Activists from the Global Sumud Flotilla, which attempted to sail to the Gaza Strip carrying humanitarian aid, said on Friday that the Israeli Navy had intercepted the last of its boats shortly before it reached the blockaded coastal territory.
“Marinette, the last remaining boat of the Global Sumud Flotilla, was intercepted at 10:29 am local time, approximately 42.5 nautical miles from Gaza,” the flotilla’s organizers said in a statement.
A video released by the pro-Palestinian group shows the Israeli boat approaching the activists’ vessel, before the footage ends as soldiers climb on board.
According to reports, the boat had experienced technical problems and was trailing behind the fleet.
The navy had already stopped the rest of the flotilla’s 42 boats in the Mediterranean.
Israeli authorities took more than 400 crew members from dozens of countries into custody, including Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, and said they will be sent back to their home countries.
The activists wanted to deliver aid supplies directly to the population of the Gaza Strip and protest against Israel’s military campaign in the sealed-off territory.
They rejected Israel’s offer to channel the supplies to Gaza via Israeli ports, saying Israel’s blockade of the Gaza Strip is illegal.
Another pro-Palestinian flotilla has reportedly already left Europe and is travelling towards the Gaza Strip. The nine boats were said to be off the coast of Crete on Friday morning.
LONDON—For many British Jews, Thursday’s terrorist attack that killed two people at a synagogue and seriously wounded a number of others was a question of when, not if.
Since the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks by Hamas on Israel and the start of the war in Gaza, growing numbers of British Jews say they feel increasingly isolated and unsafe in a country that had been a relative haven for Jews in Europe in recent decades.
The Israeli Foreign Ministry said on Thursday it had prevented the Global Sumud Flotilla from breaking through the naval blockade of the Gaza Strip, despite contradictory claims from the activists on board.
The organizers of the aid flotilla, which set sail from Barcelona in late August and aimed to deliver humanitarian aid directly to Gaza’s population, said Israel intercepted around 40 boats in the Mediterranean Sea.
However, the activists said one boat, the Mikeno, reached within a few kilometres of Gaza’s coast, as shown on their online ship tracking service.
They described the mission as a success, saying it was the first time a civilian vessel had managed to break through the Israeli naval blockade and enter the territorial waters off the Gaza Strip.
The Times of Israel newspaper reported, citing military sources, that none of the flotilla’s ships had managed to reach the Israeli-controlled waters off the coast of Gaza, saying the activists’ claim was based on incorrect tracking data.
The fate of the Mikeno remained unclear due to interrupted communications. There were no reports that the boat had reached dry land and been able to unload any aid supplies.
The Israeli military and the Foreign Ministry did not initially respond to enquiries about the Mikeno.
The Israeli navy intercepted the Global Sumud Flotilla on Wednesday evening around 80 kilometres off the coast in international waters.
Activists said the interception was illegal and accused Israel of committing genocide in the Gaza Strip – accusations which Israel has rejected in the past.
The flotilla members reported that at least one boat was rammed and others blasted with water cannons. Live footage from some of the vessels showed masked, heavily armed soldiers boarding and ordering crews to raise their hands. There were no reports of injuries during the operation.
According to the organizers, around 500 participants from more than 40 countries, including Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, were to be brought to Israel and then deported.
“The passengers are safe and in good health,” the Israeli Foreign Ministry wrote on X, alongside a photo of some of the activists, including Thunberg.
Two other boats turned north towards Cyprus and escaped military action. One final boat remained at sea, but far from the Gaza Strip. The Israeli Foreign Ministry warned that if it continued to approach, it would also be stopped.
It was initially unclear what would happen to the intercepted boats and their cargo. The activists had previously rejected offers from Israel to have the flotilla’s supplies brought to the Gaza Strip via an Israeli port.
“The flotilla refused because they are not interested in aid, but in provocation,” the Israeli Foreign Ministry wrote on X.
The flotilla issued a statement on Thursday saying: “Our commitment remains clear: to break Israel’s illegal siege and end the ongoing genocide against the Palestinian people. Every act of repression against our flotilla, every escalation of violence in Gaza, and every attempt to suppress solidarity actions only strengthen our resolve.”
Hamas has indicated it is open to accepting President Trump’s peace plan for Gaza but is asking for more time to review its conditions, Arab mediators said, as the militant group faces intensifying pressure from Muslim governments to agree to the Israel-backed proposal to end the devastating war.
The militant group has told mediators it has reservations about some of the terms of the 20-point plan, including the stipulation that it disarm and destroy its weapons, a demand it has previously rejected. Hamas also says that releasing all 48 hostages within 72 hours, as laid out in the Trump plan, would be difficult because it has lost contact in recent weeks with some other militant groups holding a number of them, the mediators said.
The pro-Palestine activists and others aboard the flotilla of boats heading for Gaza were off the coast of Crete when their marine radios crackled to life in the night. Abba hits including “Dancing Queen” took over channel 16, the international frequency used by vessels for safety or distress calls.
“I thought it was a prank. Instead, it was the start of the operation,” said Italian lawmaker Arturo Scotto, who was on night duty on one of the boats. Suddenly the sky lighted up with flashes followed by loud bangs as low-flying drones hovered above. One of the boats suffered damage to its mast and had to abandon the voyage.
After the prime minister agreed on terms to end the war, the onus falls on Israel’s Arab neighbors to make it happen. Until then, it can keep on fighting.
Walter Russell Mead is the Ravenel B. Curry III Distinguished Fellow in Strategy and Statesmanship at Hudson Institute, the Global View Columnist at The Wall Street Journal and the Alexander Hamilton Professor of Strategy and Statecraft with the Hamilton Center for Classical and Civic Education at the University of Florida.
He is also a member of Aspen Institute Italy and board member of Aspenia. Before joining Hudson, Mr. Mead was a fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations as the Henry A. Kissinger Senior Fellow for U.S. Foreign Policy. He has authored numerous books, including the widely-recognized Special Providence: American Foreign Policy and How It Changed the World (Alfred A. Knopf, 2004). Mr. Mead’s most recent book is entitled The Arc of A Covenant: The United States, Israel, and the Fate of the Jewish People.
Some 800,000 Palestinians have now left Gaza City due to the ongoing ground offensive by the Israeli army, Israeli military sources said on Monday.
In the days prior, Israel had estimated that some 700,000 people had fled.
Before the start of the latest offensive by the Israeli army, around 1 million residents and internally displaced people lived in the city.
The figures could not initially be independently verified. There are currently no up-to-date Palestinian estimates on the number of people who have fled the city.
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Eyewitnesses confirm that people continue to flee from the area to the south of the Gaza Strip. However, they said that the numbers have decreased.
Israel's army began a highly controversial ground offensive in Gaza City about two weeks ago, aiming to dismantle the Palestinian Islamist organization Hamas there. This triggered a mass exodus.
At least 33 people have been killed by Israeli strikes in the Gaza Strip since early Monday, medics said.
Hospital sources said 24 of the deaths were in Gaza City, where Israel is pressing on with an air and ground assault against the Hamas militant group.
The Israeli military said it continued to target militants across the Gaza Strip and had intensified its offensive in Gaza City, which it describes as the last stronghold of Hamas.
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Troops on Sunday killed members of armed groups who were attempting to plant explosives, the military added in a statement. The Israeli Navy meanwhile said it destroyed a Hamas weapons depot.
The military also reported a separate attempted attack from Gaza, saying two projectiles were fired toward Israel but did not reach their target.
President Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are set to meet at the White House to discuss a cease-fire for the Gaza war and a plan to govern the devastated enclave. But a deal still appears far off as countries in the region disagree over key points in the proposals.
The Trump plan, if followed, would see Hamas release up to 20 remaining living hostages within 48 hours and lay down its arms before forever departing the enclave, a transitional government, an Arab-led stabilization force, and Israeli troops leaving the battlefield.
“The broad interest of the Hamas leadership in Gaza is to avoid escalation,” said the document.
The Mossad, the national intelligence agency of Israel, published a detailed paper in which it was determined that Hamas is not interested in a military confrontation just two weeks before the October 7 attack, N12 reported on Saturday night.
The document, titled “Increasing Popular Pressure – A Calculated Policy on the Part of Hamas’s Leadership in Gaza to Increase Civilian Exchanges,” stated that “It is clear that the Hamas leadership in Gaza is not interested in a military confrontation with Israel at this time, but it also does not shy away from it if it is forced upon it,” saidN12.
The document, which was published whilst incendiary balloons were being launched from the Gaza Strip, insisted on presenting a picture in which the terror organization strived for civil discourse rather than a military conflict.
Hamas position could change, but unlikely, said Mossad
N12 said it also clarified that Hamas’s position could change, but emphasized that at the time, “the broad interest of the Hamas leadership in Gaza is to avoid escalation.”
Four months before October 7, Mossah head Dedi Barnea said he supported a benefits program for Gaza, intending to bring about long-term peace with Hamas, according to Channel 12.
A Palestinian member of Hamas security forces stands outside the main commercial crossing with Gaza, Kerem Shalom, in the southern Gaza strip August 11, 2020. (credit: IBRAHEEM ABU MUSTAFA/REUTERS)
Mossad denies fault
The Mossad responded by saying, “The division of responsibility between the intelligence agencies as defined by the political echelon since 2005 determined, among other things, that the Mossad holds no responsibility for strategic warning of power movements in the Palestinian arena, and therefore the weight of the document for decision-making was low to negligible.”
“The Mossad was not operationally engaged in the Gaza Strip, neither in collecting intelligence, nor in deploying agents, nor in carrying out special operations.”
Hamas plans to take over the Palestinian Authority within five to ten years, Hamas expert Eyal Ofer warned.
After two years of war in the Gaza Strip, Hamas still exists, controls the strip, and holds Israeli hostages. Eyal Ofer, expert on Hamas‘s economy, spoke about the implications of the war on the terrorist group’s standing on 103Fm Sunday.
Ofer said that Israel is paying a very high price in the international arena for its recent fighting, arguing that “we could have been in a better position if we had not let these 800,000 return to the Gaza Strip in the first place,” referring to the civilians who have evacuated Gaza City following Israel’srecent ground invasion.
Ofer also discussed the possibility of Hamas’s acceptance of a proposal for ending the war. “This is the most important thing for Hamas. I base myself on open information from what appears on Gazan channels,” he explained. “They are talking amongst themselves. According to their reports, Israel is bombing two main areas: one is in the northwest of the city in the Shati refugee camp, and the other is in the southeast of the city in the Sabra camp.”
He said that it is interesting that in the last 24 hours, reports stated thattwo clans had received offers from Israel to be recipients of humanitarian aid, like Abu Shabaab, leader of the Popular Forces, an anti-Hamas armed group operating in Gaza.
According to Gazan sources, the clans rejected the offers and published statements that they were with Hamas.
Hamas members from the Qassam brigade, the military wing of Hamas, attend the funeral of Mazen Faqha in Gaza City, Saturday, March, 25, 2017. (credit: Ramadan Abed/Reuters)
Ofer explained that Hamas’s rule has been “crumbling for nearly six months” due to Israel’s elimination of “all the people of civilian life, financial people, and police officers.”
However, Hamas has garnered more than 10,000 fighters, with some reports saying 20,000. There are unconfirmed reports that many of them are being transferred, carrying weapons, to al-Mawasi, a designated humanitarian zone, and Deir al-Balah, a central Gazan area.
Thinking in the long term
Ofer urged Israeli officials not to think only in the short term.
“Hamas has said it clearly,” he stated. “It understands that formally, it will not remain in power in Gaza. In the short term, Hamas will agree to expert committees. They will say, ‘We will not act against the Arab forces that will enter,’ but Hamas always thinks in the long term.”
“They actually plan to take over within five to ten years,” he concluded. “All the talk about Hamas disappearing is disconnected from reality.”
Dozens of Palestinians have been killed in ongoing Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian news agency WAFA reported on Sunday.
The bodies of 41 people have been brought to various hospitals in the embattled coastal strip since Sunday morning, WAFA said.
The Israeli military stated that it was continuing its operations against terrorist organizations throughout the Gaza Strip. The offensive in Gaza City had also been expanded, it said.
In one instance, Israeli troops reportedly identified five militants who fired an anti-tank missile at the building where the soldiers were located. There were no injuries among the soldiers, according to the military.
The Israeli Air Force “eliminated” the attackers, it said. Within 24 hours, around 140 military targets in the coastal strip were attacked, it added.
New call for evacuation of Gaza neighbourhoods
Meanwhile, the Israeli army spokesman called on residents of various neighbourhoods in Gaza City to leave immediately. They were advised in Arabic to move to the Israeli-designated humanitarian zone of al-Mawasi in the south-west of the Gaza Strip.
The spokesman announced an attack on another high-rise building in Gaza City, stating that infrastructure of the Islamist organization Hamas was located there. Shortly afterwards, the military reported that the building had been destroyed.
According to the Israeli military, around 780,000 civilians have already fled Gaza City, where an estimated 1 million people were present before the ground offensive began two weeks ago.
Since the beginning of the Gaza war almost two years ago, more than 66,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, have been killed in the Gaza Strip, according to the Hamas-run health authority.
The trigger for the war was attacks carried out by Hamas and other extremist organizations in Israel, in which around 1,200 people were killed on October 7, 2023, and more than 250 others were abducted as hostages to the Gaza Strip.
Hamas demands Israel halt attacks, warns hostages’ lives at risk
Hamas urgently called on the Israeli army to cease its attacks on Gaza City for 24 hours.
The lives of two Israeli hostages are in real danger, according to a statement from the military wing of Hamas, the al-Qassam Brigades.
The troops must also immediately withdraw to an area south of Street 8 in Gaza City so that an attempt can be made to “extract” the two hostages. This, they said, is a warning.
The demand for a halt to the attacks was to take effect from 6 pm (1500 GMT), the statement said.
The al-Qassam Brigades had earlier stated that contact with the two hostages had been lost in the last 48 hours due to the intense Israeli attacks in the city.
It was initially unclear whether Israel would comply with the demand.
The relatives of the 48 remaining hostages – including 20 still alive – have repeatedly warned of the danger a ground offensive in Gaza City poses to their loved ones.
A firefighter sprays water on a building damaged in an Israeli air strike. Hasan Alzaanin/TASS via ZUMA Press/dpa
Defense Minister Israel Katz warns Hamas to disarm and release hostages as the IDF gains control of over half of Gaza City and demolishes terror infrastructure.
Defense Minister Israel Katz threatened Hamas terrorists in Gaza with serious consequences if the war continues in a post on X/Twitter on Saturday night.
“If Hamas does not release all the hostages and disarm, Gaza will be destroyed and Hamas will be eliminated,” he wrote.
“We will not stop until all the war’s objectives are achieved,” he added.
Katz noted that his warning comes amid the IDF intensifying operations in Gaza City, with over 750,000 residents evacuating to the south of the enclave.
During the operations, the IDF has destroyed terror infrastructure, including what Katz referred to as “terror towers.” The military linked terror infrastructure with Gaza City high rises which were demolished in the beginning of the operation to take control of the last remaining Hamas stronghold.
Smoke rises as a building hit by an Israeli air strike collapses, in Gaza City, September 5, 2025 (credit: REUTERS)
Southern Command assesses IDF controls over half of Gaza City
The IDF’s Southern Command assessed that the military gained operational control of more than half of Gaza City as of Saturday.
Sources in the Southern Command told Walla that the IDF’s territorial gains resulted from coordinated maneuvers at multiple points by various divisions as part of Operation Gideon’s Chariots II.
Israeli strikes and gunfire killed at least 38 people across Gaza, health officials said. International pressure for a ceasefire is growing, but Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu remained defiant about continuing the war during an address to the United Nations Friday afternoon.
Strikes in central and northern Gaza killed people in their homes in the early hours of Saturday morning, including nine from the same family in a house in the Nuseirat refugee camp, according to health staff at the Al-Awda hospital, where the bodies were brought.
The attacks came hours after Netanyahu told fellow world leaders at the U.N. General Assembly Friday that his nation “must finish the job” against Hamas in Gaza.
Netanyahu’s words, aimed as much at his increasingly divided domestic audience as the global one, came after dozens of delegates from multiple nations walked out of the U.N. General Assembly hall en masse Friday morning as he began speaking.
Mourners attend the funeral of Palestinians killed in an Israeli army strike, outside Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip, Thursday, Sept. 25, 2025.
Abdel Kareem Hana / AP
International pressure on Israel to end the war is increasing, as is Israel’s isolation, with a growing list of countries deciding recently to recognize Palestinian statehood — something Israel rejects.
Countries have been lobbying U.S. President Donald Trump to press Israel for a ceasefire. On Friday, Trump told reporters on the White House lawn that he believes the U.S. is close to achieving a deal on easing fighting in Gaza that “will get the hostages back” and “end the war.”
Trump and Netanyahu are scheduled to meet Monday, and Trump said on social media Friday that “very inspired and productive discussions” and “intense negotiations” about Gaza are ongoing with countries in the region.
Israel is pressing ahead with another major ground operation in Gaza City, which experts say is experiencing famine. More than 300,000 people have fled, but up to 700,000 are still there, many because they can’t afford to relocate.
Palestinians survey the aftermath of an Israeli military strike on the Abu Dahrouj family home in Zawaida, central Gaza Strip, Thursday, Sept. 25, 2025.
Abdel Kareem Hana / AP
The strikes Saturday morning demolished a house in Gaza City’s Tufah neighborhood, killing at least 11 people, more than half of them women and children, according to the Al-Ahly Hospital, where the bodies were brought. Four other people were killed when an airstrike hit their homes in the Shati refugee camp, according to Shifa hospital.
Six other Palestinians were killed by Israeli gunfire while seeking aid in southern and central Gaza, according to Nasser and Al Awda hospitals, where the bodies were brought.
Israel’s army did not immediately respond about the airstrikes or the gunfire.
Hospitals and health clinics in Gaza City are on the brink of collapse. Nearly two weeks into the offensive, two clinics have been destroyed by airstrikes, two hospitals shut down after being damaged and others are barely functioning, with medicine, equipment, food and fuel in short supply.
Many patients and staff have been forced to flee hospitals, leaving behind only a few doctors and nurses to tend to children in incubators or other patients too ill to move.
Israeli army flares drift over buildings destroyed during Israeli ground and air operations in the northern Gaza Strip, as seen from southern Israel, Wednesday, Sept. 24, 2025.
Leo Correa / AP
On Friday, aid group Doctors Without Borders said it was forced to suspend activities in Gaza City amid an intensified Israeli offensive. The group said Israeli tanks were less than half a mile from its health care facilities and the escalating attacks have created an “unacceptable level of risk” for its staff.
Meanwhile, the food situation in the north has also worsened, as Israel has halted aid deliveries through its crossing into northern Gaza since Sept. 12 and has increasingly rejected U.N. requests to bring supplies from southern Gaza into the north, the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said.
Israel’s campaign in Gaza has killed more than 65,000 people and wounded more than 167,000 others, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. It doesn’t distinguish between civilians and combatants, but says women and children make up around half the fatalities. The ministry is part of the Hamas-run government, but U.N. agencies and many independent experts consider its figures to be the most reliable estimate of wartime casualties.
Israel’s campaign was triggered when Hamas-led terrorists stormed into Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing around 1,200 people and taking 251 hostage. Forty-eight captives remain in Gaza, around 20 of them believed by Israel to be alive, after most of the rest were freed in ceasefires or other deals.
“Hamas is currently in a state of confusion,” a military source told Maariv. “It doesn’t know where the IDF is striking from and has no clear sense of the scale of forces we’re using against them.”
For now, clashes remain limited, with Hamas avoiding major confrontations except for a few incidents. In one of them, yesterday, Maj. Shahar Netanel Buzaglo, a company commander in the 77th Armored Battalion, was killed in battle.
Palestinians flee with their belongings from the northern Gaza Strip and Gaza City to safer areas, on September 22, 2025. (credit: Khalil Kahlout/Flash90)
The military source also said that there had been “limited movement of terrorists and the number of clashes is not large. They probably prefer to dig in and preserve their strength.”
IDF reinforces all fronts
IDF combat forces have been reinforced on land, at sea, in the air, and across all units throughout the country, with dozens of IDF battalions being placed on high alert for the duration of the High Holidays.
IDF Central Command Chief Maj.-Gen. Avi Bluth has ordered extra troops to secure shopping centers, roads, junctions, bus stops, hitchhiking posts, and communities.
“The many challenges before us, the fighting in Gaza City, defense in the north, and the constant battle against terrorism in Judea and Samaria, have recently converged with political statements, the holidays, and the olive harvest, foreign incitement, and lone-wolf inspiration. All these are not reasons for optimism, but I am full of hope,” Bluth said at a ceremony marking 35 years of the West Bank Yamam unit.
On the other hand, Hamas commanders seem to be in distress due to the heavy pressure, with sources inside Gaza City saying the terror organization is pushing for civilians to stay using violence.
“We saw at the end of the week that Hamas attacked a UN convoy, which indicates their distress. We know more about the situation Hamas finds itself in in Gaza City,” said a military source.
Ghassan Duhine, the deputy of an anti-Hamas resistance group in the Gaza Strip issued a Rosh Hashanah statement on social media.
Ghassan Duhine, deputy head of the Abu Shabab militia in the Gaza Strip, wished the Jewish people a happy New Year in a social media post on Sunday. The post included a handwritten note in Hebrew seen by The Jerusalem Post.
Duhine extended “sincere congratulations to our Arab Jews, especially, to the Jewish people in general, and all those who celebrate this holiday around the world.”
Several Hamas supporters took to social media to express disapproval of Duhine’s statement. They accused Duhine of being a “traitor to his homeland and religion” and a lackey of “his Zionist masters.”
Some pro-Hamas activists issued death threats, wishing Duhine to be “dragged through the streets of Gaza” paired with images a red crosshairs target overlaid on Duhine’s face.
Who is the Abu Shabab group?
Abu Shabab, named for their leader, Yasser Abu Shabab, is an anti-Hamas, Israel-aligned resistance group operating within the enclave.
members of the Abu Shabab Popular Forces militia in the Gaza Strip. (credit: SCREENSHOT/X, SECTION 27A COPYRIGHT ACT)
The armed group’s stated goal is “to meet the need for civilian protection, humanitarian aid distribution, and securing areas that will not fall victim to terror or local extremism,” according to Yasser Abu Shabab himself in a conversation with Walla, “we will protect civilians, create international pressure, and push for an end to the violence that no one wants to escalate.”
As Israel’s offensive in Gaza City proceeds and Hamas appears to be weakening, it has been reported that Abu Shabab forces have actively engaged in combat against Hamas terrorists.
Liran Haroni and Amir Bohbot contributed to this report.
The United Kingdom, Canada and Australia officially recognized Palestine as a state Sunday, a move that has long been opposed by the U.S. and Israel. More countries are expected to do the same this week as world leaders gather in New York for the U.N. General Assembly. Seth Doane in Tel Aviv has more.
