English LCCC Newsbulletin For
Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For October 31/2025
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
#elias_bejjani_news
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Bible Quotations For today
The Mustard Seed Parable & the Depth Of
Faith
Matthew 13/31-35: “Jesus put before them another parable: ‘The kingdom of heaven
is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in his field; it is the
smallest of all the seeds, but when it has grown it is the greatest of shrubs
and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its
branches.’He told them another parable: ‘The kingdom of heaven is like yeast
that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour until all of it was
leavened.’Jesus told the crowds all these things in parables; without a parable
he told them nothing. This was to fulfil what had been spoken through the
prophet: ‘I will open my mouth to speak in parables; I will proclaim what has
been hidden from the foundation of the world.’
Titles For The Latest English
LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on October
30-31/2025
Elias Bejjani/October 21/2025/ My X Account
The Annual Feast Day of the Apostles: Saints Simon and Jude/Elias Bejjani/October
28, 2025
Senator Lindsey Graham’s Response to Aoun’s Request for
the Lebanese Army Chief to Fight the Israeli Army
David Daoud/Israeli operations in
Lebanon against Hezbollah: October 20–26, 2025/FDD's Long War Journal
Lebanon’s president urges army to confront Israeli incursions, as drones violate
palace airspace
Lebanese president orders army to confront Israeli incursions after border raid
Israeli airstrikes target south Lebanon
Israeli raid kills municipal worker in southern town of Blida
Israel’s rising assaults — from Blida to Odaisseh: What comes next for Lebanon’s
fragile calm?
Report: Netanyahu, Katz to hold security talks on Lebanon, Egyptian efforts
Report: No positivity expected after Ortagus' visit
Army says asked Mechanism to stop Israel's attacks after Blida raid
Hezbollah lauds Aoun's stance on Blida attack, urges govt. to 'act differently'
Berri urges unity and support for Aoun after Israeli attacks
Diaspora voting debate intensifies: Deep political divisions emerge in Lebanon
ahead of elections
From airstrikes to ground operations: Tel Aviv shifts strategy on Lebanese front
UNIFIL condemns Israeli incursion in Blida, urges restraint
For Lebanon to move forward, Hezbollah must be disarmed/Khaled Abou Zahr/Arab
News/October 30, 2025
Titles For The Latest English LCCC
Miscellaneous Reports And News published
on October
30-31/2025
Israeli strikes pound Gaza, Hamas hands over 2 dead hostages
Residents of Gaza fear ceasefire collapse
Hamas hands over bodies of two Israeli hostages
Gaza aid delivery surges since ceasefire, but more NGO access needed: UN
US-led coordination center for Gaza expands to support ceasefire and aid
operations
Turkiye’s Erdogan to Merz: does Germany not see Israeli ‘genocide’ in Gaza?
Teenager dies during ultra-Orthodox protest in Jerusalem
Turkish disaster relief teams still awaiting Israeli go-ahead to enter Gaza
Vance says US nuclear arsenal needs testing to ensure proper functioning
Polish jets intercepted Russian aircraft over Baltic Sea, minister says
German FM raises return of refugees during Syria visit
Both sides in Sudan guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity, UN
fact-finding mission says/Ephrem Kossaify/Arab News/October 30, 2025
What the RSF’s slaughter of civilians in El-Fasher reveals about militia threat
to Sudan/Jonathan Gornall/Arab NewsOctober 30, 2025
UN Security Council condemns RSF assault on El-Fasher amid warnings of ‘blood on
the sand’ in Sudan/Ephrem Kossaify/Arab News/October 30, 2025
World shares, oil prices fall back after Trump-Xi meeting
King Charles III strips Prince Andrew of titles and evicts him from royal
residence
Titles For The Latest English LCCC
analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources
on October
30-31/2025
Egypt’s “Reconciliation Sessions”: The Terrorized Submit to the Terrorist/Coptic
Solidarity/Raymond Ibrahim/October 30/2025
Palestinians Still Prefer Hamas and 'Armed Struggle' Against Israel/Khaled Abu
Toameh/Gatestone Institute/October 30/2025
Nigeria's Genocide Against Christians 'Spreading Like a Cancer'/Uzay Bulut/Gatestone
Institute/October 30/2025
When It Comes To Africa, Genocide Seems To Be In The Eye Of The Beholder/Amb.
Alberto M. Fernandez/MEMRI//October 30/2025
Why Trump’s Israel ultimatum is a reassertion of US control/Dr. Ramzy Baroud/Arab
News/October 30/2025
Joint initiative is the most realistic hope of ending Sudan war/Dr. Majid
Rafizadeh/Arab News/October 30, 2025
Selected X Tweets for October 30/2025
The Latest English LCCC Lebanese &
Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on October
30-31/2025
Elias Bejjani/October 21/2025/ My X Account
Please be informed that my account on the X
platform has been suspended for reasons unknown to me. This is the fourth
account in five years to be arbitrarily suspended.
The Annual Feast Day of the Apostles: Saints Simon and
Jude
Elias Bejjani/October 28, 2025
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/2025/10/148612/
Today, the Catholic Church joyfully celebrates the Feast of the Apostles Saints
Simon and Jude — two steadfast pillars upon whom the foundation of Christ’s
Mystical Body was laid. Their names, forever linked in the Canon of the Mass,
symbolize an apostolic pairing united in mission, martyrdom, and eternal legacy.
Though historical details outside the New Testament remain scarce, their fervent
dedication to proclaiming the Gospel to the ends of the known world continues to
inspire the faithful across generations.
Who They Were and Their Early Lives
St. Jude, often referred to as “Judas, son of James,” or “Thaddeus” in the
Gospels to distinguish him from the traitor Judas Iscariot, was one of the close
“brethren” or kinsmen of Jesus. Through his father Cleophas (or Alphaeus), the
brother of St. Joseph, Jude was a first cousin of the Lord. Tradition holds that
he was born in Galilee around 10 AD.
St. Simon, uniquely identified as “the Zealot” (or “the Cananaean”), earned this
title either for his affiliation with the Jewish nationalist movement known as
the Zealots or for his passionate zeal for the Law. This distinction underscores
Christ’s unifying power, which brought together men of vastly different
backgrounds — such as Simon the Zealot and Matthew the tax collector — into His
circle of Apostles. Tradition suggests that Simon was also born in Galilee,
perhaps in Cana, around 5 AD.
The Apostolic Mission in Beirut and the East
After the Ascension of Jesus, the Apostles dispersed from Jerusalem to avoid
persecution and to fulfill their divine mandate: “Go therefore and make
disciples of all nations.” According to a strong tradition upheld in the Eastern
Churches — particularly the Syriac Orthodox and Maronite traditions — Saints
Peter, Simon, and Jude journeyed to Beirut (in present-day Lebanon).
There, Simon and Jude were said to have played a crucial role in establishing
the early Church, spending several years in Beirut. They are traditionally
credited with building the very first Christian church in the city. Local
tradition also holds that St. Peter was with them, organizing the first
ecclesiastical hierarchy — Patriarchs, Bishops, and Priests — and establishing
the early structure of the Holy Mass.
In this formative period, five major Patriarchal Sees were envisioned: Rome
(Vatican), Constantinople, Antioch, Jerusalem, and Alexandria.
Antioch, located in the Syrian region, was founded first, with St. Peter as its
initial Patriarch around 42 AD. He later moved to Rome around 54 AD. These
developments highlight the Levant — including Lebanon — as a vital center for
the early Church’s missionary and administrative life. Following their ministry
in Lebanon, Saints Simon and Jude continued eastward, spreading the Gospel in
Mesopotamia and Persia (modern-day Iraq and Iran), where they accomplished their
most celebrated missionary work.
Their Miracles and Enduring Patronage
The apostolic mission of Simon and Jude was accompanied by remarkable miracles.
A prominent tradition recounts St. Jude’s journey to King Abgar of Edessa, who
suffered from leprosy. At the king’s request, Jude brought him an image of
Christ — the Mandylion or Image of Edessa — through which the king was
miraculously healed. This act of mercy and intercession established St. Jude as
the Patron Saint of Desperate and Impossible Causes, a devotion that remains
widespread to this day.
In Persia, the two Apostles performed many wonders, casting out demons, healing
the sick, and converting multitudes to the faith. Their success, however,
provoked the anger of local pagan priests, ultimately leading to their
martyrdom.
Martyrdom, Relics, and the Legacy of Antioch
According to the most widely accepted account, Saints Simon and Jude suffered
martyrdom together in Persia around 65 AD. Yet, another ancient tradition —
deeply rooted in Lebanese Christianity — maintains that they were martyred in
Beirut, where they had first preached the Gospel.
The Beirut Tradition:
This account affirms that the two Apostles were buried beneath the altar of the
first church they founded in Beirut.
The Roman Relocation:
After the legalization of Christianity by Emperor Constantine, their relics were
transferred to Rome in the 4th century (c. 325 AD). Today, their remains rest
beneath the Altar of St. Joseph in the left transept of St. Peter’s Basilica in
the Vatican, sharing the sacred space with the Prince of the Apostles himself.
The Apostles Simon and Jude left an indelible mark on the foundation of the
universal Church. Through them, the Sacraments and the authentic teachings of
Christ were transmitted to the early Christian communities of the East.
The Patriarchal See of Antioch, first established by St. Peter and deeply
connected to their legacy, endured centuries of persecution. In 676 AD, St. John
Maron, the first Maronite Patriarch, relocated the See to the Monastery of St.
John Maroun in Kfarhay, Lebanon — the heart of Maronite Christianity. The
continuity of that apostolic line endures today in Bkerke, Lebanon, the current
seat of the Maronite Patriarch of Antioch and All the East.
Through their missionary zeal, miraculous works, and ultimate martyrdom, Saints
Simon and Jude stand as eternal witnesses to Christ’s truth. Their faith —
steadfast even to the shedding of their blood — laid the groundwork for
Christianity in the East and remains a luminous example of courage, unity, and
perseverance in the service of God.
*The author, Elias Bejjani, is a Lebanese expatriate activist
Author’s Email: Phoenicia@hotmail.com
Author’s Website:
https://eliasbejjaninews.com
Senator Lindsey Graham’s Response to Aoun’s Request for
the Lebanese Army Chief to Fight the Israeli Army
Xplatform/October 30/2025
To my friends in Lebanon, I understand being upset when innocent people are
killed or harmed by Israeli military operations designed to suppress Hezbollah,
a historical threat to the State of Israel. However, I firmly believe that
Israel’s military incursions into Lebanon are designed to suppress the
reemergence of Hezbollah -- a radical, Islamic terrorist organization tied to
Iran that has been threatening and attacking Israelis, Americans, and Lebanese
for decades. If Hezbollah were disarmed, Israel’s military actions would cease.
There have been encouraging statements coming from Lebanon about the desire to
disarm Hezbollah, turning over all weapons to the Lebanese military. These
statements need to be acted upon in a real way. The idea of the Lebanese
military joining forces with Hezbollah to combat Israel would put in jeopardy
everything that I and many others are trying to do to help Lebanon move forward.
David Daoud/Israeli operations in Lebanon against
Hezbollah: October 20–26, 2025/
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/2025/10/148687/
FDD's Long War Journal
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) conducted numerous operations throughout Lebanon
against Hezbollah between October 20 and October 26, 2025. Israel’s strikes this
week were noticeably more intense, targeting Hezbollah operatives and
infrastructure both north and south of the Litani River. According to the IDF,
the Hezbollah members it targeted and killed were involved in the group’s
regeneration efforts, including weapons procurement, and the restoration of its
military infrastructure. The IDF conducted operations in 21 Lebanese locales,
some more than once.
Lebanon’s president urges army to confront Israeli
incursions, as drones violate palace airspace
NAJIA HOUSSARI/Arab News/October 30, 2025
Municipal employee killed in the border town of Blida amid escalating attacks by
Israeli forces in violation of November 2024 ceasefire deal
Lebanese Army Command calls for truce monitors to take action to halt
violations; Hezbollah condemns attacks and praises President Joseph Aoun’s order
to army
BEIRUT: Attacks by the Israeli army on Lebanese territory escalated on Thursday,
prompting Lebanese President Joseph Aoun to order the army to confront such
aggression. Israeli forces carried out heavy airstrikes on the outskirts of
Aaichiyeh, Jarmaq and Khardale, and a municipal employee was killed in the
border town of Blida. The strikes followed an earlier raid by Israeli warplanes
on the village of Al-Labouneh, near the town of Naqoura, just 200 meters from a
Lebanese army position. The Israeli escalation coincided with intensive flyovers
at low altitude by Israeli warplanes that extended as far as Beirut and its
southern suburbs, even breaching airspace over the Presidential Palace in Baabda
and the prime minister’s office in the heart of the capital. The Israeli army
infiltrated the area around the town of Blida, about a kilometer from the
border, shortly before 4 a.m. on Thursday, in breach of the ceasefire agreement
between Beirut and Tel Aviv. The soldiers opened fire on a municipal building,
killing employee Ibrahim Salameh who was asleep in one of its rooms. Residents
told local media they heard screams and cries for help during the raid, which
lasted for several hours and ended around dawn when Israeli troops withdrew. An
Agence France-Presse journalist reported bullet holes in the walls and windows
of the room where Salameh had been sleeping, along with bloodstains and
scattered personal belongings. The Lebanese Army Command said: “Once notified of
the incursion and the shooting, an army patrol was dispatched to the location”
where it “determined that an enemy ground unit had entered the town, opened fire
on the municipal building, and targeted one of its employees.”It called on the
mechanism established for monitoring the cessation of hostilities agreement to
take action to end the ongoing violations of the ceasefire by Israel. “The
Israeli enemy’s actions constitute a criminal act, a blatant violation of
Lebanese sovereignty, and a breach of the cessation of hostilities agreement and
UN Security Council Resolution 1701,” the Army Command said. “These attacks
occur within the broader context of ongoing assaults against innocent civilians.
The enemy’s excuses are groundless, they only aim to legitimize its violations
against our nation and our citizens.”It added that it has been “monitoring the
enemy’s violations in coordination with” the UN Interim Force in Lebanon. The
situation in and around Blida remained tense later on Thursday, with residents
staging a protest on the town’s main road. When a UNIFIL patrol passed by,
locals blocked its path and forced it to retreat. A UNIFIL delegation arrived to
assess the situation, accompanied by the Lebanese army. However, residents
objected to the presence of the UN force in their town, citing its lack of
cooperation with the army during the Israeli incursion.
The escalation by Israeli forces appeared to take Lebanese authorities by
surprise, with one official source telling Arab News the incursion was a clear
breach of the peace accord between the two countries. “What happened was
unjustified and unexpected, and can only be interpreted as a violation of the
existing agreement, which Lebanon has been fully complying with,” the source
said.
In a forceful response during a meeting with the army commander, Gen. Rodolphe
Haykal, President Aoun directed the armed forces to confront any further Israeli
incursions into southern Lebanon. “This aggression, part of a series of Israeli
violations, came the day after the Mechanism Committee meeting, which is meant
to do more than record facts; it should pressure Israel to respect the Nov. 27
agreement and end its violations of Lebanese sovereignty,” Aoun said. Prime
Minister Nawaf Salam described the Israeli incursion and the killing of the
municipal employee as “a blatant attack on Lebanese state institutions and
sovereignty.”He emphasized “the steadfastness of the people of the south and
border villages in defending their land, and their right to live in safety and
dignity under the sovereignty and authority of the Lebanese state.”Salam
affirmed that Beirut continues “to exert pressure with the United Nations and
the countries sponsoring the cessation of hostilities agreement to ensure an end
to the repeated violations, and the implementation of a complete Israeli
withdrawal from our territory.” Hezbollah condemned what it described as a “new
Israeli crime” as the “Zionist enemy continues its series of crimes on Lebanese
territory,” and said Israeli forces “cold-bloodedly executed” Salameh while he
slept. The group accused the US of complicity in the Israeli aggression, saying
Washington had given “the green light to every Israeli escalation.” In a rare
consensus, Hezbollah called on the Lebanese state to adopt a unified and
responsible national stance against the aggression, and praised Aoun’s decision
to instruct the army to confront Israeli incursions. The Israeli military
confirmed the operation in Blida took place. It said forces had been targeting
Hezbollah infrastructure in the area and fired on a “suspect” after identifying
an “immediate threat.” It said the incident was under review, and accused
Hezbollah of using the municipal building “for terrorist activity under the
guise of civilian infrastructure.”Avichai Adraee, a spokesperson for the Israeli
army added: “This is yet another example of Hezbollah's modus operandi, which
endangers the Lebanese population by cynically exploiting civilian facilities
for terrorist purposes.”The presence of “terrorist infrastructure” in the area
constitutes a violation of the understandings between Israel and Lebanon, he
said. In a separate strike early on Thursday, Israeli forces blew up a hall used
for religious ceremonies in the nearby border village of Adaisseh, Lebanon’s
National News Agency reported. Israel has repeatedly violated the ceasefire
agreement through incursions into Lebanese territory, causing tensions to rise
in the region. The death toll since the peace deal between Lebanon and Israel
came into effect nearly a year ago stands at about 390. The majority of those
killed were Hezbollah members and the remainder civilians, including women and
children.
Lebanese president orders army to confront Israeli
incursions after border raid
Reuters/30 October/2025
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun instructed the army on Thursday to confront any
Israeli incursion into southern Lebanon after Israeli forces crossed the border
overnight and killed a municipal employee, despite a US-brokered ceasefire.
Lebanon’s army has historically stayed on the sidelines of major conflicts with
Israel, and has not confronted its military in recent months. But in a sign of
the strains on the ceasefire, Israeli warplanes flew over the presidential
palace in Beirut, according to a witness, shortly after Aoun’s first order for
the army to engage Israeli troops since he became president in January. Lebanese
militant group Hezbollah, which fought Israel for more than a year after the
Gaza war erupted in October, 2023, expressed support for the president’s call.
Israel has continued airstrikes and limited ground operations in Lebanese
territory since the ceasefire. It says its actions are intended to prevent
Hezbollah from rebuilding its military presence in the south, while Lebanon
accuses Israel of violating the truce.
Hezbollah’s pledge of support
On Thursday morning, Israeli troops entered the border town of Blida and fired
at the municipality building, killing a worker there, the Lebanese army said in
a statement, calling it “a criminal act” and a violation of the ceasefire
agreement. The Lebanese state news agency (NNA) identified the worker as Ibrahim
Salameh, who had been sleeping there. It was not immediately clear whether
Salameh had been deliberately targeted and if so, why he would be. The Israeli
military said its forces had opened fire in Blida after identifying “an
immediate threat” during an operation to destroy Hezbollah infrastructure. The
incident was under review, it added. Aoun asked army commander General Rudolph
Haykal “to have the Lebanese army confront any Israeli incursion into the
liberated southern territories, in defense of Lebanese lands and the safety of
citizens,” a statement from the presidency said.
Hezbollah, which Aoun has been urging to disarm under US pressure in line with
the ceasefire deal, said it valued his orders and called for support for the
army in confronting Israel. It did not specify from where the support would
come.“Hezbollah urges full support for the army with all available capabilities
to enhance its defensive strength and provide it with the necessary political
cover to confront this savage enemy,” the group said in a statement.
Hezbollah rejects the pressure for it to disarm.
Call on ceasefire monitoring to do more
After deploying to the site at 4 a.m. the Lebanese army found no military
infrastructure in the building and saw pockmarks indicating Israeli troops had
fired heavily from outside the building, a Lebanese security official said. A
senior Lebanese security official told Reuters Salameh’s body was found in his
pajamas in a pool of blood on the floor, with several gunshot wounds to his
body. Aoun condemned the attack as part of a pattern of Israeli aggression and
said it was launched shortly after a meeting of an international ceasefire
monitoring committee that is chaired by the US. He urged the committee to go
beyond recording violations and to press Israel to abide by the November 27,
2024, ceasefire agreement and halt its breaches of Lebanese sovereignty. The
United Nations peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon said it was seeking more
information on the incident.
Israel had already dealt powerful blows to Hezbollah during the war, killing the
group’s senior leaders.
Israeli airstrikes target south Lebanon
Naharnet/October 30, 2025
Israeli airstrikes on Thursday targeted the hills of al-Jarmaq and al-Mahmoudiyeh
near the Jezzine district town of al-Aishiyeh. The Israeli army said the strikes
targeted "Hezbollah terrorist infrastructure, including a launcher and tunnel
shaft in the area of Mahmoudiyeh in southern Lebanon." Separately, the National
News Agency said an Israeli drone strike hit an area 200 meters away from a
Lebanese Army post in the al-Labbouneh area in Naqoura, shortly after warplanes
waged a strike nearby. Hezbollah’s al-Manar television meanwhile said that “the
sound that was heard in al-Labbouneh near Naqoura resulted from the Lebanese
Army's detonation of unexploded ordnance.”An Israeli drone strike later targeted
the public road in the southern town of Harouf, causing a minor injury, as
another strike hit a shepherd’s house in Shebaa and caused casualties, NNA said.
Israeli drones meanwhile resumed their overflights above Beirut and its southern
suburbs while Israeli warplanes were spotted flying at a high altitude over
Beirut.
Israeli raid kills municipal worker in southern town of
Blida
Agence France Presse/Associated Press/October 30, 2025
Israeli troops killed a Lebanese municipal worker on Thursday during a raid on a
border village in the south, state media reported. The incident in the town of
Blida sparked condemnation by Lebanese officials and a protest by residents. The
Israeli army said in a statement that the soldiers had entered to “destroy
terrorist infrastructure” belonging to Hezbollah and “identified a suspect”
inside the building who they attempted to apprehend. It said they had fired to
“neutralize a threat” and that the details of the incident were under
investigation. It also accused Hezbollah of using the building "for terrorist
activity under the guise of civilian infrastructure."Despite a November 2024
ceasefire, Israel maintains troops in five areas in southern Lebanon and has
kept up regular air strikes, which have recently intensified. However, raids by
ground forces like the one in Blida are rare. "In a grave and unprecedented
attack, an Israeli enemy force penetrated the village of Blida at nearly 1:30
am, more than one kilometer from the border, supported by a number of vehicles,"
Lebanon's official National News Agency (NNA) reported. "The force stormed the
Blida municipality building, where employee Ibrahim Salameh was sleeping, and
enemy soldiers proceeded to kill him," it said.
Village residents cited by NNA said the raid lasted several hours, and that
Israeli forces withdrew at dawn. The state-run National News Agency reported
that the Israeli forces had entered the village around 1:30 a.m. and stormed the
municipality building, where Salameh was sleeping. Salameh “usually slept in the
municipality,” said Tahsin Kaour, a local official. “He heard a noise outside
suddenly and went to the window to see what was going on, and they shot
him.”Lebanese officials say Israel’s strikes often harm civilians and destroy
infrastructure unrelated to Hezbollah and have called for Israeli forces to
withdraw.
Residents in Blida expressed anger toward the Lebanese Army and the United
Nations peacekeeping force known as UNIFIL, who they said were failing to
protect civilians. Residents confronted UNIFIL peacekeepers who arrived in the
village Thursday morning and asked them to leave. “We want the government to
protect us, to protect the people, for the Lebanese Army to protect us,” Kaour
said. In the nearby border village of Adaisseh, NNA reported that Israeli forces
blew up a hall for religious ceremonies at dawn.
An AFP journalist saw bullet holes in the walls and windows of the municipal
building in Blida. In the room where Salameh had been sleeping, the floor,
blankets and mattress were stained with blood, with the victim's glasses, papers
and cigarettes scattered around.
Salameh had been sleeping in the building because he was on duty, said the mayor
of Blida, where most houses were destroyed during last year's war between Israel
and Hezbollah. "We heard Israeli soldiers shout, then there were gunshots,"
Hisham Abdel Latif Hassan, Salameh's nephew, told AFP. After Israeli soldiers
withdrew, "we found him dead near his mattress". Over the past days, Israel has
stepped up its strikes on Lebanon, often saying it is targeting Hezbollah
positions. On Tuesday, the spokesman for the U.N. rights commission, Jeremy
Laurence, said Israeli forces had killed 111 civilians in Lebanon since the
ceasefire went into effect. Hezbollah was badly weakened during more than a year
of conflict with Israel, and the United States has intensified pressure on
Lebanese authorities to disarm the group. On Wednesday, during a meeting of the
ceasefire's monitors in the Lebanese border city of Naqoura, U.S. envoy Morgan
Ortagus said Washington welcomed the "decision to bring all weapons under state
control by the end of the year".The Lebanese army "must now fully implement its
plan", she added.
Israel’s rising assaults — from Blida to Odaisseh: What comes next for Lebanon’s
fragile calm?
LBCI/October 30, 2025
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israel are paying little attention
to what is being said or happening in Lebanon, particularly regarding
Hezbollah’s weapons, as Israel’s top priority remains its own security, in full
coordination with the U.S. In this context, and in the wake of U.S. envoy Morgan
Ortagus’ talks in Beirut, Israel continued its assaults on Lebanon, carrying out
several incursions and operations in recent hours. One of the most notable was
in Blida, where Israeli forces attacked the municipal building, killing Ibrahim
Salameh, a staff member there. Israeli troops also advanced into Odaisseh, where
they detonated a building, while Israeli warplanes struck what they described as
Hezbollah “sites and infrastructure” in the Jarmaq-Mahmoudiyeh area. The
escalation came shortly after Ortagus’ remarks in Beirut, where she said
Washington welcomed the Lebanese government’s decision to place all weapons
under state control by the end of the year. The Lebanese army “must now fully
implement its plan,” she added. Her statement appeared to signal U.S. pressure
on the Lebanese government to accelerate implementation of the disarmament plan
before the year’s end, even though the army’s initial timeline extended over a
longer period, potentially up to a year. Lebanese officials were reportedly
surprised by the comments, noting that Ortagus had not mentioned any specific
deadline during her meetings and had instead focused on the area south of the
Litani River. American sources, however, said Ortagus’ remarks should not raise
concerns, explaining that she was merely reiterating the Lebanese government’s
own commitment — a decision that has not been rescinded and must be enforced.
The sources added that Washington continues to push for calm in southern Lebanon
while acknowledging that Israel’s security remains its top priority. As such,
even the United States cannot restrict Israel’s freedom to act against any
development it perceives as a threat.
Report: Netanyahu, Katz to hold security talks on Lebanon,
Egyptian efforts
Naharnet/October 30, 2025
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz will
hold a meeting with top security officials on Thursday evening to discuss “the
latest developments on the border with Lebanon in addition to Hezbollah’s
growing threats,” an Israeli media report said. “Discussions in the meeting will
not only focus on facing the threats coming from the north, but also on the
growing Egyptian role in Lebanon,” Israel’s i24 NEWS reported.
It noted that “Egypt’s intelligence chief arrived in Beirut two days ago, only a
week after he met with Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu and Israeli Shin Bet
(internal security) chief David Zini as part of a diplomatic tour aimed at
boosting regional stability.”
Report: No positivity expected after Ortagus' visit
Naharnet/October 30, 2025
The initial outcome of the meetings and talks of the past 48 hours indicates
that Lebanon will face a wave of political pressures and increased Israeli
attacks, al-Akhbar newspaper reported on Thursday. U.S. envoy Morgan Ortagus’
visit to Lebanon “did not carry anything new as to expecting any change in the
Israeli behavior,” sources in contact with the U.S. capital told the daily.
Ortagus told the Lebanese official she met with that “Lebanon has not honored
what President Joseph Aoun and PM Nawaf Salam have pledged” and that “the
Lebanese Army is not doing everything in its capacity to disarm Hezbollah,” the
sources said.“Although Ortagus urged against counting on the arrival of the new
U.S. ambassador, noting that he lacks a sufficient political expertise, she
emphasized that the U.S. concern today is focused on convincing Lebanon that
direct negotiations with Israel represent the best gateway for addressing the
pending files,” the sources added.
Army says asked Mechanism to stop Israel's attacks after
Blida raid
Naharnet/October 30, 2025
The Lebanese Army said Thursday that a military patrol headed to the southern
border town of Blida after receiving information about gunfire in the vicinity
of the municipality building. “It turned out that an (Israeli) enemy unit had
made an incursion into the town and opened fire at the municipality building,
targeting one of its employees which resulted in his martyrdom,” the army added.
“What the Israeli enemy committed is a criminal act, a blatant violation of
Lebanese sovereignty and a breach of the cessation of hostilities agreement and
Resolution 1701. It also comes as part of the continuous attacks by the Israeli
enemy against unarmed citizens and the flimsy claims and excuses that the enemy
is launching are totally baseless and aimed at justifying its violations against
our country and citizens,” the army said. It added that it has asked the
U.S.-led Mechanism ceasefire monitoring committee to “put an end to the Israeli
enemy’s aggravated violations,” adding that the Army Command is “continuously
following up on the enemy’s violations with the United Nations Interim Force in
Lebanon (UNIFIL).”
Hezbollah lauds Aoun's stance on Blida attack, urges govt.
to 'act differently'
Associated Press/October 30, 2025
Hezbollah on Thursday condemned the "cold blooded" killing of a Blida
municipality worker in an Israeli ground incursion, commending President Joseph
Aoun for instructing the army to confront such raids. Charging that “the Zionist
aggression against our country is happening with U.S. partnership and
collusion,” Hezbollah said Washington grants the green light to “every Israeli
escalation and every aggression with the aim of pressuring Lebanon to implement
a malicious agenda and schemes that do not serve its national interest and do
not preserve its sovereignty and strength elements.”Hezbollah also called for
“supporting the army with all the necessary assets to boost its defense
capabilities and provide the political cover for confronting this brutal enemy,”
urging the government to “take steps that are different than what it did over
the past 11 months and to shoulders its responsibilities by adopting a political
and diplomatic plan to halt the attacks.”Prime Minister Nawaf Salam meanwhile
said in a statement that Lebanese authorities are “following up to pressure the
United Nations and the countries sponsoring the cessation of hostilities
agreement to ensure a halt to the repeated violations and the implementation of
a complete Israeli withdrawal from our lands.”
Berri urges unity and support for Aoun after Israeli
attacks
Naharnet/October 30, 2025
Speaker Nabih Berri on Thursday condemned the Israeli incursion and the killing
in “cold blood” of a municipal worker in the southern border town of Blida. He
also deplored the blowing up of a Shiite religious hall in Adaisseh. “What
happened in Blida and Adaisseh, the aerial attack in the morning on the outsirts
of the towns of al-Aishiyeh, al-Jarmaq and al-Khardali, and the violation of the
airspace of the capital Beirut and its southern suburbs are actions … that
constitute an aggression against Lebanon that cannot be reined in with
condemnations,” Berri said in a statement. “The current moment requires all
Lebanese to show unity and support the president and his latest stance over what
happened today,” Berri added. President Joseph Aoun had earlier in the day
instructed Army chief General Rodolphe Haykal to “confront any Israeli incursion
into Lebanon,” in the wake of the deadly Blida ground raid.
Diaspora voting debate intensifies: Deep political
divisions emerge in Lebanon ahead of elections
LBCI/October 30, 2025
Once again, Lebanon’s Cabinet has postponed a decision on two draft amendments
to the parliamentary elections law, effectively sidestepping the issue. The
first draft, submitted by Foreign Minister Youssef Rajji, proposes canceling the
six parliamentary seats allocated to Lebanese expatriates and instead allowing
them to vote from abroad for their home districts in Lebanon. The second,
introduced by Interior Minister Ahmad al-Hajjar, seeks to replace the
yet-to-be-implemented magnetic voting card with a QR code system.
Ministerial sources told LBCI that during Wednesday’s session, President Joseph
Aoun initially pushed for referring one of the drafts to Parliament. However, a
heated debate quickly broke out between ministers from Hezbollah and the Amal
Movement — who insisted on maintaining the current law and electing the six
expatriate MPs — and ministers from the Lebanese Forces, who strongly supported
granting expatriates the right to vote for their districts from abroad. At one
point, reportedly even threatening to withdraw from the session. Faced with the
impasse, President Aoun decided to postpone the matter and return it to the
ministerial committee for further study — a move also supported by Prime
Minister Nawaf Salam. With political blocs deeply divided, questions remain
about whether the ministerial committee can reach a compromise or if the impasse
will continue into next week. According to several ministers, the answer is
clearly no. So why waste time amid such deep divisions? To that, there is no
clear answer. The prime minister insists on studying a solution within the
ministerial committee, which was formed on June 16 and recently joined by Deputy
Prime Minister Tarek Mitri. So far, the options under consideration are adopting
Rajji’s proposal, adopting al-Hajjar’s proposal, or merging the two. In either
case, ministers acknowledge that the main obstacle lies with Parliament Speaker
Nabih Berri, who refuses to place any proposal allowing expatriates to vote from
abroad on Parliament’s agenda. This raises a question many are asking: What
about a third option — canceling the six seats allocated to expatriates and
eliminating the right of expatriates to vote from abroad, on the premise that
anyone wishing to vote must do so in Lebanon? This proposal is reportedly the
most widely discussed behind the scenes. It does not provoke opposition from
Hezbollah and the Amal Movement, nor is it rejected by the Lebanese Forces and
their allies. It may be the only viable solution to ensure parliamentary
elections are held on schedule — a goal strongly supported by both the president
and the prime minister.
From airstrikes to ground operations: Tel Aviv shifts
strategy on Lebanese front
LBCI/October 30, 2025
Israel seeks to legitimize its army’s incursions into Lebanon — the latest of
which occurred in the towns of Blida and Odaisseh — under the pretext that these
operations are part of a military plan to ensure the security of Israel and its
northern residents. These operations are no longer limited to airstrikes. This
development places the border front with Lebanon on the brink of escalating
violence — a matter discussed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with Defense
Minister Israel Katz, senior security officials, and military commanders, as Tel
Aviv believes it now faces a decisive point regarding its next steps toward
Lebanon. As tensions rise, Tel Aviv is reportedly seeking a possible diplomatic
breakthrough to ease the situation. An Israeli military official revealed that
recent security discussions also covered talks held in Lebanon by Egypt’s
intelligence chief, only a week after his meetings in Tel Aviv with Netanyahu
and Shin Bet head David Zini.
Netanyahu signals caution on security deal with Syria amid military buildup on
Lebanese front
On the ground, the Israeli army continued its threats toward Lebanon, stating
that it will not only keep destroying Hezbollah’s infrastructure but also target
anyone it deems an immediate threat to its soldiers — whether along the border
or at five designated sites.
Middle East expert Professor Amatzia Baram warned that failure to act — either
through a decisive military operation against Hezbollah or a diplomatic effort
to calm tensions — could lead to a sudden and dangerous escalation along the
border. Meanwhile, the Israeli army maintains a high level of readiness,
deploying additional troops and armored vehicles along the frontier. Military
discussions reportedly focus on intensifying operations and carrying out ground
incursions with U.S. approval, under the pretext of weakening Hezbollah’s
capabilities — a move that once again puts northern Israeli towns, including
Galilee and Haifa, at risk of renewed attacks.
UNIFIL condemns Israeli incursion in Blida, urges restraint
LBCI/October 30, 2025
The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) expressed deep concern
Thursday over an earlier Israeli armed incursion in Blida, southern Lebanon.
UNIFIL described the action, which took place north of the Blue Line, as a
“blatant violation” of Security Council Resolution 1701 and Lebanon’s
sovereignty. The force reiterated its call for all parties to fully respect the
cessation of hostilities and emphasized that extending state authority through
Lebanon’s institutions remains central to Resolution 1701. UNIFIL said it
continues to communicate with the Lebanese Armed Forces regarding the incident.
For Lebanon to move forward, Hezbollah must be disarmed
Khaled Abou Zahr/Arab News/October 30, 2025
An unusual incident took place recently between the Israeli army and UNIFIL, the
UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon. UNIFIL shot down an IDF drone, saying that it
displayed aggressive behavior. This followed Israel’s stepping up of targeted
strikes in Lebanon in an effort to increase military and political pressure on
the country, the main goal being the disarmament of Hezbollah. Following the
last intense round of strikes, which decapitated the Iranian proxy, Hezbollah’s
disarmament was highlighted when hostilities stopped in November 2024, and
Israel is now losing patience.
At the time, Lebanon’s caretaker Prime Minister, Najib Mikati, clearly stated
that the implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1701 in its entirety,
without any amendments, was a priority. As a reminder, the 1701 resolution is
what ended the 2006 war. So, in short, we have a double-dipping resolution to
stop the war, but Hezbollah is still armed. Moreover, despite the plans from the
Lebanese government, and US diplomats from Tom Barrack to Morgan Ortagus mixing
carrot and stick, the Lebanese government and armed forces are still unable to
disarm the Iranian proxy. The Palestinian factions were disarmed — the first
step — but then everything stopped. There has been substantial international
support for the Lebanese Army to accomplish this. In October 2025, the US
approved a $230 million aid package for Lebanon’s security forces, which
included $190 million for the Lebanese Armed Forces and $40 million for the
Internal Security Forces. Moreover, the Pentagon approved in September another
$14.2 million in explosives and demining equipment to help the army “reduce
Hezbollah’s capabilities.” Qatar pledged $60 million and 162 military vehicles
to support stability and border control, while France committed €100 million
($116 million), Germany €95 million, and the UK at least £15 million ($20
million) to strengthen Lebanon’s military capabilities. Also, Lebanon has
requested the reactivation of a $3 billion aid package from Saudi Arabia,
previously halted in 2016.
This should be a national priority.
Despite this support, it is still unclear whether the army and the new
leadership in Lebanon will move forward with the plan. Yet, what is clear is
that there is little chance of Lebanon exiting the crisis if it does not. I have
been quite surprised by most of the intellectuals and influential voices in
Lebanon, who, while they condemn Israeli strikes, have not once stood for the
sovereignty of the country and demanded that Hezbollah disarm. They have all
stood silent on this.
While the reality is that this is the main cause of instability for Lebanon,
most of the people I present with this argument answer by telling me that even
if Hezbollah disarms, the Israelis will continue finding reasons to strike
Lebanon. I disagree, but regardless of my opinion, this has to do with the
sovereignty of the country and the need for the state to have a monopoly on
weapons. It is a question of not having a group or party capable of threatening
the entire nation and its citizens. And so most are stuck in a complete
schizophrenia where they chant for the army, but not once demand that Hezbollah
disarm. This should be a national priority regardless of Israel. Hezbollah has
weakened our institutions enough. It is time to stop that. We are hence faced
with two possibilities. The first is that there is no political will to disarm.
A candid explanation — there is a more cynical one — would be the fear of
pushing the country into another civil war. And the second is that the army does
not currently have the capacity to disarm Hezbollah. In both scenarios, there is
still something it can do, and it should at least rally the people to this plan.
Moreover, any politician or political formation that pushes for the status quo
or keeping things the same needs to be confronted. Lebanon lost a golden
opportunity in 2005; it cannot lose it again today. We have been stuck for too
long in a cycle of destruction, and this cannot continue. It is nevertheless
worth mentioning that the LAF has been the recipient of US military aid of
anywhere between $100 million and $200 million since 2006, which puts it at a
total of $3.2 billion. Now, in the past, the political will was not there. Let
us hope this has changed today. I believe we all know which scenario Israel
believes is happening today. On the other hand, President Joseph Aoun has
recently highlighted to the US that the army has been abiding by the agreement
of disarmament south of the Litani River as it clears areas under its control,
uncovers tunnels, and seizes weapons and ammunition despite the challenging
geography. Will this be enough to make the Israelis more patient? It is
doubtful. Israel will strike any Hezbollah target that could one day threaten
its security. Nothing will stop that, not even UNIFIL trying to take down
Israeli drones. Ultimately, it is about moving forward, and there is no doubt
that there is sufficient Arab and international support to do so. The Lebanese
political establishment needs to stand united for the sovereignty of the country
before anything else. This is what will change the country’s path and open it to
stability and prosperity. It is time for a bold and strong move, as the grace
period the country has enjoyed is about to end.
**Khaled Abou Zahr is the founder of SpaceQuest Ventures, a space-focused
investment platform. He is CEO of EurabiaMedia and editor of Al-Watan Al-Arabi
The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published
on October
30-31/2025
Israeli strikes pound Gaza, Hamas hands over 2 dead
hostages
Reuters/October 30, 2025
CAIRO/GAZA: Israeli planes and tanks pounded areas in eastern Gaza on Thursday,
Palestinian residents and witnesses said, a day after Israel said it remained
committed to a US-backed ceasefire despite launching more lethal bombardments in
the territory.
Witnesses said Israeli planes carried out 10 airstrikes in areas east of Khan
Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, while tanks shelled areas east of Gaza City
in the north. No injuries or deaths were reported. The Israeli military said it
carried out “precise” strikes against “terrorist infrastructure that posed a
threat to the troops” in the areas, which Israel still occupies. The strikes
were the latest test of the fragile ceasefire that came into effect on October
10 in the conflict between Israel and Hamas.
Residents of Gaza fear ceasefire collapse
Reuters/AP/October 30, 2025
CAIRO: Israeli planes and tanks pounded areas in eastern Gaza on Thursday,
Palestinian residents and witnesses said, a day after Israel said it remained
committed to a US-backed ceasefire despite launching more lethal bombardments in
the territory. Witnesses said Israeli planes carried out 10 airstrikes in areas
east of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, while tanks shelled areas east
of Gaza City in the north. No injuries or deaths were reported. The Israeli
military said it carried out “precise” strikes against “terrorist infrastructure
that posed a threat to the troops” in the areas, which Israel still occupies.
The strikes were the latest test of the fragile ceasefire that came into effect
on Oct. 10 in the conflict between Israel and Hamas. “We’re scared that another
war will break out, because we don’t want a war. We’ve been displaced for two
years. We don’t know where to go or where to come,” said a displaced man, Fathi
Al-Najjar, in Khan Younis in southern Gaza. At the tent encampment where Najjar
spoke, girls and boys were filling plastic bottles with water from metal
containers along the street, and women were cooking for their families in
clay-made firewood ovens.
People in the Gaza Strip, most of whom had been reduced to wasteland, feared the
tenuous truce would fall apart, saying that the last two days, in which they
were deprived of sleep, felt like a revival of the two-year war. “The situation
is extremely difficult. The war is still ongoing, and we have no hope that it
will end, because of the conditions we are witnessing in the life we are
living,” said Mohammed Al-Sheikh. Israel’s military said on Thursday that
militants handed over two coffins containing the remains of dead hostages to the
Red Cross in Gaza. The latest handover is an indication that the ceasefire
agreement is moving forward despite the Israeli strikes. The recovery and
handover of bodies of hostages in Gaza has been one of the obstacles to US
President Donald Trump’s Gaza plan, with Israel claiming that Hamas has been
delaying the handover, an accusation Hamas denies. From Tuesday into Wednesday,
Israel retaliated for the death of an Israeli soldier with bombardments that
Gaza health authorities said killed 104 people. Witnesses in Gaza said they did
not see strikes on Thursday outside of the area Israel controls. Israel says the
soldier was killed in an attack by gunmen on territory within the so-called
“yellow line” to which its troops withdrew under the ceasefire. Hamas has
rejected the accusation. The Israeli military issued a list of 26 militants it
said it had targeted during the bombardment earlier this week, including one it
said was a Hamas commander who participated in the Oct. 7, 2023, assault on
Israel that ignited the war. The Gaza government media office said Israel’s list
was part of a “systematic campaign of misinformation” to cover up “crimes
against civilians in Gaza.”The Gaza Health Ministry said 46 children and 20
women were among the 104 people killed in the airstrikes. The war has displaced
most of Gaza’s more than 2 million people in Gaza, some of them several times.
Many have not yet returned to their areas, fearing they could soon be displaced
once again. Gaza health authorities say 68,000 people are confirmed killed in
the Israeli campaign, and thousands more are missing.
Hamas hands over bodies of two Israeli hostages
Reuters/30 October/2025
Palestinian militant group Hamas handed over two bodies it said were of deceased
Israeli hostages on Thursday, a day after the tenuous Gaza ceasefire was shaken
by a series of deadly Israeli strikes across the enclave. The office of Israeli
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that the two bodies had been received by
Israeli forces via the Red Cross in Gaza and will be transported into Israel for
identification. Under the ceasefire accord, Hamas released all living hostages
in return for nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and wartime detainees, while
Israel pulled back its troops, halted its offensive and increased aid into the
enclave. Hamas also agreed to hand over the remains of all 28 dead hostages in
exchange for 360 Palestinian militants killed in the war. Up to Thursday it had
handed over 15 bodies. Israel says Hamas has been too slow to hand over the
remaining bodies of hostages still in Gaza. Hamas says it will take time to
locate and retrieve all of the remains. Families of some of the hostages are
desperate to provide a proper burial for their loved ones and fear their remains
will be lost forever beneath the ruins of Gaza. Thousands of Palestinians
believed to be dead are still missing amid the vast destruction.
Major obstacles to Trump’s plan
The dispute over the recovery and handover of bodies of hostages has been one of
the difficulties complicating US President Donald Trump’s plan to end the Gaza
war for good. Numerous major obstacles still lie ahead, including the future
administration of Gaza and the demand for Hamas to disarm. At the same time, the
sides have been trading blame for violating the truce. From Tuesday into
Wednesday, Israel retaliated for a Palestinian attack on its troops which left
one soldier dead with bombardments that Gaza health authorities said killed 104
people. The Gaza health ministry said 46 children and 20 women were among the
104 people killed in the airstrikes. Israel said its strikes had targeted dozens
of militants.
More airstrikes on Thursday
Witnesses said Israeli planes carried out 10 airstrikes in areas east of Khan
Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, while tanks shelled areas east of Gaza City
in the north before dawn on Thursday. No casualties were reported. The Israeli
military said it carried out “precise” strikes against “terrorist infrastructure
that posed a threat to the troops” in the areas of Gaza where its forces are
still deployed.Gaza residents said they feared a resumption of hostilities.
“We’re scared that another war will break out, because we don’t want a war.
We’ve suffered two years of displacement. We don’t know where to go or where to
come,” said a displaced man, Fathi Al-Najjar, in Khan Younis in southern Gaza.
At the tent encampment where Najjar spoke, girls and boys were filling plastic
bottles with water from metal containers placed on the side of the street, and
women cooked food for their families using clay-made firewood ovens. The war has
displaced most of Gaza’s more than two million people, some of them several
times. Many haven’t yet returned to their areas, fearing they could soon be
displaced once again.
Gaza aid delivery surges since ceasefire, but more NGO
access needed: UN
AFP/30 October/2025
More than 24,000 tons of UN aid has reached Gaza since the start of a ceasefire
earlier this month, a UN official said on Thursday while calling for NGOs to be
allowed to assist in its distribution. While aid volumes are significantly up
compared to the period before the ceasefire, humanitarians still face funding
shortfalls, the UN says, as well as issues coordinating with Israeli
authorities. “Starting from the ceasefire, we brought over 24,000 metric tonnes
of aid through all the crossings, and we have restarted both community- and
household-based (aid) distributions,” said the UN Resident Coordinator Office’s
deputy special coordinator for the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Ramiz
Alakbarov. The World Food Program’s Middle East regional director Samer
AbdelJaber said in 20 days of scale-up following the ceasefire they “have
collected about 20,000 metric tons of food inside Gaza.”Gaza is still in the
grip of a dire humanitarian crisis following Israel’s devastating offensive on
the Palestinian enclave, which has left tens of thousands of people dead and
reduced much of its critical infrastructure and housing to rubble. Looting in
the coastal Strip was also considerably down, Alakbarov added, easing the
distribution of aid. “I’m very proud to say that 15 outpatient therapeutical
program sites have been made operational, including eight new sites in the
north, with a very commendable effort by UNICEF,” Alakbarov said. “The
implementation of the 20-point (US peace) plan remains to be the central point
and the central condition for us to be able to deliver humanitarian assistance
in a holistic manner,” Alakbarov said. He called on Israel to allow NGOs to
participate in the delivery of aid in Gaza. “The persisting issue of
registration of NGOs remains to be a bottleneck issue. We continue to emphasize
the essential role of NGOs and national NGOs, which they play in humanitarian
operations in Gaza, and we have escalated this now,” he said. The US military
has set up a coordination center in southern Israel to monitor the ceasefire and
to coordinate aid and reconstruction, but aid agencies are pushing for greater
access for humanitarian convoys inside Gaza. Israel has withdrawn its forces
from Gaza’s main cities, but still controls around half of the territory from
positions on the Yellow Line, and has resisted calls to allow aid through the
Rafah border crossing with Egypt. “The good news is that because of the US
brokered ceasefire, we are now getting in a lot more aid than we were able to
get in before, we are scaling up as part of our 60-day, life-saving plan,” said
UN humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher in a pre-recorded message. “This is real
progress, but it’s a drop in the ocean. It’s just a start of what we’re going to
need to do,” Fletcher said that only one-third of the $4 billion flash appeal
has been funded.
US-led coordination center for Gaza expands to support
ceasefire and aid operations
Joseph Haboush - Al Arabiya English/October 30, 2025
CENTCOM Spokesman Capt. Tim Hawkins told Al Arabiya English that participation
“grows every day as partners continue to arrive.”He deferred to participating
countries to announce their involvement, but pointed to the UK’s announcement of
its participation. This includes a deputy commander and a small number of UK
planning officers. The center, located outside Gaza, serves as a joint platform
to facilitate aid delivery, oversee ceasefire compliance, and plan future
stabilization efforts. Hawkins described it as “an open door to historic
possibilities for lasting peace,” crediting the US-brokered ceasefire deal for
making it possible. “It’s upon the various parties to take advantage of this
historic opportunity and walk through that door. We’ve opened it, and we have
stood up [the CMCC] to help facilitate a process through which as much
humanitarian, logistical security assistance can flow into Gaza as possible, as
quickly as possible, where it’s needed,” he added.
Rapid setup and expanding role
Negotiators had originally estimated it would take 17 days to establish the
center, but it was opened just five days after the agreement was signed on
October 13. By October 24, Hawkins said, the CMCC was operating at “full speed”
with partner integration and daily coordination between military, NGO, and
international representatives. Hawkins emphasized the pace reflects the priority
Washington has placed on creating mechanisms for sustained peace and stability
in Gaza, adding: “We established the center, and now you see the international
community responding in kind.”
Examples of on-the-ground coordination
As evidence of the center’s early impact, the CENTCOM spokesman cited Egypt’s
recent deployment of search teams to locate and recover the remains of Israeli
hostages. That mission, he said, was organized through the CMCC after
coordination identified both the needs and resources required. “They’re already
on the ground doing the hard work,” Hawkins said, calling it “critical to
keeping the ceasefire in place.”Hawkins stressed that the CMCC’s approach relies
heavily on dialogue and verification when potential violations occur. “It’s
important to continue to have discussions and understand what is happening on
the ground, separate fact from fiction, and also to discuss the best steps
forward toward bringing about progress,” he said. “Obviously, it’s a very
dynamic and delicate situation transitioning from two years of conflict toward a
situation where you’re looking to have lasting peace is not easy.”
Asked about the next phase, particularly the introduction of an international
stabilization force (ISF) to take on security in Gaza, Hawkins confirmed
planning discussions were underway but had no further details. “Planning
discussions are ongoing.”Citing US officials, Axios reported on Thursday that US
officials had held holding “sensitive conversations” with several countries
potentially being involved with the security force and plans on presenting a
more concrete plan in the next few weeks. Israel has expressed opposition to
some countries sending troops, including Turkey. “The Israelis are nervous and
skeptical because they are not in control, and they don’t have the cards
anymore. We told them, ‘Let’s create the right circumstances and see if Hamas is
serious or not,’” one US official was quoted as telling Axios.
Turkiye’s Erdogan to Merz: does Germany not see Israeli ‘genocide’ in Gaza?
Reuters/October 30, 2025
ANKARA: Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan criticized Germany over what he said
was its ignorance of Israel’s “genocide” and attacks in Gaza, at a joint news
conference with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz on Thursday. The open public
friction between NATO allies emerged on Merz’s first visit to Turkiye since
taking office. Merz said his government had stood by Israel since the October 7,
2023 attack by Hamas and that he believes Israel was exercising its right to
self-defense. “It would have taken only one decision to avoid countless
unnecessary casualties. Hamas should have released the hostages earlier and laid
down its arms,” he said, adding he hoped the war was coming to an end with the
US-brokered and Turkiye-backed ceasefire deal.
ERDOGAN SAYS ISRAEL SOUGHT SUPPRESSION THROUGH GENOCIDE
Erdogan, among the most vocal critics of Israel’s assault on Gaza and a key
player in the ceasefire talks, said he could not agree with Merz. “Hamas does
not have bombs (or) nuclear arms but Israel has all of these and uses these
weapons to hit Gaza, for example with those bombs again last night,” Erdogan
said.
“Do you, as Germany, not see these? Do you, as Germany, not follow these?
Besides hitting Gaza, (Israel) has always sought to suppress it through famine
and genocide,” he said. A UN inquiry determined that Israel has committed
genocide in Gaza, arguing that its killings, siege and destruction were carried
out with the intent to destroy Palestinian life in the enclave. Multiple Israeli
and international rights groups reached the same conclusion. Israel rejects
genocide allegations as politically motivated and says its military campaign
targets Hamas, not Gaza’s civilian population. It says it takes steps to
minimize civilian harm.
Merz has criticized Israeli actions in Gaza and this year Germany suspended
military exports there, citing the deteriorating humanitarian situation. He has
stopped short of backing accusations of genocide, however, arguing that
criticism of Israel must not become a pretext for antisemitism. Erdogan said he
still believed Germany and Turkiye could collaborate to end famine by ensuring
aid delivery to Gaza. He also pointed to the potential for NATO allies to focus
on joint projects in the defense industry, and reiterated Ankara’s wish to join
the European Union. Merz said he saw Turkiye as a close partner to the EU, that
he wanted to develop bilateral economic relations, including in the transport
sector and migration.
Teenager dies during ultra-Orthodox protest in Jerusalem
Reuters/October 30, 2025
JERUSALEM: A mass ultra-Orthodox Jewish rally against military conscription
turned deadly in Jerusalem on Thursday, when a teenage boy fell to his death
during the demonstration which had shut down the main entrance to the city.
Packed crowds of mostly men clogged the roads around the Route 1 highway leading
into Jerusalem. Israeli media estimated that around 200,000 people flocked to
the rally. Photos showed some had climbed atop roofs of buildings, a gas station
and onto cranes. The Israeli ambulance service said a 15-year-old fell to his
death and police said they had opened an investigation into the incident.
Military exemptions a hot-button issue in Israel The debate over mandatory
military service, and those who are exempt from it, has long caused tensions
within Israel’s deeply divided society and has placed Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu under increasing political strain over the past year.
Ultra-Orthodox seminary students have long been exempt from mandatory military
service. Many Israelis fume at what they see as an unfair burden carried by the
mainstream who serve. That frustration only intensified during wars over the
past two years that exacted the highest Israeli military death toll in decades
as fighting stretched from the Gaza Strip to Lebanon, Syria, Yemen and Iran.
This has added fuel to an already explosive debate over a new conscription bill
that lies at the center of a crisis rattling Netanyahu’s coalition, which took
power in late 2022 for a four-year term. Ultra-Orthodox Jewish leaders say
full-time devotion to the study of holy scriptures is sacrosanct and fear their
young men will drift away from religious life if they are drafted into the
military. Right now, people who refuse to go to the army are taken to military
prison,” said Shmuel Orbach, a protester, “It’s not so bad. But we are a Jewish
country. You cannot fight against Judaism in a Jewish country, it does not
work.” Struggle to pass new conscription bill But last year the Supreme
Court ordered an end to the exemption. Parliament has been struggling to draft a
new conscription bill, which has so far failed to meet both the ultra-Orthodox
demands and those of a stretched military. Two long-time loyal political allies,
ultra-Orthodox Jewish parties Shas and United Torah Judaism (UTJ), quit
Netanyahu’s coalition government in July in a dispute over the new military
draft legislation. Their exit left Netanyahu with an increasingly splintered
coalition whose far-right members are unhappy about Israel’s ceasefire deal with
Gaza’s dominant Palestinian militant group Hamas, brokered by the United States.
The door has been left open for the ultra-Orthodox parties to rejoin the
coalition should the dispute be resolved. But reaching an accommodation
acceptable to ultra-Orthodox political leaders may alienate many other Israelis
as the country heads into an election year, and risks being shot down by the
Supreme Court. Surveys over the past two years have consistently predicted
Netanyahu’s coalition would lose the next ballot.
Turkish disaster relief teams still awaiting Israeli go-ahead to enter Gaza
AFP/October 30, 2025
ANKARA: A Turkish disaster response team is still waiting by the Gaza border for
Israeli approval to enter the Palestinian territory to help with search and
rescue operations, a defense ministry source said Thursday. The 81-member team
from the AFAD disaster management left for the Gaza border just over a week ago
with specialized search-and-rescue tools, including life-detection devices and
trained search dogs. But they need Israel’s approval to enter Gaza, which has
been largely reduced to rubble after two years of Israeli bombardments. “AFAD is
still waiting at the border. Israel still did not issue any authorization” for
the team to enter, the source said. Israel’s relationship with Turkiye has
nosedived since the Gaza war started in October 2023 with Israel’s Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu adamantly opposed to a Turkish presence in Gaza.
Ankara is hoping its role as a guarantor of the recent Gaza ceasefire will give
it some leverage and allow it to participate in the international peacekeeping
mission currently being put together. The ministry source said efforts to
establish a task force were ongoing, with Turkiye “still in contact” with
counterparts over its participation, and its military “ready” to get involved if
needed. “Turkiye is one of the architects of the ceasefire and signed the
agreement. We did all our preparations and are waiting,” the source said.
Earlier this week, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said only countries that
were “at least fair” to Israel could send troops to secure Gaza, ruling out
Turkiye’s participation over its “hostile statements” and “diplomatic and
economic measures” against Israel. “It is not reasonable for us to let their
armed forces enter (the) Gaza Strip, and we will not agree to that,” he added.
Vance says US nuclear arsenal needs testing to ensure
proper functioning
AFP/30 October/2025
Vice President JD Vance said Thursday that testing of the US nuclear arsenal
would ensure it actually “functions properly,” but did not elaborate on what
type of tests President Donald Trump had ordered. “It’s an important part of
American national security to make sure that this nuclear arsenal we have
actually functions properly, and that’s part of a testing regime,” Vance told
reporters at the White House when asked about Trump’s social media post on
ordering nuclear tests. He added that the president’s statement “speaks for
itself.”
Polish jets intercepted Russian aircraft over Baltic Sea, minister says
Reuters/October 30, 2025
WARSAW: Polish MiG-29 fighter aircraft intercepted a Russian reconnaissance
plane over the Baltic Sea on Thursday in the second such incident this week,
Polish Defense Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz said. Poland’s army said on
Wednesday that Polish jets had intercepted a Russian aircraft flying a
reconnaissance mission in international airspace over the Baltic Sea on Tuesday.
“Today MiG-29s intercepted a Russian reconnaissance plane over the Baltic Sea,”
Kosiniak-Kamysz said, describing it as just like the incident on Tuesday. The
Polish Army Operational Command later described the incident on social media
platform X. “On October 30, 2025, before 9.00 a.m., the on-duty pair of MiG-29
fighters of the (Polish) Air Force carried out another interception this week of
a Russian Federation reconnaissance aircraft Il-20 conducting a flight over the
Baltic Sea,” it said.
“The aircraft, flying in international airspace without a filed flight plan and
with its transponder turned off, was intercepted, identified, and escorted out
of the area of responsibility. There was no violation of Polish airspace.”
Countries on NATO’s eastern flank have been on high alert for potential airspace
incursions since September when three Russian military jets violated Estonia’s
airspace for 12 minutes, days after more than 20 Russian drones had entered
Polish airspace.
German FM raises return of refugees during Syria visit
AFP/October 30, 2025
DAMASCUS: German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul discussed the possible return
of Syrian refugees with President Ahmed Al-Sharaa during a visit to Damascus on
Thursday. Germany has a large Syrian community, with hundreds of thousands
having settled there after fleeing the civil war. Wadephul said it was “in the
understandable interest of the Syrian government to create the conditions for as
many Syrians as possible to return.” However, this was currently “only possible
to a very limited extent, because a great deal of infrastructure in this country
has been destroyed,” he added. “Anyone who wants to return to Syria will be
given a tearful send-off by us. But we will understand that perfectly well.”As
the German government looks to crack down on migration to curb the rise of the
far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), its leaders have sought to resume
deportations to Syria.
But Wadephul said this applied to only “very few exceptional cases of truly
serious criminals.”Wadephul said Germany had a “special obligation” to help with
reconstruction in Syria. He vowed that Berlin would “work in a very practical
manner to ensure that German companies can operate here.”According to the United
Nations, one million Syrian refugees have returned from abroad since the fall of
Bashar Assad late last year. Sharaa’s ministry said in a statement he and
Wadephul had discussed bilateral relations “as well as ways to enhance
cooperation in the political, economic and humanitarian fields.”
This was Wadephul’s first trip to Syria, though his predecessor Annalena
Baerbock visited twice, most recently in March to reopen the German embassy in
Damascus. As part of his visit, Wadephul was taken on a tour of Harasta, a
Damascus neighborhood heavily bombed by the Assad government. He said the scenes
were “reminiscent of the images we saw from Germany in 1945 after World War
II.”Syria has been ruled by a new government since the overthrow of Assad in
December. Its relations with the West have warmed, the United States lifting
sanctions and European governments developing closer ties. “We want the positive
path that this people has embarked upon to be successful,” Wadephul said,
calling on the government to “guarantee all citizens a life of dignity and
security.” Wadephul and a German delegation will also head to Lebanon and
Bahrain during this Middle East trip, his ministry said.
Both sides in Sudan guilty of war crimes and crimes
against humanity, UN fact-finding mission says
Ephrem Kossaify/Arab News/October 30, 2025
NEW YORK CITY: Both of the warring factions in Sudan’s civil war, the Sudanese
Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, are committing war
crimes and crimes against humanity, according to the UN’s Independent
International Fact-Finding Mission for the Sudan.
Speaking on behalf of the mission, which presented its investigative report to
the UN General Assembly’s Third Committee on on Thursday, Joy Ngozi Ezeilo said
its investigations documented large-scale atrocities committed by both sides,
including “ethnically targeted executions, sexual violence and the deliberate
use of starvation as a weapon of war.”Describing the findings as “direct and
harrowing,” she continued: “Our initial investigations point to a deliberate
pattern of ethnically targeted executions of unarmed civilians, assaults, sexual
violence, widespread looting and destruction of vital infrastructure, and mass
forced displacement.”The mission said the atrocities had intensified during and
after the fall of the besieged city of El-Fasher to the RSF, when civilians,
particularly those from non-Arab communities, were targeted.
“Our fact-finding mission has gathered verified videos and testimonies showing
ongoing attacks against civilians,” Ezeilo said. The RSF’s campaign in El-Fasher
and the nearby Zamzam and Abu Shawk camps included mass killings, torture, rape,
sexual slavery, pillaging, forced displacement, and starvation tactics, the
mission found. Thousands of civilians, mostly from non-Arab communities, were
killed. “Widespread sexual violence has characterized this conflict,” Ezeilo
said, adding that women and girls, some as young as 10 years old, were subjected
to rape, gang rape, sexual slavery and forced marriage. Men and boys, too, fell
victim to sexual violence. “These crimes are not isolated incidents but part of
a deliberate strategy to punish, intimidate and erase ethnic identities,” she
said. The mission concluded that these large-scale, systematic and lethal
attacks amounted to war crimes and crimes against humanity, including
persecution on intersecting gender, political and ethnic grounds. The
fact-finders also accused the RSF’s rival, the Sudanese Armed Forces, of serious
violations amounting to war crimes. These included indiscriminate airstrikes on
populated areas and civilian infrastructure, reprisal attacks against civilians,
and failure to protect hospitals, medical workers and humanitarian operations.
Ezeilo said the mission was “particularly concerned” that two senior World Food
Programme officials had been ordered to leave Sudan on Wednesday, exacerbating
an already dire humanitarian situation.
“Destruction of essential infrastructure has defined this war,” Ezeilo said,
highlighting attacks by both the SAF and RSF on hospitals, markets, water
systems and humanitarian convoys. Less than a quarter of health facilities
remain operational, and nearly 25 million people face acute food insecurity.
“The combination of starvation tactics, mass killings and destruction of
infrastructure by the RSF may amount to extermination as a crime against
humanity,” the mission warned. Civic life across Sudan has “collapsed,” Ezeilo
said, with cities and towns in ruins and more than 11 million people displaced
inside and outside the country. Humanitarian access remains blocked amid
worsening levels of starvation and disease among trapped civilians. Those who
have fled El-Fasher include wounded and unaccompanied children, while women face
further sexual violence during their desperate journeys to escape the city.
“This is only the latest chapter in the book of brutality,” Ezeilo said.
According to the investigators, authorities in Sudan are “unwilling and unable”
to conduct genuine investigations or prosecutions relating to international
crimes. The country’s justice system is marked by “impunity, selective justice,
lack of fair trial guarantees and a failure to protect victims or provide
remedies,” they said. “Our report therefore sets out a path to justice through
inclusive Sudanese dialogue,” Ezeilo said. Victims and survivors have “the right
to know the truth about violations committed, the fate of the missing, and the
role of authorities,” she added, as well as the right to see perpetrators held
accountable through fair trials. The mission called for expansion of the
International Criminal Court’s jurisdiction over all of Sudan, and the creation
of an independent judicial mechanism to complement the work of the court. Ezeilo
welcomed the ICC’s Oct. 6 judgment in a trial that began in 2022 which found
former Janjaweed militia leader Ali Kushayb guilty of 27 counts of war crimes
and crimes against humanity in Darfur more than 20 years ago. She described the
verdict as proof that “accountability is possible.” The RSF primarily consists
of Janjaweed militias. She also urged states to apply universal jurisdiction to
the prosecution of international crimes, saying this was “not interference but a
shared duty to uphold international law.” Ezeilo said “justice must include
reparations,” and stressed that victims “cannot wait for peace to receive
assistance.”The mission proposed the creation of a specialist office for victim
support and reparations, to help provide interim aid including shelter, food,
medical care, psychological support, education and livelihood assistance. It
also called on all states to use their influence to halt the fighting and
achieve peace, and urged all parties involved in the war to cease hostilities,
protect civilians and respect the principles of international law. However, it
warned that peace in the country cannot be sustained without reforms.
“Sustainable peace requires transforming Sudan’s justice and security sectors,”
the mission said. Reforms are needed to end the immunity for state actors, align
Sudan’s domestic laws with international standards, restore judicial
independence, and ensure no one is above the law. “These reforms must be rooted
in an inclusive, democratic transition,” Ezeilo said, and “women must be at the
center of these efforts.” She concluded: “Justice is not optional. It is the
path to peace — for without justice, peace is a mirage.”
What the RSF’s slaughter of civilians in El-Fasher reveals
about militia threat to Sudan
Jonathan Gornall/Arab NewsOctober 30, 2025
LONDON: His name — or, at least, his nom de guerre — is Issa Abu Lulu.
Reportedly a senior officer in the Rapid Support Forces, now locked in a vicious
civil war with the Sudanese Armed Forces, Abu Lulu has been named the “star” of
several distressing videos circulating on social media over the past week.
In at least two clips, filmed after the RSF’s recent takeover of the city of El-Fasher
in western Sudan, he appears to shoot unarmed prisoners at point-blank range. It
is not the first time Abu Lulu has allowed himself to be filmed attacking
helpless captives. On Aug. 18, during an earlier RSF assault on El-Fasher,
footage surfaced of him interrogating a civilian. A transcript published by
Sudans Post, which describes itself as “an independent, young, grassroots news
media organization,” identified Abu Lulu as Brig. Gen. Al-Fatih Abdallah Idris,
an RSF officer. In the video, Abu Lulu reportedly asks the man, who says he is a
restaurant owner, to reveal the whereabouts of the leader of an enemy infantry
division. In a translation by Sudans Post, Abu Lulu warns him to “talk
straight,” adding: “I swear to God I don’t talk much, and I don’t spare people.
Since God established the Rapid Support (Forces), I have never spared anyone —
not a prisoner, not anyone.”The terrified man insists he knows nothing. When
asked about his tribal background, he replies that he is Maba — a non-Arab Sunni
Muslim group also known as the Borgo. Without hesitation, Abu Lulu draws his
handgun and seems to shoot him dead.
When this footage emerged in August, the RSF said it would investigate,
promising that “if it is proven that the perpetrator is indeed a member of our
ranks, he will be held accountable without delay.”There is no evidence that such
an investigation ever materialized. Abu Lulu was not held accountable — and in
recent days, he has again appeared on camera reveling in the murder of unarmed
captives.
His case, while egregious, is far from unique.
On Oct. 29, the World Health Organization condemned the killing of at least 460
patients and relatives at the Saudi Maternity Hospital in El-Fasher, reportedly
by RSF fighters, along with the abduction of six health workers — four doctors,
a nurse and a pharmacist.
Brazen actions attributed to Abu Lulu underscore how far the RSF has fallen from
any semblance of military discipline. Since gaining independence in 1956 after
nearly six decades of joint Anglo-Egyptian rule, Sudan has been plagued by coups
and bloodshed as competing factions vie for power. At times, the sheer scale of
suffering has momentarily pierced global indifference toward the country — home
to more than 50 million people, bordered by seven nations and the Red Sea to the
east. One such moment came during the Darfur conflict, when government-backed
forces targeted non-Arab populations in the western region. That war, which
erupted in 2003 and lingered for 16 years, killed as many as 300,000 people
through violence and starvation. It also triggered an investigation by the
International Criminal Court, which issued arrest warrants for Omar Bashir, the
ousted Sudan president, and several others on charges of war crimes. Bashir was
ousted by the Sudanese Armed Forces in 2019 and later jailed on corruption
charges. He is believed to be in a hospital in northern Sudan, and the
government has refused ICC requests to extradite him. The architects of Darfur’s
atrocities are not aligned with the RSF. The military remains dominated by
figures from Bashir’s former regime.
However, only one ICC suspect has ever faced justice.
In June 2020, Ali Muhammad Ali Abd-Al-Rahman, commonly known as Ali Kushayb,
surrendered in the Central African Republic. He was accused of 31 counts of war
crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur. Transferred to The Hague, he was
convicted on 27 counts in October. A sentencing date has yet to be set.
Abd-Al-Rahman’s conviction revived scrutiny of the RSF’s origins. When the ICC
warrants were first issued, Abd-Al-Rahman was a leader of the Janjaweed — the
Arab militias that waged a campaign of rape, murder, looting and village
destruction in Darfur. By 2013, those militias were reorganized and rebranded by
the Bashir government as the RSF. “The RSF has been referred to as an offshoot,
an evolution, or rebranding of the Janjaweed militias that were operating in the
2000s in Darfur,” said Michael Jones, a senior research fellow at the Royal
United Services Institute in London.
“It features many of the same constituent parts, although RSF recruitment has
expanded beyond the conventional confines of the Janjaweed,” Jones told Arab
News. “It has much more sophisticated capabilities and far greater military,
political and financial resources than previous militia groups.”Ironically, the
force that Bashir once used as a tool of repression in Darfur has now turned
against his former army.
IN NUMBERS:
• 1,500+ Sudanese killed in El-Fasher violence over three days.
• 460 Patients and companions slain at Saudi Hospital on Oct. 28.
(Source: Sudan Doctors Network, WHO)
In 2013, even under nominal government oversight, the RSF wasted no time
demonstrating its taste for humanitarian crimes.
In September 2015, Human Rights Watch detailed RSF abuses in a report titled
“Men With No Mercy.” Based on interviews with 151 survivors who had fled to Chad
and South Sudan, the organization accused the RSF and other Sudanese forces of
“serious violations of international human rights and humanitarian law” in
Darfur. The report cited “a wide range of horrific abuses, including the forced
displacement of entire communities; the destruction of wells, food stores and
other infrastructure necessary for sustaining life in a harsh desert
environment; and the plunder of the collective wealth of families, such as
livestock. “Among the most egregious abuses against civilians were torture,
extrajudicial killings and mass rapes,” it added. The current conflict erupted
in April 2023, when the RSF resisted efforts to integrate into the Sudanese
Armed Forces. The clash became a personal power struggle between two former
allies — Gen. Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, head of the army and Sudan’s de facto
leader, and Gen. Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, widely known as Hemedti, who commands
the RSF. “The RSF leadership wanted to ensure the paramilitary group’s survival,
and by extension their own financial and commercial interests,” Jones said. “So,
they pushed back against the proposed integration of the RSF into a single
national military force, which would have risked diluting Hemedti’s political
clout.” As the RSF fought to maintain its military might and form a state within
a state, it broadened its recruitment and allegiance networks. “It has
increasingly developed into a diverse coalition of different, often highly
localized stakeholders,” Jones said. “There is a core leadership either drawn
from the Dagalo family or its kinship networks, but the group is increasingly
reliant on provincial elites and power brokers for mobilizing new recruits,” he
added. “As a result, these local militiamen have been described as operating as
a franchise, with close ties to mid-level commanders who do not necessarily
align with every decision coming down from the RSF leadership.”“This is not to
say that RSF policies and directives aren’t conditioning what’s happening on the
ground,” Jones said. “There’s a lot of reporting to suggest that there is a
deliberate approach by the RSF to engage in ethnic cleansing, repeating patterns
evident in Sudan’s past conflicts,” he explained. “But there are also those
within its coalition that are pursuing their own agendas and interests.”
The RSF is hardly alone in committing atrocities. A 2024 UN fact-finding mission
found that both the RSF and the Sudanese military had attacked civilians and
civilian infrastructure through airstrikes and artillery in populated areas,
notably Khartoum and Darfur. Both sides were also accused of killing and maiming
children, conducting arbitrary arrests, and engaging in torture — all “amounting
to war crimes.”With the RSF’s capture of El-Fasher in late October, its leaders
have hinted at forming a rival government. Yet Sudan today appears too fractured
for either side to establish coherent control, according to Jones. “The
difficulty is that the Sudanese state and Sudanese society more broadly has
become steadily more fractured and militarized over time,” he said. “It is a
congested political landscape of different armed groups tussling over control at
a local and regional level, leaving any prospect of coherent governance by the
RSF or army unlikely in the short to medium term.”
For ordinary Sudanese, the outlook is grim.
“Sudan is a humanitarian catastrophe on so many different levels,” said Jones.
“We’re seeing a pattern of violence and atrocity that Sudanese civilians are
bearing the brunt of, and which is unlikely to change due in part to the
proliferation of armed groups within Sudan. “Alongside diminishing aid budgets,
there are well-documented problems around aid capture, extortion, lack of
access, politicization of humanitarian resources, and so on,” he added. “All of
that has massive knock-on effects for the Sudanese population, with the collapse
of the domestic food and logistical systems across large tracts of
Sudan.”Despite rhetoric about accountability, Jones said there is little
concrete evidence that the RSF or other factions in Sudan are pursuing genuine
efforts to address war crimes. “There is a lot of rhetoric around
accountability, including by the RSF itself, claiming it will deploy police
forces and special investigation committees and field courts to regulate the
behavior of its rank and file,” Jones said. “That’s obviously translated into
very little.” “Additionally, you have a raft of middlemen who are converting RSF
policy into violent practice, making it very difficult to identify and hold
those figures accountable for their actions,” he added. Moreover, the pursuit of
justice often clashes with efforts to broker peace. There is also “the ongoing
tension between peace-making, ceasefires, and atrocity prevention,” Jones said.
“If you are proposing to engage the RSF as part of an effort to resolve or
mitigate conflict, how far can you go, now or later, to prosecute those same
stakeholders? How far does that undermine your ability to mitigate the conflict
or incentivize buy-in?” And because atrocities are widespread, few actors have
clean hands. “The RSF is not the only force accused of perpetrating war crimes,”
Jones said. “While the scale and logic of RSF crimes are qualitatively distinct,
reports have documented starvation strategies, indiscriminate shelling and
bombing of civilian areas, and extrajudicial violence in territory held by the
army and so on. “A sizeable proportion of the stakeholders across Sudan’s
warring coalitions are themselves are either complicit in or were previously
involved in similar crimes. So, there is unlikely to be an appetite on the part
of these armed groups to impose real accountability.”
UN Security Council condemns RSF assault on El-Fasher
amid warnings of ‘blood on the sand’ in Sudan
Ephrem Kossaify/Arab News/October 30, 2025
NEW YORK: The UN Security Council on Thursday expressed grave concern over what
it described as a horrifying assault by Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces on the
besieged city of El-Fasher, North Darfur, warning that atrocities against
civilians risk spiraling into large-scale, ethnically motivated killings. In a
statement adopted by consensus, council members condemned the RSF attack and its
“devastating impact on the civilian population,” recalling Resolution 2736 from
2024 which demands that the RSF lift its siege of the city and halt hostilities.
The council urged all sides to “protect civilians and abide by their obligations
under international humanitarian law,” while stressing the need for “safe
passage for those trying to flee the city.” The statement called on all parties
to “allow and facilitate safe and unhindered humanitarian access,” and
reaffirmed the council’s opposition to any “parallel governing authority” in
areas under RSF control. It also urged states to refrain from “external
interference which seeks to foment conflict and instability.”The Security
Council’s message came as top UN officials described a catastrophic situation on
the ground. UN Humanitarian Chief Tom Fletcher told the council that after more
than a year of siege, El-Fasher has “descended into an even darker hell.”“Can
anyone here say we did not know this was coming?” Fletcher asked, describing
reports of mass executions, rapes, and mutilations by RSF fighters. “We cannot
hear the screams, but as we sit here today, the horror is continuing.”He cited
reports that nearly 500 people, including patients and their companions, were
killed this week at the Saudi Maternity Hospital in the city, calling it “yet
another example of the depravity with which this war has been fought.”“Those who
want to leave El-Fasher must be able to do so safely. Those who remain must be
protected,” Fletcher said. “There must be accountability for those carrying out
the killing and the sexual violence. For those giving the orders. And those
providing the weapons should consider their responsibility.” He said the UN had
been repeatedly blocked by the RSF from delivering food and medicine, even as
“tens of thousands of terrified, starving civilians” fled on foot toward Tawila,
itself overwhelmed with displaced people. “This is not just a crisis of violence
— it is a crisis of hunger,” he said.
“Famine is confirmed, and severe food insecurity is spreading. Blood on the
sand. And Mr. President, blood on the hands.” Fletcher condemned the expulsion
of World Food Programme officials by Sudanese authorities, and warned that
“humanitarians simply asking that we be allowed to do our jobs and save lives is
not working.”Assistant Secretary-General Martha Ama Akyaa Pobee told the council
that El-Fasher had fallen to the RSF after more than 500 days under siege, with
only “small pockets of resistance” remaining. “The situation is simply
horrifying,” Pobee said. “In the past week, the UN Human Rights Office has
documented widespread and serious violations, including mass killings and
summary executions during house-to-house searches and as civilians tried to
flee.” She said communications with the city had been severed, making it
difficult to assess the full scale of casualties. “Despite commitments to
protect civilians, the reality is that no one is safe in El-Fasher. There is no
safe passage for civilians to leave the city.” Pobee also cited reports of
atrocities in North Kordofan, including the killing of 50 civilians and five Red
Crescent volunteers in Bara after the RSF captured the town. “These acts are
often ethnically motivated reprisals,” she said. The UN political chief warned
that the conflict’s territorial scope is widening, with drone strikes and
fighting spreading across Kordofan, Blue Nile, Sennar, and Khartoum. “The risk
of mass atrocities remains alarmingly high,” she said. Pobee reiterated the
secretary-general’s call for an immediate ceasefire and cautioned against
foreign meddling. “External support is enabling the conflict. Weapons and
fighters continue to flow into Sudan,” she said, urging states with influence
over the warring parties to press for de-escalation. Fletcher ended his address
with a stark warning about the world’s moral failure to stop atrocities
reminiscent of Darfur’s darkest days. “What is unfolding in El-Fasher recalls
the horrors Darfur was subjected to 20 years ago,” he said. “But somehow today
we are seeing a very different global reaction — one of indifference,
resignation, a shrugging of shoulders.”He addressed the council: “Where is our
diplomacy? Where are our values? Where is our conscience? “The world has failed
an entire generation of Sudan’s children,” Fletcher said. “If this council does
not act now, it will own that failure.”
World shares, oil prices fall back after Trump-Xi
meeting
Associated Press/October 30, 2025
World shares mostly retreated Thursday in choppy trading after President Donald
Trump's meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping. While Trump said the meeting was
"amazing" and had resolved many issues, investors appeared skeptical. U.S.
futures were nearly flat.
In early European trading, Germany's Dax rose 0.1% to 24,155.02. Britain's FTSE
100 fell 0.5% to 9,705.49. In Paris, the CAC 40 slid 0.2% to 8,183.55. Tokyo's
Nikkei 225 index bounced lower and then inched up less than 0.1% to 51,325.61
after the Bank of Japan kept its benchmark interest rate unchanged. Chinese
markets gave up early gains, with Hong Kong's Hang Seng shedding 0.2% to
26,282.69. The Shanghai Composite index lost 0.7% to 3,986.90. The Hong Kong
Monetary Authority on Thursday cut its base rate by 25 basis points to 4.25%. It
always follows the U.S. lead in interest rate policies since the value of Hong
Kong's currency is linked to the U.S. dollar. South Korea's Kospi index broke
through the 4,000 mark for the first time, edging up 0.1% to 4,086.89 after
climbing more than 1% earlier in the day following reports of progress in
Washington's trade talks with South Korea. Solid corporate earnings also boosted
shares in tech, auto and shipbuilding. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 shed nearly 0.5%
to 8,885.50, pulled lower by losses in real estate and consumer discretionary
stocks. Taiwan's Taiex dropped less than 0.1% while India's BSE Sensex shed
nearly 0.7%. Trump told reporters he was cutting average tariffs on Chinese
goods to 47% from 57%, effective immediately after his first face-to-face
meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in six years. He cited progress by
Beijing in curbing exports of fentanyl and the chemicals used to make it. Trump
also said China was keeping its policy of tighter restrictions on exports of
rare earths and related technologies on hold for a year, and he expects that
agreement to be extended. Trump's aggressive use of tariffs since returning to
the White House for a second term combined with China's retaliatory limits on
exports of rare earth elements have given the meeting newfound urgency.
The first official Chinese comment on the meeting suggested any deal is not
done.
Xi noted that negotiating teams from both countries had reached a consensus, a
likely reference to talks held in Malaysia last weekend, according to a report
on the meeting distributed by state media. The Chinese leader said the teams
should complete follow-up work as soon as possible to deliver tangible results
that will provide "peace of mind" to China, the U.S. and the rest of the world.
Xi, stressing that dialogue is better than confrontation, listed a range of
issues where China and the U.S. could work together, including combating illegal
immigration and telecom fraud, anti-money laundering efforts, artificial
intelligence and infectious disease response. The encounter was a chance for the
leaders of the world's two largest economies to stabilize relations after months
of turmoil over trade issues. On Wednesday, U.S. stocks bounced around their
records after the Federal Reserve made moves to boost the job market but also
warned that more help isn't guaranteed. The S&P 500 finished virtually flat and
edged down by less than 0.1%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped 73 points,
or 0.2%, and the Nasdaq composite rose 0.5%. All three indexes were coming off
an all-time high. Stocks had been on track for modest gains in the afternoon
after the Fed cut its main interest rate for the second time this year in hopes
of helping the slowing job market. But the market snapped lower after Chair
Jerome Powell later warned that it "is not a foregone conclusion" that the Fed
will cut again in December at its next meeting, "far from it."
"That needs to be taken off the board," Powell said. In the meantime, the deluge
continued of big U.S. companies reporting how much profit they made during the
summer, and the frenzy in AI technology is driving growth. The pressure is on
companies to deliver gains because that's one way they can quiet criticism that
their stock prices have shot too high. In other dealings early Thursday, the
benchmark U.S. crude shed 41 cents to $60.07 per barrel. Brent crude, the
international standard, lost 46 cents to $63.86 per barrel. The U.S. dollar rose
to 153.73 Japanese yen from 152.65 yen. The euro edged up to $1.1623 from
$1.1609.
King Charles III strips Prince Andrew of titles and
evicts him from royal residence
AP/October 30, 2025
LONDON: King Charles III on Thursday stripped his disgraced brother Prince
Andrew of his remaining titles and evicted him from his royal residence after
weeks of pressure to act over his relationship with sex offender Jeffrey
Epstein.
Buckingham Palace said the king “initiated a formal process to remove the Style,
Titles and Honours of Prince Andrew.”After the king’s rare move, Andrew will be
known as Andrew Mountbatten Windsor and not as a prince, and he will move from
his Royal Lodge residence into “private accommodation.”
It is almost unprecedented for a British prince or princess to be stripped of
that title. It last happened in 1919, when Prince Ernest Augustus, who was a UK
royal and also a prince of Hanover, had his British title removed for siding
with Germany during World War I.
Demand had been growing on the palace to oust the prince from Royal Lodge after
he surrendered his use of the title Duke of York earlier this month over new
revelations about his friendship with Epstein and renewed sexual abuse
allegations by one of Epstein’s victims, Virginia Roberts Giuffre, whose
posthumous memoir hit bookstores last week.
But the king went even further to punish him for serious lapses of judgment by
removing the title of prince that he has held since birth as a child of a
monarch, the late Queen Elizabeth II.
“These censures are deemed necessary, notwithstanding the fact that he continues
to deny the allegations against him,” the palace said. “Their Majesties wish to
make clear that their thoughts and utmost sympathies have been, and will remain
with, the victims and survivors of any and all forms of abuse.”
Giuffre’s brother declared victory for his sister, who died by suicide in April
at the age of 41. “Today, an ordinary American girl from an ordinary American
family, brought down a British prince with her truth and extraordinary courage,”
her brother Skye Roberts said in a statement.
Andrew faced a new round of public opprobrium after emails emerged earlier this
month showing he had remained in contact with Epstein longer than he previously
admitted.
That news was followed by publication of “Nobody’s Girl,” by Giuffre, who
alleged she had sex with Andrew when she was 17. The book detailed three alleged
sexual encounters with Andrew, who she said acted as if he believed “having sex
with me was his birthright.”
Andrew, 65, has long denied Giuffre’s claims, but stepped down from royal duties
after a disastrous November 2019 BBC interview in which he attempted to rebut
her allegations.
Andrew paid millions in an out-of-court settlement in 2022 after Giuffre filed a
civil suit against him in New York. While he didn’t admit wrongdoing, he
acknowledged Giuffre’s suffering as a victim of sex trafficking.
Although Charles was involved in discussions with Andrew before he announced he
would relinquish his dukedom two weeks ago, the king had largely managed to
steer clear of the scandal until this week.
After attending an event at Lichfield Cathedral on Monday, the king was heckled
by a man who shouted questions about how long he had known about his brother and
Epstein and then asked: “Have you asked the police to cover up for Andrew?”
The king did not respond and it wasn’t clear if he even heard the man, who was
shouted down by others and eventually pulled from sight. But video of the
incident made the evening news and was the source of embarrassing headlines the
next morning. The move by the king means Andrew will no longer be a prince or be
known as His Royal Highness, the Duke of York, Earl of Inverness or Baron
Killyleagh — all titles he held until now. Also gone are honors that include
Order of the Garter and status as Knight Grand Cross of the Victorian Order.
Andrew is expected to move to a property on the king’s Sandringham estate near
the northeast coast and receive private financial support from his brother. His
ex-wife, Sarah Ferguson, who had been living with him in the 30-room mansion,
will have to find a new home.
The Latest
English LCCC
analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources
on October
30-31/2025
Egypt’s “Reconciliation Sessions”: The
Terrorized Submit to the Terrorist
Coptic Solidarity/Raymond Ibrahim/October 30/2025
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/2025/10/148700/
As first reported here, following Friday prayers on Oct. 24, 2025, a large
Muslim mob rose against and “collectively punished” the Coptic Christians of the
village of Nazlet Gelf in Minya, Egypt. This latest uprising was born of rumors
that an 18-year-old Christian man and a Muslim girl were involved in a
relationship. (On the logic that men are the natural leaders in relationships
with women, sharia bans non-Muslim men from being involved with Muslim women,
though Muslim men can be involved with non-Muslim women.)
Due to this infraction, stones shattered windows, doors were battered, and
Christian homes and properties were set ablaze by Muslims shouting threats and
vowing to burn churches and expel all Christians. Viral footage captured the
terror—including a frightened Coptic girl begging her mother for protection. As
usual, security forces arrived and restored order only after the mob had sated
its thirst for “vengeance.”
Then, instead of prosecuting the Muslim assailants—and as predicted—local
authorities convened a so-called “reconciliation session” (جلسة عرفية) attended
by village elders, officials, representatives of both families, and hundreds of
villagers. The session’s decisions were, as expected, coercive, extralegal, and
contrary to Egypt’s constitution. They included:
A fine of EGP 1 million on the young man’s grandfather, Napoleon.
A requirement for the young man’s father, Samih Ishaq, to sell his home and
leave the village with his entire family.
Continued legal prosecution of the young man.
A ban on posting about the incident on social media.
A penalty clause of EGP 2 million if the agreement is violated.
Oversight of the agreement assigned to the village mayor.
The pronouncement—especially the expulsion of the Christian family—was greeted
with triumphant applause, “Allahu Akbar” chants, and ululations from the Muslim
majority. Coptic witnesses reported that the family accepted the terms only
under extreme fear; their homes had already been attacked, and the extended
family had fled to avoid casualties.
Meanwhile, the young man has been detained, pending further investigations by
the public prosecutor on the “crime” he committed.
Quite telling in this “incident” is the deafening silence by Egypt’s political
leaders, all the way to president El-Sisi regarding the imposed deportation of
the Coptic families from the village, even though such an act is strictly
prohibited by the Constitution, Art. 63, which states: “All forms of arbitrary
forced displacement of citizens are forbidden. Violations of such are a crime
without a statute of limitations.” Wouldn’t this explain that such assaults on
the Copts are part of an institutionalized state policy?
Nazlet Gelf is far from an anomaly; this same exact pattern has played out
repeatedly across Egypt. For example, in April of 2024, in al-Kom al-Ahmar, a
Muslim mob attacked Christian homes after the minority received a permit to
construct a church. Rather than pursue justice, authorities organized another of
these closed-door “reconciliation sessions,” during which Christians were again
pressured to forego charges in exchange for vague assurances that their church
permit would remain intact (assurances that typically prove worthless).
Five years prior, on April 30, 2019, in the village of Nagib, reconciliation
sessions similarly nullified protections under Egypt’s Church Construction Law,
allowing attackers to escape accountability while Copts were forced to acquiesce
to Muslim sensibilities.
The structure of these sessions follows a “good cop/bad cop” routine.
Authorities, acting as the “good cops,” urge Christian leaders to accept further
concessions to appease the rioting Muslims mob—the “bad cops”—lest things get
even worse, with little that they, the authorities, can do about it. Christians
are told to close churches temporarily, attend services in neighboring towns,
and leave their homes and villages (as in the present case)—in short, comply
with the mob’s arbitrary demands.
Copts are further “reminded” that any attempt to seek legal redress above and
beyond the reconciliation session will only invite further retaliation.
Christian youths who defend their homes or churches are often arrested, detained
for hours or days, and threatened with charges—unless, of course, the Christian
leaders agree to the humiliating terms of the sessions.
Reconciliation meetings thus institutionalize the punishment of victims and the
impunity of perpetrators, under the guise of “reconciling” without getting the
law involved.
Tellingly, the official response from Egypt’s Ministry of Interior only
confirmed this pattern of denial and inversion. In its statement on the Nazlet
Gelf attack, the Ministry rejected any religious motivation, describing the
assault merely as “a dispute between two families… following a relationship
between a young woman and a member of the other family,” while lamenting that
“some parties attempted to give the incident a sectarian dimension.” It added
that “the two families reconciled during a customary reconciliation session in
accordance with the traditions and customs of the village,” adding that this
“does not conflict with the legal measures taken.”
In other words, the government narrative erases the religious element
entirely—reducing an organized Muslim mob’s attack on Christian homes to a
“family dispute”—while glorifying the extralegal reconciliation session as a
legitimate resolution. The Ministry’s warning against those who “exploit the
incident to undermine the spirit of brotherhood and national unity” only
reinforces the state’s priorities: suppress discussion, preserve appearances,
and deny that Christians were targeted because of their faith.
The outcome in all such “state approved” sessions is predictable and consistent:
the attackers emerge triumphant, emboldened to repeat their offenses, while the
Christian victims pay the price with their freedoms, homes, property, and
security. The system creates a veneer of legality and “harmony,” while in
reality it enforces a hierarchy in which Copts occupy a highly precarious and
subordinate position. The ostensible goal of social cohesion masks a deliberate
subordination, turning every attack into an opportunity to reinforce minority
vulnerability.
Bishop Makarious of Minya, commenting in 2024 on the persistent assaults against
Christians, noted bluntly: “As long as the attackers are never punished, and the
armed forces are portrayed as doing their duty, this will just encourage others
to continue the attacks, since, even if they are arrested, they will be quickly
released.”
Nazlet Gelf demonstrates that this pattern endures. Law, justice, and
constitutional protections are consistently subordinated to social engineering
designed to appease the Muslim majority at the expense of the Christian
minority. Far from being isolated incidents, these events are part of a
systematic approach in which Muslim attacks on Copts—often presented in Egyptian
media as “sectarian violence”—are tolerated, perpetrators rewarded, and victims
coerced into silence and displacement.
In short, reconciliation sessions are not conciliatory; they are instruments of
state-sanctioned coercion. They convert acts of violence into a theatrical
display of communal resolution while ensuring that the only beneficiaries are
the aggressors. The victims—Christians who already navigate a web of legal
obstacles to build churches or maintain property—are left to absorb the costs:
financial, psychological, and physical. The state quietly approves, the law is
bypassed, and the discrimination and violence continues with official
acquiescence.
https://www.raymondibrahim.com/10/30/2025/articles-of-the-day
Palestinians Still Prefer Hamas and 'Armed Struggle'
Against Israel
Khaled Abu Toameh/Gatestone Institute/October 30/2025
These [Palestinian poll] findings contradict claims by some Western media
outlets that a growing number of Palestinians were disillusioned with Hamas
because of the death and destruction it has brought on its people as a result of
its October 7 attack.
The conclusion from these [Palestinian] numbers is that the past two years have
led to greater support for Hamas rather than the opposite," according to the
poll.
Asked if Hamas had committed the atrocities seen in the videos shown by
international media displaying atrocities committed by Hamas members against
Israeli civilians, 86% said the terror group did not commit such atrocities.
Only 10% said Hamas did commit them.
A majority of Palestinians, the poll showed, are extremely supportive of Iran,
Hezbollah, Qatar and the Houthi militia in Yemen, a terror group that fired
dozens of missiles and suicide drones at Israel during the war.
If elections for the presidency of the Palestinian Authority (PA) were held
today, Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal would win 63% of the votes, as opposed to 27%
for incumbent PA President Mahmoud Abbas.
According to the poll, dissatisfaction with Abbas stands at 75%, while 80% want
him to resign.
If parliamentary elections were held today, 44% of the Palestinians say they
will vote for Hamas, 30% for Fatah, and 10% for third parties.
Also unexpected is the ongoing Palestinian support for the "armed struggle"
(terrorism) against Israel.
The results of the poll also show the challenges facing the implementation of
the Trump plan, especially disarming Hamas and deradicalizing Palestinian
society. Most Palestinians are openly opposed to disarming Hamas – a situation
that will make it effectively impossible for any Arab or foreign party to
confiscate the terror group's weapons by force.
Any Palestinian or Arab leader who sees that most Palestinians oppose the
disarmament of Hamas will think twice before he undertakes such a mission: he
would not want to act against the wishes of the Arab street -- such a move would
be regarded as treason.
As for deradicalization, it is clear from the poll that Palestinians are moving
in the opposite direction.
Many Palestinians are afraid to speak out for fear of being labeled as traitors
or collaborators with Israel. We have seen how Palestinians who challenged Hamas
were tortured and executed in public squares in the Gaza Strip as soon as the
ceasefire went into effect.
Radical change in Palestinian society will come only when Palestinians rise up
against destructive leaders who, over the past few decades, have been dragging
them from one disaster to another.
A recent poll by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research shows
that more than half of Palestinians continue to support the atrocities committed
by Hamas against Israelis and foreign nationals on October 7, 2023, and a
majority of Palestinians support Iran, Hezbollah, Qatar and Yemen's Houthis.
Pictured: Palestinians rally in support of Hamas on December 15, 2023 in Nablus.
(Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
Those who thought that Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack on Israel and the ensuing
war in the Gaza Strip have made Palestinians change their minds about the terror
group are in for a rude awakening.
More than half of Palestinians continue to support the atrocities committed by
Hamas against Israelis and foreign nationals on October 7. Moreover, the terror
group remains popular among a large number of Palestinians. Support for Hamas
means support for the destruction of Israel through Jihad (holy war).
A poll published on October 28 by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey
Research showed that 53% of the Palestinians think that Hamas's decision to
launch the October 7 attack was "correct." A majority of 54% of Palestinians
blame Israel for the current suffering of Gazans, while 24% blame the US. Only
14% blame Hamas.
These findings contradict claims by some Western media outlets that a growing
number of Palestinians were disillusioned with Hamas because of the death and
destruction it has brought on its people as a result of its October 7 attack.
Asked about their perception of Hamas two years after the Gaza war began, 18% of
the Palestinians said their support for Hamas was big and it has not changed,
while 19% said their support for the terror group increased a lot. Another 17%
said their support for Hamas increased a little. By contrast, 16% said they did
not support Hamas before the war and that their opposition to the terror group
has not changed; 12% said their support decreased a little, and 10% said their
support for Hamas has decreased a lot.
"The conclusion from these numbers is that the past two years have led to
greater support for Hamas rather than the opposite," according to the poll.
The poll showed that a vast majority of the Palestinians are still in denial
over the crimes committed by Hamas on October 7. Asked if Hamas had committed
the atrocities seen in the videos shown by international media displaying
atrocities committed by Hamas members against Israeli civilians, 86% said the
terror group did not commit such atrocities. Only 10% said Hamas did commit
them.
As for the disarmament of Hamas, as stipulated in the second phase of US
President Donald Trump's plan for peace to end the Gaza war, the poll found that
an overwhelming majority of 69% oppose the idea. Only 29% said they support
disarming Hamas.
Regarding public satisfaction with the role played by various Palestinian actors
during the Gaza war, the poll showed that satisfaction with Hamas's performance
has risen from 57% (in May 2025) to 60%.
A majority of Palestinians, the poll showed, are extremely supportive of Iran,
Hezbollah, Qatar and the Houthi militia in Yemen, a terror group that fired
dozens of missiles and suicide drones at Israel during the war. The highest
satisfaction rate went to the Houthis (74%), followed by Hamas's main sponsor
Qatar (52%), Hezbollah (50%), and Iran (44%).
If elections for the presidency of the Palestinian Authority (PA) were held
today, Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal would win 63% of the votes, as opposed to 27%
for incumbent PA President Mahmoud Abbas.
The 89-year-old Abbas, who is in the 20th year of his four-year term in office,
remains as unpopular as ever among his own people, who view him and his PA as
incompetent and corrupt.
According to the poll, dissatisfaction with Abbas stands at 75%, while 80% want
him to resign.
Asked which political party they support, the largest percentage (35%) said they
prefer Hamas, followed by Abbas's ruling Fatah faction (24%). Nine percent
selected third parties, and 32% said they do not support any of them or do not
know. Five months ago, 32% said they supported Hamas and 21% said they supported
Fatah.
"These results mean that support for Hamas over the past five months has
increased by three percentage points," the poll noted.
Another inconvenient finding: If parliamentary elections were held today, 44% of
the Palestinians say they will vote for Hamas, 30% for Fatah, and 10% for third
parties. The remaining respondents said they have not yet decided for whom to
vote.
The number of Palestinians who believe that Hamas most deserves to represent and
lead the Palestinians has risen from 40% five months ago to 41%.
Also unexpected is the ongoing Palestinian support for the "armed struggle"
(terrorism) against Israel. The latest poll found that 41% of the Palestinians
support the "armed struggle" as opposed to 36% who said they prefer
negotiations.
The results of the poll demonstrate that a significant number of Palestinians
continue to support the Jihadi group that murdered 1,200 Israelis and foreign
nationals and brought death and destruction on the two million residents of the
Gaza Strip.
Those who are pushing for reforms and presidential and legislative elections in
the West Bank and Gaza Strip need to take into consideration that the future
Palestinian government or state would be dominated by the same terrorists who
brutally tortured and murdered hundreds of Israelis, including Arab citizens of
Israel, on October 7, 2023.
The results of the poll also show the challenges facing the implementation of
the Trump plan, especially disarming Hamas and deradicalizing Palestinian
society. Most Palestinians are openly opposed to disarming Hamas – a situation
that will make it effectively impossible for any Arab or foreign party to
confiscate the terror group's weapons by force.
Any Palestinian or Arab leader who sees that most Palestinians oppose the
disarmament of Hamas will think twice before he undertakes such a mission: he
would not want to act against the wishes of the Arab street -- such a move would
be regarded as treason.
As for deradicalization, it is clear from the poll that Palestinians are moving
in the opposite direction. This is mainly due to continued incitement against
Israel in the Palestinian and Arab media, mosques, social media platforms and
the rhetoric of Palestinian leaders and officials. Deradicalization requires
brave leaders who will stand up and speak out about the need to stop poisoning
the hearts and minds of young Palestinians. Many Palestinians are afraid to
speak out for fear of being labeled as traitors or collaborators with Israel. We
have seen how Palestinians who challenged Hamas were tortured and executed in
public squares in the Gaza Strip as soon as the ceasefire went into effect.
Radical change in Palestinian society will come only when Palestinians rise up
against destructive leaders who, over the past few decades, have been dragging
them from one disaster to another.
*Khaled Abu Toameh is an award-winning journalist based in Jerusalem.
*Follow Khaled Abu Toameh on X (formerly Twitter)
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/22027/palestinians-prefer-hamas-armed-struggle
© 2025 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do
not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute. No
part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied
or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone Institute.
Nigeria's Genocide Against Christians 'Spreading Like a
Cancer'
Uzay Bulut/Gatestone Institute/October 30/2025
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/2025/10/148708/
Since 2011, Islamic violence against Nigerian Christians has escalated.
"Our reporters have documented that mass kidnappings of women in Kaduna state in
2023 were in fact aimed at capturing scores of women in Southern Kaduna and
selling them as sex slaves in the Fulani bandit community." — Douglas Burton,
managing editor of "Truth Nigeria," interview with Gatestone Institute, October
2025.
"The chief reason there is so little media attention is that the Nigerian media
themselves have deliberately failed to give a clear picture of who is doing the
violence and why.... Most media appear to be controlled by cash payments from
government spokesmen or others offering 'courtesy gifts.' When the army holds a
presser, every reporter who shows up gets a cash envelope, the more influential
his paper, the bigger the reward -- still the practice in many countries, I
believe. TV reporters get better incentives, and TV executives are said to
receive parcels of real estate in Kaduna State. TruthNigeria reporters tell me
that in previous years they used to take those 'courtesy gifts,' too. Our
reporters find it very hard to get Nigerian public affairs officers to answer
their calls...." — Douglas Burton, October 2025.
U.S. Senator Ted Cruz has introduced the Nigeria Religious Freedom
Accountability Act of 2025. "Nigerian Christians are being targeted and executed
for their faith by Islamist terrorist groups, and are being forced to submit to
sharia law and blasphemy laws across Nigeria. It is long past time to impose
real costs on the Nigerian officials who facilitate these activities, and my
Nigeria Religious Freedom Accountability Act uses new and existing tools to do
exactly that. I urge my colleagues to advance this critical legislation
expeditiously." — Senator Ted Cruz, September 11, 2025.
Many in the U.S. are urgently expecting the Senate to follow Cruz's lead.
Tens of thousands of Christians in Nigeria have been murdered in recent years by
Islamic terrorists, in an ongoing genocide. Other than the massacres, there are
also thousands of church burnings, abductions and forced conversions of
Christian children and women to Islam.
As the genocide against Christians in Nigeria crashes on, a news outlet,
TruthNigeria.com, continues to courageously shed light on the atrocities
committed by jihadists against Nigerians of all religions. "Truth Nigeria,"
according to its website, "had to be launched to slice through the fog of war
and the cloud of false narrative that bedevils mainstream media reporting of
what many call a 'Christian genocide' in Nigeria that has been spreading like a
cancer."
Award-winning journalist Douglas Burton, a former U.S. State Department official
who says, "I serve as managing editor for about 12 freelancers who risk their
lives to lift the veil on the world's most shameful and still barely reported
Christian genocide," was interviewed by Gatestone:
"TruthNigeria.com is a project of Equipping the Persecuted, a humanitarian-aid
nonprofit, chartered in Sioux City, Iowa since 2019. In Nigeria, our reporters
live in or near the war zones of Kaduna, Plateau, Benue and Adamawa states, and
they all have had dramatic introductions to the conflict. All have lost friends
or relatives to Boko Haram or to attacks by Fulani ethnic militia. Others were
citizen journalists reporting about violence on social media who had a passion
to expose the genocide.
"Some of our reporters have been jailed for months at a time for trumped up
charges simply for telling embarrassing truths about oligarchs.
"The team usually see photos and videos on messaging services such as WhatsApp,
or by cell phone text from friends. Sometimes the terrorists themselves make
bragworthy videos of themselves in the bush celebrating by shooting off scores
of bullets; sometimes they send heartbreaking videos of torturing kidnap victims
to the victims' families. But places and locations, and dates are sometimes
figured out. Local hunters and volunteer guards are useful witnesses, and, with
just a small 'courtesy gift,' they often open up."
Since 2011, Islamic violence against Nigerian Christians has escalated.
"In 2010, Nigeria was widely viewed as a rising regional power. It was often
said to be the only nation where radical Islam was actively being pushed back.
While occasional attacks occurred, they were infrequent and met with national
outrage. Importantly, there were effectively zero recognized internally
displaced persons (IDPs). That changed dramatically after 2011. There were
bloody riots in several cities and small towns then due to the election victory
of Goodluck Jonathan, an Igbo and a Christian. At the time, the Boko Haram
('Western learning is forbidden') insurgency was in its second year and growing.
A deadly new phase opened on August 26, 2011, when a terrorist car bombing at
the United Nations House in Abuja claimed the lives of 23 UN employees and
civilians and left over 60 people injured.
"It is rarely mentioned, and even some Nigerians do not seem to comprehend, that
the 28 million Christians living the Middle Belt states are squeezed between two
ethnicities rooted in Islamic identity and vying with each other for supremacy:
the Fulani tribe that came into Nigeria with the Usman Dan Fodio invasion in
1804 vs. the historic Caliphate linked to the Kanuri tribe in Lake Chad.
"The Kanuri's number approximately 8.28 million today, whereas there are
possibly 20 million Fulani, and 30 to 40 million Hausa people. The Fulani Muslim
armies that swept over Northern Nigeria in the first decade of the 19th Century
tried and failed to subjugate the Caliphate of Bornu in Lake Chad. The British
defeated the Fulani emirs in 1895 and ended the slave trade. But the Fulani
Sultan of Sokoto allowed the British colonials to rule indirectly until
independence in 1960. No similar trade-off was made with the Muslim Caliph of
Bornu. Today there are, by some estimates, 50 million residents of the Middle
Belt states, of which 65% are Christian, 10% Muslim. Yet most of these states
are ruled by Muslims, who gain office by election, though these are notoriously
rigged and tainted by violence.
"Since independence from Britain in 1960, there was already a divided nation,
with the northern states overwhelmingly Muslim and the southern states majority
Christian. The departing British colonials had used the northern Muslim elites
as top officers in the Nigerian army, navy and police forces, and key positions
of power in the executive branch were held by Muslims. There is rivalry and bad
blood between the Hausa-Fulani tribes in the north and the Christian Igbo tribes
in the southeastern states. The bloody coup of July 6, 1967, precipitated the
civil war of 1967 and the ensuing genocidal suppression of the breakaway nation
of Biafra."
There are, notes Burton, wildly varying estimates of death counts, including of
Muslims, in Nigeria since the emergence of Boko Haram's violent phase in 2009.
"TruthNigeria considers the most accurate report that of the Belgium-based
Observatory for Religious Freedom in Africa (ORFA). The quadrennial ORFA study
issued in 2024 reported that, between 2019 and 2023, 55,000 citizens were killed
by the range of civil conflict the government calls 'Insecurity'. Of these, ORFA
reports that 19,000 were civilians. This means that 26,000 of the fatalities
were counted either as security personnel or criminals or insurgents. On average
5,000 plus citizens every year are killed either by bandits, jihadists or Fulani
ethnic militia. That is a big undercount: many killings and kidnappings go
unreported. TruthNigeria investigators this year did a 9-part series on mass
hostage camps maintained by Fulani bandits in forests south of Kaduna where many
thousands of kidnapped people have been held for months at a time. We believe
virtually none of these people were noted as kidnapping statistics by government
officials, nor were many of the persons murdered in these camps registered as
fatalities by ORFA.
"ORFA reports show that for every Muslim fatality there are five Christian or
non-Muslims killed. However, much larger numbers have been cited by the UN,
which reported in 2021 that more than 300,000 children had been killed by
conflict, disease and starvation caused by the Boko Haram insurgency."
Other than the massacres, there are also thousands of church burnings,
abductions and forced conversions of Christian children and women to Islam.
"The NGO called Intersociety claims that 12,000 churches have been destroyed by
terrorists, but we cannot confirm that. TruthNigeria has documented forced
conversion and forced marriages of Christian teen girls to Muslim men in
northern states. Our reporters have documented that mass kidnappings of women in
Kaduna state in 2023 were in fact aimed at capturing scores of women in Southern
Kaduna and selling them as sex slaves in the Fulani bandit community.
"Mass rape of Muslim women belonging to "noncooperative" clans is a terrorist
weapon deployed in bandit gangs in several Western states, including Sokoto,
Zamfara and Niger states. Sexual violence against women taken by kidnappers is
very common but rarely reported. There is clear evidence of sectarian selection.
The Fulani bandit gangs in the Northwestern states usually attack mosques that
are aligned with Imams who are not aligned with the Wahabbist forms of theology
advocated by the Izala Islamic center in Jos."
"The chief reason there is so little media attention is that the Nigerian media
themselves have deliberately failed to give a clear picture of who is doing the
violence and why. When I started reporting in 2019, no Nigerian newspaper
identified the ethnicity of the gangs' burning villages in Kaduna State and
murdering scores of people in the middle of the night. The criminals would be
called 'unknown gunmen,' or 'herdsmen,' or 'hooligans.' It appears that obvious
obfuscation was in obeisance to Nigerian officials looking over the shoulders of
their bosses. The official ruse has somewhat worn off in the last year since we
have made a point of showcasing Nigerian mainstream media's dishonesty. Tens of
thousands of Nigerian Christians have been murdered and tortured to death for
years by Fulani tribe ethnic Militia. We broke the taboo from its first
appearance in 2023. Now some are following our lead.
"Besides TruthNigeria and Sahara Reporters, and a couple of investigative
nonprofits, most media appear to be controlled by cash payments from government
spokesmen or others offering 'courtesy gifts.' When the army holds a presser,
every reporter who shows up gets a cash envelope, the more influential his
paper, the bigger the reward -- still the practice in many countries, I believe.
TV reporters get better incentives, and TV executives are said to receive
parcels of real estate in Kaduna State. TruthNigeria reporters tell me that in
previous years they used to take those "courtesy gifts," too. Our reporters find
it very hard to get Nigerian public affairs officers to answer their calls, so
they must use other ways to get official statements from office holders.
TruthNigeria called our hardworking Nigerian scribes out for it on October 22:
'Nigerian Media in Lockstep with Government No-Genocide Narrative.'"
Meanwhile, Burton said, U.S. Senator. Ted Cruz has introduced the Nigeria
Religious Freedom Accountability Act of 2025.
"Government control of the narrative is on flagrant display since Sen. Ted Cruz
of Texas and four of his colleagues announced their bill in November to demand
that the U.S. State Department shame Nigeria as a 'Country of Particular
Concern' and sanction Nigerian officials for enforcing legal punishments for
Blasphemy."
"Nigerian Christians," Cruz said, "are being targeted and executed for their
faith by Islamist terrorist groups, and are being forced to submit to sharia law
and blasphemy laws across Nigeria. It is long past time to impose real costs on
the Nigerian officials who facilitate these activities, and my Nigeria Religious
Freedom Accountability Act uses new and existing tools to do exactly that. I
urge my colleagues to advance this critical legislation expeditiously."
Many in the U.S. are urgently expecting the Senate to follow Cruz's lead.
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/22019/nigeria-genocide-against-christians
**Uzay Bulut, a Turkish journalist, is a Distinguished Senior Fellow at
Gatestone Institute.
© 2025 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do
not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute.
When It Comes To Africa, Genocide Seems To Be In The Eye Of
The Beholder
Amb. Alberto M. Fernandez/MEMRI//October 30/2025
That there is widespread and long-lasting slaughter of Christians in Nigeria
(and elsewhere in Africa) there is no doubt.[1] In response to cries in the West
that genocide is being committed against Christians, some officials in Nigeria
have pushed back, minimizing the religious and ethnic dimension of the mass
killings.This view – that what is happening in Nigeria is not terrorism and not
religiously or ethnically based – is not new. Fifteen years ago, when I was a
diplomat in the State Department's Africa Bureau (AF), I heard the same
explanation from our leadership (who heard it from the Nigerians): The problem
was not terrorism but merely conflict between pastoralists and farmers.
This is the context of an opinion piece that appeared in Al-Jazeera English on
October 2, 2025 by an advisor to Nigeria's Vice President. The piece lamented
that "coordinated attacks on Nigeria's nationhood have swept across social
media, blogs and television outlets, alleging a so-called 'Christian genocide.'
These attacks, driven by foreign actors, mischaracterize Nigeria's domestic
conflicts, ignore its complexities and manipulate longstanding ethnic and
resource-based tensions to advance sectarian agendas."[2]
There is no doubt that conflicts are always complicated and Nigeria is no
different. Some of the violence in that country is perpetrated by terrorist
groups, some by ethnic Fulani militias, some by criminal bandit gangs, of which
there is an abundance.[3] Both Muslims and Christians are victims and many
Nigerians blame the government – a weak and corrupt, absent and incompetent
state – as the ultimate reason for the violence.
Still others have noted that the problem was not so much the state or the
government but a specific government, the former regime of President Muhammadu
Buhari, and that the current government of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu was far
better in terms of interfaith relations and fighting terrorism.[4] But
"ethnicity and religion" do matter greatly in Nigeria's conflict, something that
Al-Jazeera's opinion piece downplays.[5] As one Nigerian Catholic bishop noted
recently, it is "too shallow to say that Nigeria's violence is only about
religion and it is equally false to deny that religion plays a part at all."[6]
There is, of course, great irony in this piece appearing in Al-Jazeera, an
Islamist media outlet funded by the state of Qatar. Al-Jazeera, in both Arabic
and English, has been in the forefront of trumpeting that the terrible war
unleashed by Hamas on October 7, 2023, was an example of Israeli genocide
against Palestinians in Gaza.[7] That the war saw the death of many Gazan
civilians there is no doubt. The war between Hamas and the IDF was fought within
the dense urban fabric of the Gaza Strip; this was always an essential part of
the terrorist group's defense strategy after its invasion of Israel.[8]
As far as I can recall, Al-Jazeera generally does not see genocide at all when
it involves Christians or Jews as victims (except maybe when Palestinian
Christians can be portrayed as victims of Israel). The network has decades of
experience in downplaying the killing of Christians – whether by ISIS or by
Islamists like the Muslim Brotherhood – at the hands of Muslim perpetrators.
This is not so surprising given the network's longstanding Islamist world
view.[9]
With the war in Gaza seemingly (for the moment) ending and most of the world not
very interested in what is happening in distant Ukraine, global attention has
finally shifted to what has been the world's worst humanitarian crisis: the war
in Sudan.[10]
Here the "genocide" word discounted in Nigeria has emerged again with supreme
irony.[11] I was in Sudan when Al-Jazeera assured us that what was happening in
Sudan was not genocide – neither in Darfur nor in South Sudan – almost 20 years
ago. Today, Al-Jazeera says that was is happening in Sudan is genocide.[12] How
can it be that the same conflict, committed by some of the same people in the
same places against the same victims, was not genocide 20 years ago but is
genocide today?
The reason is that 20 years ago, Al-Jazeera and its patron Qatar were closely
allied with the Islamist regime of President Omar al-Bashir that was committing
the killings in Darfur. So, they downplayed the slaughter then. Back then,
Al-Jazeera decried American "interference" in Sudan's affairs, today they call
for America to take a side in Sudan.
Today the national security establishment in Sudan that committed the slaughter
20 years ago has split. Part of it, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), are allied
to one Gulf state (United Arab Emirates) while the other, the Sudanese Armed
Forces (SAF) is allied to another Gulf state (Qatar). RSF has support from
regional states in Libya, Chad, and Ethiopia. SAF has support from regional
states in Egypt and Eritrea. The Russians have supported both sides. Rivals Iran
and Turkey have supported SAF. Despite the rhetoric in some quarters,[13] both
RSF and SAF (General Al-Burhan met with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu in
Uganda in 2020) are open to ties with Israel. Neither Israel nor the United
States are a major factor in the civil war.
The Janjaweed Darfur Arab fighters of the RSF were an integral part of the
Bashir regime, and were directed and armed by the military, the same military
that fights them today. An honest person who respects the historical record
could say that the conflict between RSF and SAF is between two genocidal forces
(or between two "merely" brutal and hypocritical belligerents). One thing is
clear: Neither SAF nor the RSF ever purged themselves of the violence of the
past; both are largely the same institutions they were before, often led by the
same perpetrators.
One can say that the actions of the Janjaweed today are more "genocidal" than
the actions of SAF today, that RSF has uniformly behaved more brutally in the
war than SAF has, although neither side has clean hands. The whitewash is not
limited to one side.[14] To a large extent, the conflict does juxtapose the
"chaos" of the RSF to the "tyranny" of SAF. Both sides fight fiercely – the
Sudanese in general are brave and good fighters – but SAF has much more
experience in running things, albeit with a heavy hand. One truth often obscured
is that neither belligerent – neither SAF nor RSF – fully represent the Sudanese
people, a multifaceted polity with a complex political and social reality on the
ground.[15]
That the army-controlled government functions more as a government than whatever
rudimentary civil administration RSF has in place should not be a surprise. SAF
represents the military arm of Sudan's traditional Northern Nile elite who have,
since independence, governed (or misgoverned) Sudan.
The Janjaweed or RSF are the epitome of something Khartoum did for decades –
unleashing rude, marginalized tribal levies to wreak mayhem and slaughter
against their enemies. When they boast about what they are doing today, the RSF
is following a pattern going back decades, all done under the watchful eye of
the central government in Khartoum. But the RSF in 2019 and 2023 turned against
their more "civilized" masters. What Khartoum had used against the distant Dinka
and Nuer of the South, the Nuba of Kordofan, and the African tribes of Darfur
was now turned against Khartoum itself. In the end, for RSF and SAF, for
Al-Jazeera and Qatar, and for others with vested interests, it turned out that
genocide is not what my friends and I did against "them," but what "they" do
against me and mine.
*Alberto Fernandez is Vice President of MEMRI.
Why Trump’s Israel ultimatum is a reassertion of US control
Dr. Ramzy Baroud/Arab News/October 30/2025
“We’re scared that another war will break out, because we don’t want a war.
We’ve suffered two years of displacement. We don’t know where to go or where to
come,” said a displaced man, Fathi Al-Najjar, in Khan Younis in southern Gaza.
At the tent encampment where Najjar spoke, girls and boys were filling plastic
bottles with water from metal containers placed on the side of the street, and
women cooked food for their families using clay-made firewood ovens.
Return of deceased hostages
Under the ceasefire accord, Hamas released all living hostages in return for
nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and wartime detainees, while Israel pulled
back its troops and agreed to halt its offensive. Hamas also agreed to hand over
the remains of all 28 dead hostages.
The militant group handed over two more bodies it said were of deceased Israeli
hostages on Thursday. The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
said that the two bodies had been received by Israeli forces via the Red Cross
in Gaza and will be transported into Israel for identification. Hamas agreed to
hand over the remains of all 28 dead hostages in exchange for 360 Palestinian
militants killed in the war. Up to Thursday it had handed over 15 bodies. The
recovery and handover of bodies of hostages in Gaza has been one of the
obstacles to US President Donald Trump’s Gaza plan, with Israel claiming that
Hamas has been delaying the handover, an accusation Hamas denies. From Tuesday
into Wednesday, Israel retaliated for the death of an Israeli soldier with
bombardments that Gaza health authorities said killed 104 people. Witnesses in
Gaza said they did not see strikes on Thursday outside of the area Israel
controls.
Women and children killed
Israel says the soldier was killed in an attack by gunmen on territory within
the so-called “yellow line” to which its troops withdrew under the ceasefire.
Hamas has rejected the accusation. The Israeli military issued a list of 26
militants it said it had targeted during the bombardment earlier this week,
including one it said was a Hamas commander who participated in the October 7,
2023 assault on Israel that ignited the war. The Hamas-run Gaza government media
office said Israel’s list was part of a “systematic campaign of misinformation”
to cover up “crimes against civilians in Gaza.”
The Gaza health ministry said 46 children and 20 women were among the 104 people
killed in the airstrikes. Sources close to international efforts to sustain the
ceasefire said US and regional mediators swiftly intervened to restore calm as
Israel and Hamas traded blame.
Strikes raise doubts in Gaza
People in the Gaza Strip, most of which had been reduced to wasteland, feared
the tenuous truce would fall apart, saying that the last two days, in which they
were deprived of sleep, felt like a revival of the two-year war. “The situation
is extremely difficult. The war is still ongoing, and we have no hope that it
will end, because of the conditions we are witnessing in the life we are
living,” said Mohammed Al-Sheikh. The war has displaced most of Gaza’s more than
two million people, some of them several times. Many haven’t yet returned to
their areas, fearing they could soon be displaced once again. Gaza health
authorities say 68,000 people are confirmed killed in the Israeli campaign and
thousands more are missing. Israel launched the war after Hamas-led fighters
attacked southern Israel, killing 1,200 people and bringing 251 hostages back to
Gaza, according to Israeli tallies.
Joint initiative is the most realistic hope of ending Sudan
war
Dr. Majid Rafizadeh/Arab News/October 30, 2025
The devastating conflict in Sudan, between the Sudanese Armed Forces and Rapid
Support Forces has brought catastrophic human suffering as well as political
disintegration, and regional instability. Years of intermittent mediation
efforts and repeated ceasefires have failed to yield positive results. But a
credible and realistic mechanism has emerged: the International Quartet,
composed of the US, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE. These four powers have
come together to form a joint committee with the objective of coordinating
immediate priorities in Sudan; the most important goal is achieving an urgent
humanitarian truce. The convergence of these four influential powers represents
a critical development when it comes to international diplomacy and Sudan’s war
due to the fact that it represents a distinct and rare alignment of global and
regional interests. In addition, this initiative signals a long-overdue
recognition that Sudan’s suffering should not be disregarded and that its people
deserve stability and peace. Another key significance of the quartet is anchored
in the intersection of global influence and regional legitimacy that it bears;
Each of the four countries can play a unique role. The US can bring diplomatic
leverage, economic influence, as well as the ability to mobilize multilateral
institutions and humanitarian organizations and mechanisms. Egypt, on the other
hand, is Sudan’s direct neighbor and shares deep historical, cultural, and
economic ties with Khartoum. As a result, it has strategic concerns over the
Nile River, border security, and refugee flows, which make Sudan’s stability an
existential interest. In addition, Saudi Arabia and the UAE add a crucial
dimension of Gulf economic power and political mediation experience. Both
regional powers have played key roles in previous peace processes across the
Middle East and Africa, from Yemen to Libya. Together, the alignment of these
four powers brings a mission and coherence to what has long been considered a
divided and fragmented international response. The four countries can help when
it comes to different facets, including humanitarian priorities, geopolitical
influence, and financial resources.
Millions displaced by violence could gain a respite.
One of the critical aspects of the initiative, which makes it credible and
unique, is that it represents a structured and phased road map. First, there
would be a joint operational committee; second phase is a three-month
humanitarian truce to stop the violence and facilitate aid delivery; third phase
is a permanent ceasefire to consolidate stability; and fourth phase is a longer
nine-month transition process aimed at restoring a civilian-led government. The
initiative is distinguished by its clarity and sequencing. Unlike many past
efforts, the quartet’s framework is clearly outlined with a coherent plan and it
contains humanitarian, political, and governance objectives.
This initiative is currently the most valid path toward ending the conflict in
Sudan for several intertwined and interconnected reasons. First, the war in
Sudan has reached a military and political stalemate, with neither the SAF nor
the RSF appearing capable of achieving a decisive victory. Generally, as the
human cost escalates and the conflict stagnates, external diplomatic pressure
becomes increasingly important and decisive. In this case, the quartet is
creating the ripe external environment by uniting actors with direct leverage
over both sides for de-escalation.
Second, the initiative is not idealistic; it is realistic due to the fact that
it recognizes that there is no viable military solution to the conflict. Both
sides in the conflict appear to have exhausted their resources. This means that
continued fighting only ratchets up humanitarian catastrophe and the risk of
state collapse.
Third, the plan does not view the truce as an end in itself but as an entry
point to a broader political transition toward civilian rule. Fourth, each
member of the quartet has different influence to capitalize on; for example, the
US can apply diplomatic and economic pressure, Egypt can negotiate with the SAF
leadership, and the Gulf states can provide reconstruction aid and economic
incentives. In my view, one of the most important aspects of this initiative is
the call for a three-month humanitarian ceasefire since an end to hostilities
would allow for the reopening of humanitarian corridors, the delivery of food
and medical supplies, as well as the restoration of basic infrastructure in
devastated regions such as Khartoum, Darfur, and Kordofan. In addition, millions
of Sudanese displaced by violence could gain a respite, while aid agencies could
operate safely. The truce would also allow hospitals to resume limited
operations, and it would enable water and electricity systems to be repaired.
Finally, we should not forget that the formation of this quartet and its
decision to act collectively is a powerful acknowledgment that Sudan’s plight
matters. It conveys that the suffering of Sudanese civilians has not been
disregarded and forgotten.
Stability in Sudan is also essential for protecting Red Sea trade routes, as
well as ensuring the stability of the Horn of Africa, and maintaining the
security of neighboring states. In a nutshell, the International Quartet’s
initiative, uniting the four countries involved, is currently the most credible,
realistic, and comprehensive diplomatic framework to resolve the war in Sudan.
The strength of this initiative lies in the convergence of global authority and
regional legitimacy, and more importantly, the structured and phased approach
focusing on humanitarian relief and long-term governance.
**Dr. Majid Rafizadeh is a Harvard-educated Iranian American political
scientist. X: @Dr_Rafizadeh
Selected X Tweets for October
30/2025
Lindsey Graham's Response To Aoun's request
to the Lebanese Army Chief fight the Israeli Army
To my friends in Lebanon, I understand being upset when innocent people are
killed or harmed by Israeli military operations designed to suppress Hezbollah,
a historical threat to the State of Israel. However, I firmly believe that
Israel’s military incursions into Lebanon are designed to suppress the
reemergence of Hezbollah -- a radical, Islamic terrorist organization tied to
Iran that has been threatening and attacking Israelis, Americans, and Lebanese
for decades. If Hezbollah were disarmed, Israel’s military actions would cease.
There have been encouraging statements coming from Lebanon about the desire to
disarm Hezbollah, turning over all weapons to the Lebanese military. These
statements need to be acted upon in a real way. The idea of the Lebanese
military joining forces with Hezbollah to combat Israel would put in jeopardy
everything that I and many others are trying to do to help Lebanon move forward.
Pope Leo XIV
The first of the new educational challenges is the education of the interior
life. It’s not enough to possess great knowledge if we don’t know who we are or
what the meaning of life is. We can know a lot about the world and still ignore
our own hearts. To educate for the interior life means listening to our
restlessness, not fleeing from it or trying to numb it with things that don’t
satisfy.
Hussain Abdul-Hussain
Marcel Ghanem to Geagea: You're the bravest of all Lebanese politicians, when
are you going to call for peace with #Israel? Are you scared that they'll accuse
you of treason?
Geagea: We have priorities, first disarm Hezbollah, then we'll talk about peace,
and we have to coordinate it with Arab countries (a caveat I disagree with).
Hussain Abdul-Hussain
#Lebanon Christian bloc chief Samir Geagea says #Israel held election in the
middle of war in Gaza, took ballot boxes to troops on the front. Lebanon must
hold elections regularly and in a timely manner.