The Times of Israel liveblogged Saturday’s events as they happened.
The IDF says the sirens activated in the Gaza border community of Sufa a short while ago were false alarms.
The alert was apparently set off by Israeli military activity in the area.
Rocket sirens are sounding in the Gaza border community of Sufa.
The IDF says it is looking into the details.
Former hostage Sharon Alony Cunio, whose husband David remains in Hamas captivity in Gaza and is thought to be alive, accuses the government of life-threatening procrastination in the release of the remaining 48 captives. Her remarks come days after an IDF strike targeting Hamas’s leadership in Qatar.
“Netanyahu opposes the approach that he himself initiated,” she says in a speech at a rally in Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square, presumably referring to the prime minister rejecting a temporary hostage deal, which he had once said he preferred. “The negotiations have been cut off again, and this time with fire and pillars of smoke. Every delay is a mortal danger.”
“I am not prepared to become a widow because of hesitancy or torpedoing” of a ceasefire and hostage-release deal, she continues. “I am not prepared to become another name in the list of victims of government obtuseness. I am demanding to save David’s life and those of all the living hostages, and to bring back all the fallen hostages now.”
Her husband, she says, remained in captivity “when Israel decided to thwart the second deal” earlier this year, “and also when Israel went on an assassination mission in Qatar” this Tuesday, a reference to the strike, which Netanyahu hinted earlier today had failed.
“I’m dying of fear. What is he going through now?” she asks.
“We won’t let our country enter a ‘hostage routine,'” she says. “There will be no routine here until they come back — in a deal.”
Former captives Keith and Aviva Siegel also call for a deal.
“This is not just an emotional duty, not just a moral duty,” says Keith. “It’s a Jewish, national and human duty.”
Fourteen-year-old former hostage Alma Or, whose parents were murdered in the Hamas onslaught of October 7, 2023, that began the war, and the remains of whose father, Dror, remain in captivity, says slain captive Carmel Gat, with whom she was abducted, “could have been with us, alive, had the deal happened in time.”
“Some things can no longer be changed, but bringing my father back for the burial he so deserves — that’s possible,” she says. “A girl should not have to beg for her father’s remains.”
“October 7 has to end,” she says. “Everyone must come back, in a deal, now.”
Thousands of people gathered in front of Berlin’s landmark Brandenburg Gate on Saturday for an anti-Israel, pro-Palestinian rally demanding an end to “the genocide in Gaza” as well as a halt to arms deliveries to Ukraine.
Around 12,000 people joined the rally in the center of the German capital condemning Israel’s war against Hamas in the territory, according to police figures.
But the far-left BSW party, which had called the demonstration, estimated turnout at 20,000 people, making it one of the largest pro-Palestinian rallies in Germany in recent months.
In light of its historical responsibility for the Holocaust, Germany has made support for the State of Israel a cornerstone of its foreign policy. But German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has become critical of the war in Gaza and announced a partial arms embargo in August, saying that his country would halt the export of military equipment that could be used in the Gaza Strip.
Marie Atwan, a 20-year-old student, told AFP that she had come from Hamburg to join the rally to demand “a complete halt to German arms deliveries” to Israel.
Not banning those weapons sales amounted to supporting “the genocide in Gaza”, she said. Israel adamantly rejects the charge that it is committing genocide, saying it makes efforts to avoid civilian casualties and accusing Hamas of putting noncombatants in harm’s way.
During the rally, BSW founder Sahra Wagenknecht also touched on the war in Ukraine, demanding that Berlin commit “to peace negotiations — both in the Middle East and in Ukraine.”
The United States is “not happy” about Israel’s airstrikes targeting Hamas leaders in Qatar, but the attack will not change Washington’s allied status with Israel, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Saturday as he departed for the region.
“Obviously, we were not happy about it, the president was not happy about it,” he told reporters shortly before departing Washington for discussions with officials in Israel, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. On Saturday night, Netanyahu hinted in a social media post that the strike had failed to kill the terror group’s leadership.
“It’s not going to change the nature of our relationship with the Israelis, but we are going to have to talk about it — primarily, what impact does this have” on the diplomatic efforts to bring about a truce in war-ravaged Gaza, Rubio added.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio will visit the Western Wall together tomorrow at 2 p.m., according to Netanyahu’s office.
The PMO has not announced if the two plan to sit for a formal working meeting as well this week.
Maccabit Meyer, aunt of twin captives Gali and Ziv Berman, assails Israel’s decision to target Hamas’s top brass in a strike in Doha on Tuesday, which appears to have set back talks for a Gaza hostage-release and ceasefire deal.
She speaks before a crowd of thousands at Hostages Square in Tel Aviv.
“Now of all times it’s necessary to eliminate the political arm [of Hamas] because there’s an opportunity,” she says sarcastically, as the crowd jeers. “There are opportunities for everything except for Gali and Ziv and the rest of the 48 hostages.”
“Where the hell is the shame,” she asks. “How can it be that nobody [in the government] shouts, ‘Enough’?”
Addressing the government, she asks: “Where are your heart and conscience? How are you not afraid we’ll get back 48 coffins — maybe fewer because some will disappear?”
“This will be your shame forever,” she says. “The people want them back and the people will remember… you’ve messed with the wrong people.”
Amid growing signs that the Israeli strike on Hamas leaders in Qatar on Tuesday failed, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hints strongly that they are still alive and should be targeted again.
“The Hamas terrorists cheifs [sic] living in Qatar don’t care about the people in Gaza,” writes Netanyahu on X.
“They blocked all ceasefire attempts in order to endlessly drag out the war,” he continues.
“Getting rid of them would rid the main obstacle to releasing all our hostages and ending the war,” he concludes in a post uncharacteristically containing a typo, written shortly after the end of Shabbat.
The Hamas terrorists cheifs living in Qatar don't care about the people in Gaza.
They blocked all ceasefire attempts in order to endlessly drag out the war.
Getting rid of them would rid the main obstacle to releasing all our hostages and ending the war.
— Benjamin Netanyahu – בנימין נתניהו (@netanyahu) September 13, 2025
Hamas has said its leaders were not killed in the strike in Doha, which drew international condemnation.
IDF troops sealed the West Bank homes of the two Palestinian terrorists who carried out the deadly shooting attack in Jerusalem last week, the military says.
The two gunmen, Mohammad Taha, 21, from Qatanna, and Muthanna Amro, 20, from Qubeiba, murdered six people and wounded over a dozen others at Ramot Junction before being killed by an off-duty soldier and armed civilians.
As a matter of policy, Israel demolishes the homes of Palestinians accused of carrying out deadly terror attacks. The homes of the two gunmen have already been surveyed for a potential demolition.
Sealing the homes of attackers is often a replacement or stopgap for demolishing them. In general, the demolition process takes several months, as the High Court must address appeals by the family, and security forces often wait for an optimal time to enter Palestinian cities or neighborhoods for the operation.
In the past week, the IDF says troops also detained over 20 suspects in the hometowns of the terrorists and scanned over 700 sites. In addition, the Civil Administration, a Defense Ministry body under COGAT, demolished illegal structures in the two villages.
כוחות צה״ל מחטיבת בנימין אטמו את בתי המחבלים שביצעו את הפיגוע בצומת רמות
כוחות צה״ל מחטיבת בנימין פעלו אתמול, להחרמה ולאטימה של בתיהם של המחבלים מחמד טהה ומותנא עומר שביצעו את הפיגוע מוקדם יותר השבוע, בצומת רמות בירושלים, בו נרצחו שישה אזרחים ישראלים ונפצעו אזרחים נוספים.
גורמי… pic.twitter.com/RLqprBMI7P
— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) September 13, 2025
Tens of thousands of Palestinians evacuated Gaza City over the past day, bringing the total number of those who left the area in recent weeks to around 280,000, according to IDF estimates.
Around one million Palestinians were estimated to be residing in Gaza City before the IDF began to prepare for a major offensive against Hamas there.
On Tuesday, the IDF ordered all of Gaza City to evacuate immediately ahead of the planned offensive.
Civilians have been instructed to head for an Israeli-designated humanitarian zone in the Strip’s south.
More than 100,000 people massed today in central London for the march and rally organized by far-right activist Tommy Robinson.
His latest “Unite the Kingdom” event saw attendees march over Westminster Bridge before rallying near Downing Street for speeches by far-right figures from across Europe and North America.
“The silent majority will be silent no longer,” Robinson told the crowd. “Today is the spark of a cultural revolution.”
???????? #London flooded with crowds ahead of Tommy Robinson’s Unite the Kingdom rally #CharlieKirk
Streets packed 2.5 hours before start — police preparing for up to 1 million attendees. Could be Europe’s largest demonstration ever
British patriots are chanting the name of Charlie… pic.twitter.com/A8GdABBNwy— Uncensored News (@Uncensorednewsw) September 13, 2025
“Every day in the papers you read things and you’re being left stunned — arresting people because they dared to talk about immigration or gender issues,” Philip Dodge, a retired baker from Sheffield, central England, tells AFP.
He traveled with his wife to the event, which was also being watched by hundreds of thousands of viewers on livestreams.
“I’m very concerned. I never thought I’d see this in this country.”
Several relatives of hostages who are intensely critical of the government give their weekly statement outside IDF Headquarters in Tel Aviv, ahead of planned rallies across the country.
“This week we witnessed the prime minister’s grand failure, when he gambled with the hostages’ lives and tried to eliminate Hamas’s negotiating team while talks were underway on a deal for our sons’ release,” says Einav Zangauker, mother of hostage Matan Zangauker.
“President Trump said yesterday that every time there is progress in the negotiations, Netanyahu bombs someone,” she says, in reference to comments made anonymously by an official close to the administration when describing Trump’s frustration.
“But it wasn’t Hamas leaders he tried to bomb — it was our chance, the families’ [chance] to get our loved ones back. It was our hope, as citizens, to live normal lives, our Zionism, and the future of the state.”
Itzik Horn, father of Hamas hostage Eitan Horn, says, “One madman, together with a bunch of lunatics called the cabinet, decided to do everything in their power to bring about the death of my son Eitan.
“I call on you — let’s sit down face to face, father to father. No media, no spin, no leaks. Just answer me one question: if your children were among the hostages, would they also be rotting in the tunnels for 700 days? So why should our children?”
The University of California, Berkeley has said it has submitted the names of students, faculty, and staff tied to alleged antisemitism cases to federal authorities, in response to a Trump administration investigation into universities charged with failing to safeguard Jewish students, The New York Times says.
The university says some 160 people have been told that their names appeared in documents sent to the Department of Education. These included people accused as well as accusers and alleged victims.
The institution says it acted under direction from the University of California system’s Office of the General Counsel.
The administration has threatened multiple universities with loss of federal funding as well as the right to enroll international students, focusing on elite institutions, which it has accused of serving as centers of political indoctrination and antisemitism.
Many thousands of protesters are marching through central London, carrying flags of England and Britain, for a demonstration organized by the anti-immigrant and anti-Islam activist Tommy Robinson.
????NEW: Image of Tommy Robinsons "Unite the Kingdom" rally in London pic.twitter.com/Trx0SGKJf0
— GB Politics (@GBPolitcs) September 13, 2025
Police have said they will have a huge presence in the British capital. A “Stand Up to Racism” counter protest is also due to meet nearby, following a highly charged summer in Britain that has seen protests over immigration and free speech.
By midday, tens of thousands of protesters packed into the streets south of the River Thames, before heading toward Westminster, seat of the UK parliament.
Demonstrators carry the Union flag of Britain and the red and white St George’s Cross of England, while others brought American and Israeli flags and wear the MAGA hats of US President Donald Trump. They chant slogans critical of Prime Minister Keir Starmer and carry placards, including some saying “send them home.”
A Hezbollah operative was killed in an Israeli drone strike in southern Lebanon’s Aitaroun last night, the military says.
According to the IDF, the operative was involved in restoring Hezbollah infrastructure in southern Lebanon, in violation of a ceasefire agreement.
US President Donald Trump has issued a letter to NATO nations urging them to stop buying Russian oil and impose major sanctions on Russia to end its war in Ukraine.
“I am ready to do major sanctions on Russia when all NATO nations have agreed, and started, to do the same thing, and when all NATO nations stop buying oil from Russia,” he says in a social media post.
He proposes that NATO, as a group, place 50-100% tariffs on China to weaken its economic grip over Russia.
This follows Trump’s earlier threats of sanctions on Moscow and secondary sanctions on countries buying its oil, such as top buyers China and India, if no progress is made to end the war in Ukraine.
The president has imposed an additional 25% tariff on Indian goods, citing its continued imports of Russian oil, but has not taken similar action against China.
Egypt is looking to gain Arab nations’ support for a NATO-style Arab force that would protect Arab countries facing attack, Lebanon’s Al-Akhbar newspaper reports, citing an unnamed official in Cairo.
The report notes the proposal was first made some nine years ago, but did not advance. While the report does not say so outright, it suggests that Israel’s recent strike on Hamas leaders in Qatar has given new impetus to the initiative.
It says the Egypt is proposing to include some 20,000 of its own military personnel in the force and is working on developing the mechanism by which such a force would be activated, “allowing it to be used when necessary and forming it in a manner consistent with the populations of Arab countries and their armed forces, while taking into account regional and political balances in the formation, whether in terms of the inclusion of military personnel from countries such as Morocco and Algeria, or sharing command positions,” according to the official.
“Cairo wants to retain the first command position while granting the second to Saudi Arabia or one of the Gulf states,” he added.
The IDF says it struck a high-rise tower that was being used by Hamas in Gaza City a short while ago, shortly after issuing an evacuation warning for Palestinians in the area.
According to the military, Hamas placed military infrastructure in the building to advance attacks on IDF troops in the area.
عاجل| طيران الاحتلال يقصف برج النور السكني قرب وزارة التربية والتعليم في حي تل الهوا جنوب غربي مدينة غزة. pic.twitter.com/ZDJUjkzxJh
— شبكة قدس الإخبارية (@qudsn) September 13, 2025
The IDF issues an evacuation warning for Palestinians residing in the vicinity of a high-rise building in Gaza City ahead of an airstrike.
“The IDF will strike the building soon due to the presence of Hamas terror infrastructure inside or nearby,” the IDF’s Arabic-language spokesman Col. Avichay Adraee says.
Civilians are instructed to leave Gaza City for the Israeli-designated “humanitarian zone” in the Strip’s south.
The IDF has called in recent days on Palestinian civilians in all of Gaza City to head for the humanitarian zone, ahead of a major offensive against Hamas.
Out of the one million Palestinians who were in Gaza City, more than 250,000 have evacuated, according to IDF estimates.
#عاجل ‼️ إلى كل من لم يخل بعد منطقة مدينة غزة وخاصة في البلوكات 727، 786، 726، 784، وبشكل خاص برج النور المحدد باللون الأحمر والخيام القريبة منه والواقع في شارع صفد
⭕️سيهاجم جيش الدفاع المبنى في الوقت القريب نظرًا لوجود بنى تحتية إرهابية لحماس داخله أو بجواره
⭕️من أجل سلامتكم… pic.twitter.com/8HhO2Pjn76
— افيخاي ادرعي (@AvichayAdraee) September 13, 2025
Palestinian factions began handing over weapons from Lebanon’s largest refugee camp today, a Palestinian official says, as part of a push by the government to disarm non-state groups.
Abdel Hadi al-Asadi, of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), says the umbrella group conducted “the operation of delivering new batches of weapons.”
Five truckloads of weapons were handed over in the southern Ain al-Hilweh camp, the largest in the country, and three more from the northern Beddawi camp, he says.
An AFP journalist in the area reported Lebanese army vehicles posted around the camp, preventing anyone from approaching.
The densely-populated Beddawi camp, near the northern city of Tripoli, was hit last year by Israeli strikes that killed a Hamas commander, his wife and two daughters, according to the Palestinian group.
Hamas and its ally Islamic Jihad, both not part of the PLO, which has begun handing over weapons, have not announced plans to disarm in Lebanon.
Lebanon hosts about 222,000 Palestinian refugees, according to the United Nations agency UNRWA, with many living in overcrowded camps outside of the state’s control.
During a visit to Beirut in May, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas agreed with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun that weapons in Lebanon’s Palestinian refugee camps would be handed over to the Lebanese authorities. The process began last month, when the army received weapons from camps around Beirut and southern Lebanon.
Qatar says it will host a summit of Arab and Muslim leaders to denounce Israel’s attack on Hamas officials in Doha and to show solidarity with the Gulf state.
Monday’s meeting will consider “a draft resolution on the Israeli attack on the State of Qatar” to be drafted Sunday at a ministerial meeting, says foreign ministry spokesman Majed al-Ansari.
The summit reflects “broad Arab and Islamic solidarity with the State of Qatar in the face of Israel’s cowardly aggression… and the categorical rejection of Israel’s state terrorism,” he says, quoted by the official QNA news agency.
Among the leaders attending will be Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will also be in Doha, but his presence at the meeting is yet to be confirmed.
The Israeli military is dropping leaflets urging residents in western districts of Gaza City to evacuate, as Gaza’s Hamas-run civil defense agency reports continuous air strikes.
“The Israeli army is operating with very intense force in your area and is determined to dismantle and defeat Hamas,” the leaflets read.
“For your safety, evacuate immediately via Al-Rashid Street to the south of Wadi Gaza. You have been warned.”
There are reports of intense IDF strikes in Gaza City’s Shati camp.
There is no immediate comment from the military.
غارات عنيفة تستهدف بنايات سكنية ومدارس في مخيم الشاطئ غرب مدينة غزة pic.twitter.com/PtiMHEUnSJ
— athabat network (@AthabatNetwork) September 13, 2025
London police will deploy extra officers on Saturday as right-wing, anti-immigrant protesters and opposing anti-racism demonstrators stage rival rallies, raising concerns over potential clashes.
A “Unite the Kingdom” march organized by anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim activist Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, also known as Tommy Robinson, is due to meet near London’s Waterloo Bridge before making its way to the southern end of Whitehall where a rally will take place.
A counter-protest, organized by “Stand Up To Racismת” is due to gather at the other end of Whitehall, the main thoroughfare towards parliament.
The Unite the Kingdom march is expected to mourn Charlie Kirk, the American conservative activist assassinated on Wednesday as he gave a talk at a university in Utah.
London’s Metropolitan Police says barriers will be in place to create space between the two groups.
It says more than 1,600 officers will be deployed across London, including 500 brought in from other forces, as in addition to the marches there are high-profile soccer fixtures including West Ham versus Tottenham, concerts and other events.
Around 1,000 officers will be on duty at the marches.
Last Saturday, nearly 900 people were arrested at a London demonstration against the ban on the group Palestine Action.
A Turkish prosecutor ordered the detention of 48 suspects, including the mayor of Istanbul’s opposition-run Bayrampasa district, as part of a corruption investigation, state broadcaster TRT Haber says.
The police carried out early morning raids at 72 locations to seize documents and detain suspects on charges including embezzlement, bribery, and tender rigging, according to TRT Haber.
In a post on X, Bayrampasa Mayor Hasan Mutlu, from the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), says he had nothing to hide and calls the investigation “a political operation based on unfounded slander.”
The detentions come amidst a nearly year-long crackdown on the CHP and CHP-run municipalities, in which hundreds of party members have been arrested and jailed.
A court ruling due on Monday could remove the leader of the CHP in a case widely seen as a test of the country’s fragile balance between democratic institutions and centralized power, increasing the legal pressure on the party.
UK police say that officers investigating a series of antisemitic incidents in north London have arrested a 37-year-old man.
The man was arrested in the Hendon area of north London on suspicion of religiously motivated criminal damage in connection with seven offenses and remains in custody, the Metropolitan Police say.
“This is a significant development in our investigation following substantial CCTV enquiries by officers,” says detective Luke Williams.
The force said Thursday that seven Jewish premises, including four synagogues, had been targeted in separate incidents over recent weeks.
The synagogues and a private residence in Golders Green had feces smeared on them, while urine was thrown toward a school and over a car in two other instances.
Dozens of protesters rally outside the home of Education Minister Yoav Kisch, calling for a hostage-ceasefire deal and an end to the war.
Demonstrators carry posters reading “educates to abandon (our) brothers” and “educates to silence.”
The Houthis in Yemen take responsibility for the overnight ballistic missile attack on Israel, claiming to have targeted “several sensitive targets” in Tel Aviv using a projectile with a cluster bomb warhead.
According to the military, the missile was successfully intercepted.
There is no comment from the IDF on the claim that the projectile was fitted with a cluster bomb warhead.
There were no reports of injuries or damage, but the attack triggered sirens at around 3:45 a.m. in Tel Aviv and a large number of towns and communities in central Israel.
The Iran-backed Houthis have fired several missiles with cluster bomb warheads at Israel in recent weeks.
A teenager suspected in a shooting attack at a suburban Denver high school that left two students in critical condition appeared fascinated with previous mass shootings including Columbine and expressed neo-Nazi views online, according to experts.
Since December, Desmond Holly, 16, had been active on an online forum where users watch videos of killings and violence, mixed in with content on white supremacism and antisemitism, the Anti-Defamation League’s Center on Extremism says in a report.
Holly shot himself following Wednesday’s shooting at Evergreen High School in Jefferson County. He died of his injuries. It is still unclear how he selected his victims. The county was also the scene of the 1999 Columbine High School massacre that killed 14 people.
Holly’s TikTok accounts contained white supremacist symbols, the ADL says, and the name of his most recent account includes a reference to a popular white supremacist slogan. The account was unavailable Friday. TikTok says accounts associated with Holly have been banned.
Holly’s family could not be reached. The Associated Press left a message at a telephone number associated with the house that police searched after the shooting.
A spokesperson for the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office, Mark Techmeyer, declines to comment on the ADL’s findings or discuss its investigation into the shooting. The office previously said that Holly was radicalized by an unspecified “extremist network” but released no details.
Two recent suspects in school shootings were active on the so-called “gore forum” that Holly used — Watch People Die, according to the ADL. Holly appears to have opened his account in the month in between shootings in Madison, Wisconsin and Nashville, Tennessee, the ADL says.
US President Donald Trump says Jewish philanthropist George Soros will be investigated for potential RICO charges over what he says is the funding of rioting.
The US president says “we’re going to look into” the prominent liberal donor.
Soros’ group, Open Society Foundations, has rejected these allegations before.
“We do not pay people to protest or directly train or coordinate protestors,” it said in August.
Charges under the RICO Act are usually used to prosecute organized criminal activity, including protection schemes, illegal bookmaking and loan sharking. They can result in heavy prison sentences.
Critics say Trump has increasingly shown a willingness to use his presidential powers to go after political enemies.
Reviled by conservatives, and often the target of antisemitic conspiracies, the Hungarian-born Holocaust survivor, 95, used his wealth amassed as a financier in the 1970s and 80s to create the Open Society Foundations, which support a broad arrange of causes and NGOs worldwide, ranging from good-governance and democracy-building programs to liberal public policy initiatives.
The widow of prominent right-wing activist Charlie Kirk pledges to carry on her husband’s work, after US authorities announced his alleged assassin had finally been captured.
A heartbroken Erika Kirk mourns the loss of “the perfect father…the perfect husband.”
“The evil-doers responsible for my husband’s assassination have no idea what they have done,” she says in a live video address.
“You have no idea the fire that you have ignited within this wife; the cries of this widow will echo around the world like a battle cry.
“The movement my husband built will not die. It won’t. I refuse to let that happen,” she says.
NEW YORK — US President Donald Trump has finished dining with the Qatari prime minister in New York, days after US ally Israel attacked Hamas leaders in Doha.
Trump and Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani were joined by a top Trump adviser, US special envoy Steve Witkoff.
“Great dinner with POTUS. Just ended,” Qatar’s deputy chief of mission, Hamah Al-Muftah, says on X.
The White House confirms the dinner took place but offers no details.
Thousands take part in a pro-Palestinian march in Auckland, New Zealand’s biggest city, in what organizers says is the largest rally of its kind since the start of the Gaza war between Israel and Palestinian Islamist terror group Hamas.
Some 50,000 attended the March for Humanity rally in central Auckland, the Aotearoa for Palestine group says. New Zealand police estimate attendance at 20,000.
Aotearoa for Palestine spokesperson Arama Rata says it’s New Zealand’s largest march in support of Palestinians since conflict broke out in Gaza with Hamas-led cross-border attack in which terrorists killed about 1,200 people and kidnapped 251 hostages on October 7, 2023.
Many in the protest crowd carry Palestinian flags and banners with slogans including “Don’t normalize genocide” and “Grow a spine stand with Palestine,” public broadcaster Radio New Zealand reports.
Organizers, motivated by a march that shut down Sydney’s iconic Harbour Bridge in August, wanted to close a major city bridge with the rally, Rata says, but were forced to abandon those plans due to strong winds.
Police say there were no arrests at the march and that roads along the route are being reopened.
Aotearoa for Palestine says it wants New Zealand’s center-left coalition government to impose sanctions on Israel.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon in August described recent Israeli actions in Gaza, including a lack of humanitarian assistance, as “utterly appalling,” and New Zealand has been weighing up whether to recognize a Palestinian state.
The New Zealand Jewish Council, a body representing around 10,000 Jews who live in the country, doesn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on the march.
Paramount condemns a pledge signed this week by more than 4,000 actors, entertainers, and producers, including some Hollywood stars, to not work with Israeli film institutions they claim “are implicated in genocide and apartheid against the Palestinian people.”
The statement makes Paramount the first major studio to respond to the pledge released on Monday.
“At Paramount, we believe in the power of storytelling to connect and inspire people, promote mutual understanding, and preserve the moments, ideas, and events that shape the world we share. This is our creative mission,” says the statement.
“We do not agree with recent efforts to boycott Israeli filmmakers. Silencing individual creative artists based on their nationality does not promote better understanding or advance the cause of peace,” the statement continues. “The global entertainment industry should be encouraging artists to tell their stories and share their ideas with audiences throughout the world. We need more engagement and communication — not less.”
The Israel Defense Forces says air defenses successfully downed the ballistic missile fired by Yemen’s Houthi rebels that triggered sirens in Tel Aviv and other communities across central Israel.
There are no immediate reports of injuries or damage from the interception debris.
The military says it has identified the launch of a ballistic missile from Yemen, with the attack setting off sirens in Tel Aviv and large parts of central Israel.
The Israel Defense Forces adds that air defenses are working to intercept the Houthi missile.
The Israeli strike targeting Hamas leaders in Doha relied on air-launched ballistic missiles fired from over the Red Sea, the Wall Street Journal reports.
The newspaper, which cites interviews with senior US officials briefed on the operation, says the strike was designed to avoid having Israeli fighter jets enter Saudi airspace and to be carried out swiftly so the Trump administration would have less time to object.
According to the report, eight F-15s and four F-35s took part in the operation, flying south from Israel over the Red Sea before launching ballistic missiles toward Qatar from the opposite side of the Arabian Peninsula.
Israel reportedly didn’t tip off the US until minutes before the strike was launched or give precise details on the target, which the US was able to determine was the Qatari capital using space-based sensors that detected the missiles’ heat signatures.
“Notice was given so close to actual launching of missiles that there was no way to reverse or halt the order,” a senior American defense official is quoted as saying, while describing the operation as “absolutely unimaginable.”
