the Red Sea and directly against Israel in what they have described as an effort to support Palestinians under fire. They have said they will stop these attacks when Israel reaches an agreement with Hamas to end the war in Gaza.
Israel has repeatedly bombed Yemen in recent weeks, including launching a strike on its main airport and large amounts of civilian infrastructure. On the same day it bombed the media complex, it also hit residential areas in Sana’a as well as a medical facility.
In a post on X, the official account for the Israel Defense Forces justified striking the newspapers by saying that they are “responsible for distributing and disseminating propaganda messages in the media, including speeches by Houthi leader Abdul-Malik and statements from spokesman Yahya Saree.” For this reason, Israel described the journalists as “military targets.”
But the CPJ says that “as civilians, journalists are protected under international law, including those working for state-run or armed group-affiliated outlets, unless they take direct part in hostilities.”
Niku Jafarnia, a Bahrain and Yemen researcher for Human Rights Watch, explained in more detail on Monday:
Radio and television facilities are civilian objects and cannot be targeted. They are legitimate targets only if they are used in a way that makes an “effective contribution to military action.” However, civilian broadcasting facilities are not rendered legitimate military targets simply because they are pro-Houthi or anti-Israel, or report on the laws of war violations by one side or the other, as this does not directly contribute to military operations.
Al-Khadri said that Israel’s strikes hit his newsroom around 4:45 pm, right when staff were finishing up the publication of the weekly paper.
Mohammed al-Basha, a Yemen analyst, noted that “Since it is a weekly publication, not a daily one, staff were gathered at the publishing house to prepare for distribution, significantly increasing the number of people present in the compound.”
The CPJ classified the 31 journalists killed in the strike as having been “murdered” by Israel, meaning that they were deliberately targeted specifically for their work. Over the past decade, the group says, 1 in 6 of the world’s murdered journalists have been killed by Israel.
While estimates from different groups vary, Israel’s war in Gaza is considered by far the deadliest conflict in the world for journalists, with more killed than any other conflict in the world combined. In August, the CPJ reported that 192 journalists, nearly all Palestinians, have been killed since October 7, 2023, while other groups put the death toll even higher.
In attacks last month that drew similar worldwide condemnation, Israel conducted what was described as a “double tap” strike on Khan Younis’ Nasser Hospital aimed at killing first responders who arrived after the first strike. Twenty people were killed in total, including rescue workers and at least five journalists.
Not long before, Israel carried out the targeted assassination of Al Jazeera correspondent Anas al-Sharif and five other journalists, claiming without evidence that they were part of “a Hamas terrorist cell.”
“Since October 7, 2023, Israel has emerged as a regional killer of journalists, with repeated incidents in Gaza, Lebanon, Iran, and now Yemen confirming Israel’s longstanding pattern of labeling journalists as terrorists or propagandists to justify their killings,” said CPJ regional program leaderSara Qudah.
“Israel’s September 10 strikes on two newspaper offices in Yemen marks an alarming escalation, extending Israel’s war on journalism far beyond the genocide in Gaza,” Qudah said. “This latest killing spree is not only a grave violation of international law, but also a terrifying warning to journalists across the region: no place is safe.”
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Citizens and relatives of the Palestinians, including children, who died as a result of Israeli army attack on Abu Salmiya family apartment in Al-Shati refugee camp carry the dead bodies as bodies are being taken from the al-Shifa Hospital for burial in Gaza City, Gaza on September 20, 2025. [Khames Alrefi – Anadolu Agency]
At least 54 Palestinians were killed on Saturday in Israeli airstrikes and drone attacks across the Gaza Strip, as the army renewed its warnings for residents to evacuate Gaza City and move south, Anadolu reports.
According to eyewitnesses and medical sources, the attacks struck a shelter, a displacement tent, civilian gatherings, and homes, coinciding with the detonation of booby-trapped robots in northern neighborhoods of Gaza City.
Northern Gaza
Most of the casualties were reported in Gaza City, where at least 44 Palestinians were killed.
In the Al-Tuffah area, nine people were killed in an airstrike on the al-Jamal family home. Five people were killed in an airstrike on the home in the Al-Shati refugee camp of Majed Abu Salmiya, the brother of Shifa Hospital director Mohammed Abu Salmiya.
Near Yarmouk Stadium, two children were killed when Israeli gunfire struck the Al-Mu’tasim School, which has been sheltering displaced families.
A woman was killed and others were wounded when Israeli gunfire hit a civilian gathering near the Jordanian Hospital in the Al-Samra neighborhood.
Near the Islamic University, women and children were injured when an airstrike hit a displacement tent, while 23 more Palestinians were killed in other parts of Gaza City.
Four more Palestinians were killed and several others injured in an airstrike targeting a civilian gathering at the Abu Hamid junction, near the Shati refugee camp.
The Civil Defense Service said in a statement that Israeli drones also fired randomly at homes in northern and southern parts of the city, wounding civilians. Late Friday, Israeli jets carried out a “fire belt” bombardment of Tel al-Hawa, while troops detonated several explosive-laden robotic vehicles on Sheikh Radwan and Al-Nafaq Street in northern Gaza City.
Israeli forces also dropped leaflets over the Al-Shati camp, renewing orders for residents to flee south.
On Tuesday, the army announced a “large-scale ground operation” in Gaza City, though field reports indicate limited ground incursions have only occurred since Wednesday night in northern districts.
Central Gaza
At least one Palestinian was killed and others were injured in a strike on a civilian gathering on Al-Ishreen Street in Nuseirat refugee camp, while another person was killed in a separate attack in central Gaza.
The Israeli army also killed three Palestinians and wounded others when a drone bombed a tent in the Nuseirat refugee camp.
Southern Gaza
One person was killed and five others were wounded by Israeli gunfire while waiting for aid near a distribution center in Rafah.
In Khan Younis, one person was killed in a strike near the Abu Hmeid roundabout, while three others were killed in separate Israeli attacks in the south.
Since Oct. 7, 2023, Israel has been carrying out a genocide in Gaza which has so far killed over 65,200 Palestinians, most of them women and children.
The onslaught has displaced hundreds of thousands alongside a blockade on humanitarian aid that has claimed the lives of at least 442 Palestinians, including 147 children.
Current UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is quoted that he supports Zionism without qualification. He also confirms that his active support and that of UK’s air force has been essential in Israel’s mass-murdering genocide.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.
This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Mohammed Dwedar of Team Palestine prepares to compete in the Men’s 800 Metres Heats on day four of the World Athletics Championships Tokyo 2025 at National Stadium on September 16, 2025 in Tokyo, Japan. [Photo by Hannah Peters/Getty Images]
Mohammed Dwedar, the only athlete representing Palestine at the 20th World Athletics Championships in Japan, said Saturday he was running not just for himself but for his country, Anadolu reports.
“I ran in a race I cannot lose. How can I lose when I started with nothing?” Dwedar told Anadolu after competing in the men’s 800-meter heats in Tokyo. “When I run, I feel like I am doing something for this flag.”
Pride and struggle
Dwedar, who also competed at the Olympics, described the honor of carrying Palestine’s name on the world stage.
“I am very happy to represent Palestine at the World Athletics Championships. I have very mixed emotions. You know what has been going on in my country. I have gone through a very difficult preparation process,” he said.
“I am very proud to compete for a country like Palestine at the World Athletics Championships. This will be a lifetime honor for me. I am the only athlete from Palestine participating in the championships because, as you know, we do not have any racetracks to train on,” he added.
He said the atmosphere in Tokyo and support from fellow athletes lifted his spirits: “The athletes I competed with in Tokyo were my friends, and very helpful and supportive to me.”
Dwedar recalled that his sister first inspired him to run: “She was a runner too. When I went to watch my sister’s team, they said, ‘You can run too,’ and I love running. Running has been an important part of my life. I have never stopped running since then.”
He added that despite the difficulties, he prepares with focus: “I need to concentrate before the race. Even though I feel very sorry for Palestine, I need to focus during the race, otherwise you cannot make up even a second you lose. I do not watch television and check my phone as all I see is bad news. I need to focus on the race.”
Sports under attack in Gaza
Dwedar spoke about the devastating impact of Israel’s ongoing attacks on Gaza’s sports community.
“Those who died and were martyred were my friends. I have many friends in Gaza. My team is in Gaza now, but we cannot train there. No sports in Palestine; nowhere is safe,” he said.
“There is nowhere to train; we only train on the streets. There is no safe place. It is very dangerous, but we have no alternative. There is nothing we can do. There is no running track, no stadium, but we cannot stop. I run from the heart. When I run, I am very happy. When I run, I send a message. When I run, I feel like I am doing something for this flag.”
In Gaza, more than 800 athletes have been killed and nearly 300 sports facilities destroyed in the past two years of Israeli attacks. 90% of sports infrastructure has been wiped out, with football fields turned into “cemeteries.”
“The whole world knows what is happening in Palestine. Everyone knows what is happening in Palestine,” Dwedar said. “We are here for sports, and I want to send a message for the Palestinian people. I thank my family and my people for their support. I am also sending a message to Palestinian children: Keep working, and we can win medals for this flag.”
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Current UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is quoted that he supports Zionism without qualification. He also confirms that his active support and that of UK’s air force has been essential in Israel’s mass-murdering genocide.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.
