Amnesty International has said accountability "cannot be swept under the rubble" and the recovery and future of Gaza cannot be separated from a framework grounded in international law, justice and the rights of victims.
"More than 1,400 Palestinians have been killed since the ceasefire agreement, nearly two million still need shelter, not a single hospital is fully functioning, and 1.4 million face crisis-level hunger," Amnesty said on X.
It added that the "persistent failure" to hold Israel accountable and press Israel to comply with the International Court of Justice’s binding orders continues to "fuel the atrocity crimes on a mass scale against Palestinians".
Over one year since the ceasefire agreement, more than 1,400 people have been killed by Israeli forces in Gaza, nearly two million still need shelter, not a single hospital is fully functioning, and 1.4 million face crisis-level hunger. Accountability cannot be swept under the rubble. The recovery and future of Gaza cannot be separated from a framework grounded in international law, justice, and the rights of victims. The persistent failure to hold Israel accountable and press Israel to comply with the International Court of Justice’s binding orders continues to fuel the atrocity crimes on a mass scale against Palestinians.
If you are just joining us, here are key developments from across the region and beyond:
*Saudi-led coalition forces said a ballistic missile and a drone fired towards Saudi Arabia were intercepted and destroyed.
*Israeli forces forced Palestinian residents of Hebron in the occupied West Bank to evacuate their homes on foot, demolished several buildings near an area where two Israeli soldiers were shot dead and detained dozens of others during raids across West Bank.
*US President Donald Trump told a rally in Florida that Washington might launch another military operation against Iran.
* Two supertankers struck naval mines while attempting to use an unauthorised route south of the Strait of Hormuz, Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) navy said.
*Iran’s armed forces chief of staff and commander of Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters, Major General Abdollahi, has said that "under no circumstances will we allow rusting US warships to re-enter the Persian Gulf".
*Turkey's Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan has said the time had come to reunify Libya's rival eastern and western administrations, hinting at an announcement on the issue in the near future.
* The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) has reported that a tanker was hit by an unknown projectile seven nautical miles off Omani coast.
*Saudi Arabia's Directorate of Civil Defence said danger has passed in the capital Riyadh, Najran, and Wadi al-Dawasir, minutes after warning the residents of potential danger and urging them to follow safety instructions.
* October has been the worst month for attacks on commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz and nearby waterways, according to data compiled by a Washington-based think tank that has tracked maritime security incidents worldwide since 2017.
* Protest rallies were held across Syria on Friday against repeated Israeli incursions in the country's south including one this week that killed a man with a disability.
* Mohammed Mokhber, an adviser to the Iran's Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, has said that "psychological warfare" and threats of war by US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu "betray desperation than power".
* Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian will travel to Moscow next week, where he is expected to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin, besides participating in the Gas Exporting Countries Forum summit on 27 October.
* UK Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband has said that Britain is “redoubling” efforts to find diplomatic solutions to Iran war because the conflict is "driving up bills for families in Britain".
* Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has warned that Israel should prepare for international banking sanctions and suggested cryptocurrency could help the country get around them, just four days before the Knesset election.
Iran’s armed forces chief of staff and commander of Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters, Major General Abdollahi, has said that "under no circumstances will we allow rusting US warships to re-enter the Persian Gulf".
In remarks carried by Press TV, Abdollahi said: "The proud armed forces of Iran have rendered the US Navy ineffective — a force that Trump and the US leadership regard as the pinnacle of American power and use to threaten the region and the world — to the extent that it is no longer capable of approaching the waters surrounding the Persian Gulf or Iran’s territorial waters."
“The US president can only dream of seeing his military personnel and army enter the Persian Gulf again. They will take this wish to their graves,” he said.
Iran has "substantially increased" its efforts to target Americans in the Middle East and beyond, US national intelligence chief Jay Clayton warned on Friday.
In a memo sent to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Clayton said that "we have received intelligence that Iran has substantially increased efforts to target US personnel," according to a US official.
"The lethal plotting efforts by the Iranians against US citizens have reached advanced stages in both the Middle East and certain other countries," said the memo, which was first reported by Axios.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has warned that Israel should prepare for international banking sanctions and suggested cryptocurrency could help the country get around them, just four days before the Knesset election.
Speaking to Channel 10 on Friday, Netanyahu said Israel needed “an economy that can circumvent” sanctions, adding: “I’m working on that as well.” He said he had asked advisers to draw up a plan to use blockchain.
The remarks follow Britain and 11 other Western countries announcing sanctions on goods from Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, citing settler attacks on Palestinians and large-scale settlement expansion approved by Netanyahu’s government.
Netanyahu framed the economic outlook as outside Israel’s control. He also said multibillion-dollar US weapons packages “won’t keep coming”, insisting “America has changed. Not because Israel has.”
UK Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband has said that Britain is “redoubling” efforts to find diplomatic solutions to Iran war because the conflict is "driving up bills for families in Britain".
In a video posted on X, he said “the cost of living crisis is the number one issue facing people in Britain”.
He said his job as the UK’s foreign secretary was to do everything he could “to bring an end to this conflict”, which had gone on “too long” and caused “too much damage” to people in Britain.
“We cannot afford much more of it,” he said.
The Iran war is driving up bills for families in Britain. That’s why we’re redoubling our efforts to find diplomatic solutions to the conflict. https://t.co/ssziO8bZXT
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian will travel to Moscow next week, where he is expected to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin, besides participating in the Gas Exporting Countries Forum summit on 27 October, Iranian media reported, citing Iran’s envoy to Russia, Kazem Jalali.
His visit follows recent discussions between Iranian Foreign Minister Araghchi and his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov in Tehran.
Mohammed Mokhber, an adviser to the Iran's Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, has said that "psychological warfare" and threats of war by US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu "betray desperation than power".
In a post on X, Mokhber said: "Iran is aware of the enemy’s vulnerabilities. Surprise moves on the battlefield, along with its leverage in the oil and energy sectors, can shift the balance of power.
"In the region, the nation that remains is the one that has lived there for thousands of years, and the Zionist regime can merely think about its own 'non-existence.'”
Protest rallies were held across Syria on Friday against repeated Israeli incursions in the country's south including one this week that killed a man with a disability.
The Israeli military has carried out hundreds of strikes in Syria and conducted frequent incursions into its territory since the new government took power after toppling longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad in December 2024.
It also sent troops into a UN-patrolled buffer zone that had separated Israeli and Syrian forces on the mainly Israeli-occupied Golan Heights since 1974.
Protesters rallied in Damascus and central Syria's Homs, decrying Israeli incursions and attacks in the southern Quneitra and Daraa provinces, state media reported.
Israeli troops have bulldozed olive groves, set up checkpoints and detained residents.
An AFP correspondent in Daraa city saw hundreds rallying, some waving Syrian flags.
Protester Taysir al-Hariri told AFP that demonstrators had gathered to "send a message to the world" that Syria stands united "against Israeli incursions and against anyone who is tempted to tamper... with national security".
State television footage of other rallies showed protesters carrying posters reading "We are all Moaz", referring to the man with special needs who Syria said was killed by Israeli fire a day earlier during an incursion in Daraa province.
In Damascus, outside a United Nations building, the family of a Syrian man seized by Israel called for his release, with children holding posters reading "I want my dad".
State media on Friday also reported that Israeli forces advanced in part of Quneitra province and blocked several roads.
Israel has vowed to keep troops in a so-called "security zone" in southern Syria, where it seeks a broader demilitarised area.
Report by AFP
Syrians hold portraits of people who were arrested during Israeli military incursions in southern Syria, as they protest near the United Nations building in Damascus, on 23 October 2026. (AFP)
October has been the worst month for attacks on commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz and nearby waterways, according to data compiled by a Washington-based think tank that has tracked maritime security incidents worldwide since 2017.
"October has seen the highest number of ship attacks on record," said Noam Raydan, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
Raydan, who maintains the institute's interactive shipping incident map, has recorded 28 confirmed and reported attacks in the Strait of Hormuz and surrounding waterways in October and 113 since the US-Israeli war with Iran began on February 28.
The institute's map shows most of the attacks that took place in September and October were in the Strait of Hormuz.
The tally broadly aligns with data from the International Maritime Organisation (IMO), which recorded a total of 120 incidents in the Strait of Hormuz and the wider Middle East since the conflict with Iran began.
The IMO lists more than 30 supertankers, or Very Large Crude Carriers (VLCCs), that were damaged during the attacks, including 11 in October alone, a Reuters review of the IMO list and MarineTraffic vessel data showed.
Each VLCC can carry about 2 million barrels of crude. The listed vessels account for about 3.5% of the total global VLCC fleet, which exceeds 900.
More tankers came under attack as shipowners became increasingly willing to load cargoes inside the Gulf, lured by daily freight rates exceeding $1 million and steeper discounts offered by regional producers against dated Brent.
Between 5 October and 11 October, a dozen ships were attacked, marking also the highest weekly number of attacks since the conflict began, it also said.
UKMTO, the British maritime security service, which recorded 135 incidents related to the US-Iran conflict as of 16 October, said it was struggling to capture the whole picture due to insufficient voluntary reporting by shippers.
The Colonisation and Wall Resistance Commission (CWRC) has documented 21 attacks by Israeli forces and settlers against Palestinian farmers across six governorates in a span of 12 hours on Friday, Wafa reported.
The commission said that the attacks, between 6am and 6pm, included shootings, burning and cutting down of olive trees, theft of crops, and denying farmers access to their lands or forcing them to leave at gunpoint, as well as causing injuries to several farmers.
The CWRC said that escalating attacks on the olive harvest season were no longer limited to disrupting harvesting activities, but had come to directly target Palestinians' ability to remain on and cultivate their lands through a systematic pattern of violence, military intimidation, crop theft, tree destruction, and restrictions on access to agricultural land, all an integral part of Israel’s systematic policy of forced expulsion and settler-colonialism.
The commission said that the coordination between settler attacks and the intervention of Israeli forces to protect the assailants or prevent farmers from accessing their lands demonstrated that these practices were not isolated incidents, but interconnected tools for seizing land and undermining the foundations of Palestinian agricultural life.
It called on the international community to take concrete measures to halt the attacks and ensure protection for Palestinian farmers.
The Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission said the attacks included shootings and theft of crops. (AFP)
Saudi Arabia's air defences intercepted and destroyed a ballistic missile launched by Houthis towards Riyadh, Colonel Turki Al-Maliki, the spokesman for Saudi-led coalition forces said in a post on X.
Earlier, he said the kingdom's air defences intercepted and destroyed a drone in the country’s eastern region.
Israeli forces have raided at least 13 towns in the northern occupied West Bank, detaining dozens of Palestinians, Al Jazeera reported.
The military raids targeted several cities and towns, including Nablus, Jenin, Tubas and Qalqilya.
In the southern occupied West Bank, Israeli forces ordered hundreds of Palestinian families to forcibly evacuate their homes in the Ein Deir Bahha area of Hebron and its surroundings.
Israeli troops also surrounded the home of one of the suspects in the shooting attack that killed two Israeli soldiers in Hebron, while carrying out raids in the city’s al-Jalda neighbourhood, according to Al Jazeera.
Further east, Israeli forces entered Jericho and the nearby Aqabat Jabr refugee camp.
Saudi Arabia's Directorate of Civil Defence said danger has passed in the capital Riyadh, Najran, and Wadi al-Dawasir, minutes after warning the residents of potential danger and urging them to follow safety instructions.
Earlier, the National Early Warning Platform issued danger alerts for these areas.
The Civil Defence also warned that filming, publishing or sharing information related to countering missiles and drones and their impact sites "exposes you to legal liability".
تنبيه زال الخطر عن مدينة نجران، لسلامتك الاستمرار في اتباع تعليمات #الدفاع_المدني وتجنب التجمهر والتصوير نهائيًا. في حالة الطوارئ اتصل بالرقم (998). Alert: The danger has passed in Najran City. For your safety, continue following #CivilDefense instructions and avoid gathering and filming. In case of emergency, call (998).
Saudi Arabia’s air defences have intercepted and destroyed a drone in the country’s eastern region, a spokesperson for the Saudi-led coalition force said in a post on X.
التحالف: اعتراض وتدمير طائرة مسيرة في المنطقة الشرقية. https://t.co/NAbJLU2UNY
Israeli forces have raided several areas in the occupied West Bank, including in the governorates of Bethlehem and Salfit, the Palestinian news agency Wafa reported.
The raids were carried out while a major military operation was underway in Hebron, following the killing of two Israeli soldiers in a gunfight.
In Bethlehem governorate, soldiers stormed the towns of Beit Fajjar and Tuqu as well as the town of Kafr ad-Dik in Salfit, according to Wafa.
During the raid in Kafr ad-Dik, Israeli forces forced a family out of their home and used the property as a military barracks, Wafa reported, citing local sources.
Israeli forces were forcing Palestinian residents of Hebron in the occupied West Bank to evacuate their homes on foot, according to Quds News Network.
Earlier, around 20 Israeli military vehicles stormed the city of Hebron in the occupied West Bank, Al Jazeera reported.
The Israeli military said on Friday it had launched a “counterterrorism” operation in the Hebron area after two Israeli soldiers were killed in a gunfight near the city.
In a statement, the military said it aims to locate and dismantle what it called “terrorist infrastructure and weapons.”
It described the operation as “targeted and limited” to the area, and said it was likely to last several days.
Israeli occupation forces continue to compel Palestinian residents to evacuate their homes on foot in the city of Hebron, in the southern occupied West Bank. https://t.co/23sg3WTS8S
Two supertankers struck naval mines while attempting to use an unauthorised route south of the Strait of Hormuz, Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) navy said.
The ensuing explosions and intense fires left the engine rooms of both vessels disabled, leaving them stranded in the waterway, IRGC said.
Fars news agency, meanwhile, cited an IRGC source as saying that Hormuz traffic by violating vessels has come to a halt, following the strikes on three oil tankers on Thursday, destruction of navigation-aid systems on the violating vessels and the destruction of another violating vessel on Thursday night.
The source told Fars agency that if oil smuggling resumes, IRGC's response will be "far more forceful".
IRGC Navy: Two supertankers in violation attempted to transit the off-limits southern corridor of the Strait of Hormuz. Both vessels struck a naval mine, and following explosions and intense fires, their engine rooms were disabled, leaving them stranded in place. https://t.co/pI0Wd7NeY2
Israeli military has shelled the southern Lebanese municipality of Khiam, towns of Zawtar al-Sharqiyah and Mayfadoun, as well as the villages of Barashit, Majdal Zoun and Qantara, the official National News Agency (NNA) reported.
The agency reported that Israeli artillery shelling also targeted the outskirts of the southern Lebanese town of Beit Yahoun on Friday.
Israeli human rights group B’Tselem has called for international pressure to stop Israel from forcibly displacing Palestinians in response to Friday’s attack on Israeli soldiers near the occupied West Bank city of Hebron.
“Israeli leaders are publicly announcing plans for collective punishment and acts that could constitute war crimes,” B’Tselem said.
The rights group stated that it “urgently calls on governments and international institutions to act now, using all means available under international law, to prevent the forcible displacement of Palestinian civilians, collective punishment and extensive unlawful destruction in Hebron”.
Netanyahu said on Friday that an army operation on a scale unseen since 1967 was “on the way”, with a first phase involving the forced displacement of Palestinians, home searches and the destruction of what he called “terrorist infrastructure”.
He also said the military would “destroy” the Hebron neighbourhood that was home to the alleged attackers.
Later on Friday, Al Jazeera reported that Israeli bulldozers started to demolish Palestinian homes and businesses in northern Hebron.
Israeli machinery demolishes a Palestinian house in Hebron in the occupied West Bank, 23 October 2026 (REUTERS/Mussa Qawasma)
Trump's raid on the congresswoman's home is a warning to every naturalised American that even a seat in Congress offers no protection against racist persecution
US Congresswoman Ilhan Omar speaks at a campaign rally in Minneapolis, on 20 July 2026 (Tim Evans/Reuters)
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In the early hours of 12 October, US Congresswoman Ilhan Omar's home in Washington, DC, was raided by federal agents.
They spent hours combing through her belongings, Omar said, emerging with 17 items, including phones, notebooks and a Somali-language phrasebook, before leaving her residence.
It soon came out that authorities were investigating whether her family had falsified her immigration paperwork decades earlier, with the aim of stripping her of her citizenship and deporting her.
For years, the Trump administration has accused Omar of immigration fraud. No proof has ever been presented publicly, and the allegations have been characterised by innuendo. Officials who scrutinised her citizenship in 2019 found no grounds to challenge it, The Washington Post reported.
Omar has long been a lightning rod for the American right and especially for Trump, who has found in her - an immigrant Black, hijab-donning Muslim woman and a former refugee from Somalia - someone he could use to both distract from his failures and make an example of before his base.
In 2019, Omar became the first African refugee and first Somali American to enter the US House of Representatives.
From the outset, she wasn't afraid to speak her mind. Or fight back.
For those accustomed to hearing American politicians repeating Israeli talking points, her intervention became a rare and uncomfortable challenge in the halls of power
On Palestine, she forced a conversation that Washington was used to suffocating. She questioned American interventionist foreign policy, including military support for Israel.
When Israel barred her and fellow Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib from visiting in August 2019, Omar used the moment to double down on talking about the occupation.
For those accustomed to hearing American politicians repeating Israeli talking points, her intervention became a rare and uncomfortable challenge in the halls of power.
"This is the most formidable foe Israel has faced in US politics - ever. No exaggeration. She doesn't get intimidated by anyone. What a force," wrote Asad Abukhalil, a professor at California State University, in 2019.
Still, the raid on her home and her family marks a significant escalation, with potentially far-reaching consequences beyond Omar herself. For other naturalised citizens, it makes clear that even an elected official is not guaranteed to belong.
Omar the fire starter
Omar's questions about the role of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (Aipac) in US politics, raised when others felt it too risky to do so, illustrated how quickly the establishment obfuscated when it came to Israel.
The firebrand approach cost her dearly.
She was vilified for refusing to conform to the dominant discourse on foreign policy; her viewpoints were branded "un-American", and she was also labelled antisemitic for criticising Aipac in ways that are now commonplace. More than 100 Democratic candidates in the 2026 midterm cycle have pledged to reject donations from pro-Israel groups and oppose US military aid to Israel.
Her staff recounted to Middle East Eye in 2023, after she was voted off the Foreign Affairs Committee, that while Omar's bills and resolutions struggled to find bipartisan support, there was a time when few in the Democratic Party would back her.
Omar's record also deserves scrutiny beyond right-wing attacks. Those who wanted her, along with the much-vaunted "Squad", to push the Democratic Party to the left have reason to feel aggrieved by the lack of progress.
Homeland Security agents at the door of Congresswoman Ilhan Omar's home in Washington, DC, on 12 October 2026 (Andrew Leyden/Getty Images via AFP)
In July 2021, she voted for a foreign operations spending bill containing $3.3bn in military aid to Israel, drawing criticism from supporters of Palestinian rights.
Despite her earlier defiance, she also became a vocal defender of Joe Biden's re-election bid. In July 2024, as Israel's genocide in Gaza continued with US support, she called him "the best president of my lifetime".
When he withdrew, she endorsed Kamala Harris, expressing hope that a Harris administration would end US support for atrocities in Gaza.
But she continued to focus on improving the lives of her constituents and remained willing to scrutinise US power. In April 2024, she voted against an aid package for Israel, citing the genocide, and she is a co-sponsor of a House resolution recognising the genocide, which has killed more than 74,000 Palestinians.
Consequences of the attack
The latest salvo against Omar is more than just an attack on a US representative and her family.
The suspicion cast on her extends to the community she comes from and is inseparable from the White House's white supremacist leanings and its deeply racist and xenophobic rhetoric, which has culminated in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids on immigrant communities.
Trump has been calling for her deportation since 2019, too.
Chants of "send her back" have rung out at Trump events, reminiscent of KKK rallies.
At a rally in June 2020, he said: "She would like to make the government of our country just like the country from where she came - Somalia. No government, no safety, no police, no nothing, just anarchy."
Trump is fixated on Ilhan Omar. She embodies the America he fears most
On the morning of 12 October, following the pre-dawn raid on Omar's home, Katie Miller, the spouse of Stephen Miller, Trump's deputy chief of staff for policy, shared a report of the search with a comment: "Promise made, promise kept." She later deleted the post.
Whatever the outcome of the investigation, its consequences are already tangible. Omar says she must now move out of her home because the publicity surrounding the search has made it unsafe amid death threats.
Omar represents Minnesota's fifth congressional district, a diverse Minneapolis community. The state of Minnesota is home to the largest Somali community in the US and among the largest outside the African continent.
While some arrived as refugees from Somalia in the 1990s, as it was torn apart by civil war, almost 58 percent of the Somalis in Minnesota were born in the US. Of those born outside the US, around 87 percent are naturalised US citizens.
Trump has periodically looked to demonise the community, calling Somali Americans "garbage" and nonchalantly characterising the community as fraudsters and accusing it of having "destroyed" the country.
Somalia featured in Trump's first-term travel ban and remains in his renewed ban, while his administration has also ended Temporary Protected Status for Somalis covered by the programme.
The relentless barrage of negative commentary and derogatory characterisations has left the Somali community on edge.
No equal treatment
To consider the attack as exclusively directed at Somalis would be a mistake. The consequences extend far beyond one community.
Amid widespread economic discontent, an unpopular war with Iran and Trump's low approval ratings, the attack on Omar fits into an old and trusted template: blame the "other".
The timing raises further questions about the investigation's purpose. For a matter raised since 2019, no reason has been offered for the raid just weeks before the midterm elections.
For those who keep on insisting that entering the House or the Senate is how the marginalised find representation and how bigotry is nullified, Omar's experience shows the limits of making it to political office in the US.
She could represent Americans in one of the highest offices in the land, win elections, and yet continue to be treated as an outsider if she looked and dressed differently and brought a perspective that challenged some of the key assumptions of white supremacist America.
Humiliation was the point. It was to remind her that America had granted her a favour. She was supposed to be eternally grateful.
When I reported on her rise in 2019, Habon Abdulle, Omar's mentor and someone who encouraged her to run for office, spoke about the congresswoman's expectation of equal treatment.
"Ultimately, she believes she is equal to everybody. Some people can't and will never accept that."
Seven years later, little seems to have changed.
The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Eye.
Time is running out to get aid into Taiz, besieged by Houthis who are preventing supplies from reaching Yemen's third-largest city, the United Nations said on Friday.
Houthi fighters have encircled Taiz since early October, blocking the road that links it to Aden, interim capital of Yemen’s internationally recognised government.
"Safe, sustained and unimpeded humanitarian access is urgently needed so that essential supplies and life-saving assistance can reach people in need," said the UN humanitarian agency OCHA.
"It's 20 days and counting since Taiz has been cut off," said OCHA spokesman Jens Laerke.
"We are seeing increasingly that the fighting makes it impossible for us to get in and impossible for people to get out," he told a press conference in Geneva.
Laerke said road closures and diesel shortages had halved the city's water production and roughly tripled the price of trucked water, which most residents depend on.
Over 100 million people have been removed from the voter list, and many are questioning why specific communities are overrepresented
A student activist holds a poster while on a bus after getting detained during a protest demanding the resignation of the nation's Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over alleged voter roll irregularities linked to the 'special intensive revision', in New Delhi on 13 October 2026 (Arun Sankar/AFP)
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Sameen Ud Din has lived at the same address in Old Delhi for years. He voted in the 2025 Delhi elections. But when the draft voter list for the Special Intensive Revision, or SIR, was published this time around, his name was missing.
“It is an irony not to find my name in the SIR list. I did not receive any notice from the Election Commission of India [ECI] when my name was deleted,” Din, a 44-year-old businessman from the Nizam Ud Din area of Old Delhi, told Middle East Eye.
“I am now being asked to fill out Form 6, an application to register as a new voter, which is clearly a false declaration and carries penal consequences,” he added.
Din said he did not know what would happen next and felt pressured to submit the form. India's next general election is in 2029.
But Din is not alone. Muslims in different parts of India have reported similar problems, with countless people finding their names missing from the draft voter lists.
Approximately 133 million names had been flagged for removal from the voter list.
Critics say many eligible voters have been removed, with Muslims and Dalits – Dalits occupy the lowest rung in Hinduism’s caste system – among those mostly affected.
An investigation from The Wire shows that in West Bengal, out of 2.75 million on the published list of removals, approximately 1.8 million were Muslims - or around 70 percent of the total published "ineligible to vote" list. Muslims make up just 25 percent of that state's electorate.
In some districts, according to The Wire, removals of Muslims made up over 90 percent of the total published removals.
This disparity has also brought protesters onto the streets of New Delhi. At one mid-October protest, India's Congress Party estimated that 250,000 people were present, while tens of thousands have been protesting across the country.
Protests suppressed
The Cockroach Janta Party, or CJP, called for demonstrations against the SIR under the slogan “Lehra Do Tiranga” or “Wave the Tricolour”. Protesters carrying national flags gathered at Connaught Place before moving towards Dilli Haat and other parts of central Delhi.
“Gyanesh Kumar, resign”, “Down with Delhi Police”, and “Whenever Modi is scared, he sends the police to the front” were among the other slogans protesters shouted.
'Our demand is clear: roll back the SIR because it is a state tool to change the country’s voting demographics'
- Vishnu, protester
The CJP began in May 2026 as a satirical online movement founded by digital strategist Abhijeet Dipke.
At the time, the movement was demanding the resignation of Dharmendra Pradhan, a senior leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party or BJP, and the education minister in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s cabinet. The protest came after the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET), one of the world’s largest medical entrance exams, was leaked; it determines admissions into five-year undergraduate medical courses in India.
It has since developed into a street protest movement.
Today protesters now want the government to stop the SIR and demand the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.
Figures cited by the ruling BJP show that about 130 million names were dropped from draft voter lists during the revision of the list. The ECI says the deletions are meant to clean up the rolls by removing the names of dead, duplicate or ineligible voters.
The protests against these actions took place despite a ban imposed by the BJP-led Delhi government on gatherings of four or more people in some areas.
The restrictions came after Delhi Police removed Jantar Mantar, an 18th-century observatory and a long-time protest site, from its list of approved protest locations on 12 October. Police named Ramlila Maidan, Burari Ground and CBD Ground in East Delhi as alternative locations.
“We are out to protest to protect democracy. There is no violence going on, but the police are still detaining people. It is illegal. These detentions are a symbol of a fascist state, and this has been happening in India for a long time,” a protester who gave only his first name, Vishnu, told MEE.
He was speaking from a private vehicle hired by Delhi Police to transport detained protesters.
“Our demand is clear: roll back the SIR because it is a state tool to change the country’s voting demographics. They have done it successfully in many places, and we want people to join us and fight this fascist government with us,” he added.
Police detained several CJP leaders and protesters during the demonstrations, including Dipke and All India Students Association president, Neha Bora.
Bora was released on Saturday morning. Dipke appeared before a Special Executive Magistrate court and was released after signing a bond, according to reports. Delhi Police registered at least two cases over the march for violating prohibitory orders.
‘Deleted votes are those of Muslims’
On 23 September, The Indian Express published an investigation into alleged irregularities at the Election Commission. The report said the ECI had bypassed legal requirements, raised concerns over the SIR and centralised the voter database.
It also reported that Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi had formally objected at least 14 times in 10 months to decisions and orders issued without their knowledge, approval or consultation. Their concerns included the addition and deletion of voters, changes to Form 6, access to the electoral database, and the commission’s technology systems.
The ECI rejected claims of an internal rift. It said the notes were suggestions and that every decision taken in the past year, including those related to the SIR, was unanimous.
Where do Muslim youths fit in India's 'Cockroach' protests?
For SIR critics, however, the concern goes beyond the Election Commission's functioning. They say the revisions could determine who can vote and, in turn, affect India’s political landscape.
Ajay Gudavarthy, an associate professor at the Centre for Political Studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi, said available data on voter deletions suggested that Muslims made up a large share of those removed from the rolls.
He said he believed the deletions were part of a wider political strategy targeting Muslims and Dalits while building support among Other Backward Class, or OBCs, and upper castes. OBC is an official term employed by the government of India and is an umbrella classification for communities that are deprived or disadvantaged, whether economically, socially or in terms of education.
“An overwhelming majority of the deleted votes are those of Muslims. This is one reason there is no mass outrage against the SIR. The BJP’s larger design is not only to delete Muslim votes but also to socially polarise people on the basis of these deletions,” Gudavarthy told MEE.
“Alongside Muslims, Dalit votes are also being deleted in order to achieve a reverse consolidation of OBCs and the upper castes,” he added.
The experience of Sayed Rashad Ikmal’s family in Odisha shows how the deletion of names can affect voters at the local level.
Ikmal, a resident of Sungra village in Cuttack district, said the names of his aunt and her husband were missing from the draft SIR voter list, even though his uncle had worked in the finance department of Indian Railways.
“The omission came as a shock to the family, which, like several others in the village, worried about being left off the voter rolls,” Ikmal told MEE.
The family approached the booth-level officer and found that a Form 7 application had been filed with the ECI seeking the deletion of their names. Form 7 is used to object to the inclusion of a name or request the removal of an existing name from the voter roll.
The family later approached the Block Development Officer [BDO], who cancelled the request and restored both names to the SIR list, Ikmal told MEE.
He said the BDO's role was important because local officials could prevent people from being wrongly removed from voter lists.
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“If the BDO does his job honestly, wrongful additions to or deletions from the voter rolls can be stopped, whatever happens at the higher level,” he said.
The residents of Sungra and nearby villages, Ikmal said, had begun to feel that Muslims were being targeted in Odisha. He said these concerns had grown alongside the spread of the “Go to Bangladesh” narrative among people linked to Hindu right-wing groups.
“I describe the threat of being sent to Bangladesh as one of the most intimidating narratives directed at Muslims,” Ikmal said, referring to political claims about Bangladeshi infiltration into Assam and West Bengal.
“The narrative had been used to divide voters ahead of state elections in both states and to build support for the BJP,” he added.
For Gudavarthy, the issue points to a larger question about the strength of India’s democratic institutions.
“The system needs to be made accountable only through mass protests and institutional decentralisation,” he said. “It is a lesson for Indian democracy that institutions can be so easily subverted when there is executive overreach,” he added.
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan cautioned on Friday against any renewed attack on Iran, saying such a move would exacerbate tensions and further expand the conflict.
Diplomacy and dialogue are the only way to end the war, Fidan told the press after meeting with foreign ministers from Egypt, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Germany, France, Britain and Italy.
"A military intervention on Iran is not in any way a solution. Nobody approves this at the moment," he added.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot also said after Friday's meetings that renewed escalation between Iran and the United States would only have losers and raise oil prices.
Foreign ministers from eight European and Middle Eastern countries met in Istanbul for security talks, on 23 October 2026 (Reuters/Murad Sezer)
The United States could strike Iran as soon as this weekend, a US envoy said on Friday, after mounting threats by both Washington and Israel this week.
“Could there be a strike this weekend? Absolutely,” Tom Barrack, the US ambassador to Turkey and special envoy for Syria, said in an interview.
President Donald Trump “is very clear. He’s open and available and accessible to a deal, and we’ve been at the table for months and months and months,” Barrack said.
Tehran has drawn up detailed plans to target undersea communications cables in the Gulf if the United States and Israel attack Iran again, two senior Iranian security officials told Reuters.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, the officials gave few details and did not say how or where Tehran would carry out such attacks.
But one of them said Iran would aim to prevent repairs after any attacks to prolong disruptions to communications, including internet connections.
"If Iran is attacked, there will be no more red lines ... from undersea cables to military bases, including covert ones," one of the officials said, warning Washington not to "play with fire".
The second official said Washington’s Gulf allies, which have invested heavily in such infrastructure, “should hold Washington, not Tehran, responsible for any damage to undersea cables.”
Yadollah Javani, the deputy head of political affairs for Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, said on Wednesday that Iran could target seven major internet cables beneath the Strait of Hormuz if Iranian infrastructure came under attack.
Iranian security chief Mohsen Rezaei also warned this month that US-linked digital infrastructure across the Gulf, including data centres and AI facilities, could be targeted in a renewed conflict.
Multiple cable cuts could slow internet services and disrupt financial transactions, e-commerce and cloud computing, experts said.
Israeli withdrawal plans have been effectively stalled since the signing of a June agreement between the two sides
The headquarters of US Central Command at MacDill Air Force Base is shown on 6 February 2017 in Tampa, Florida (Mandel Ngan/AFP)
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Talks between Lebanese and Israeli officials, hosted by the US in Tampa, Florida, this week, concluded without any breakthroughs, The New Arab reported on Thursday, citing its own sources.
The discussions were held at US Central Command headquarters, the Pentagon's Middle East operations arm. They come as Israel has continued its attacks on Lebanon this month, carrying out air strikes and home demolitions in the Nabatieh, Bint Jbeil, and Sidon districts.
The New Arab said it was told there was "intransigence in Israeli positions, while the Lebanese side is holding firm to its demands that steps must be reciprocal".
The Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF), largely funded by the US, has also rejected direct military-to-military coordination with the Israelis, instead preferring a third-party verification mechanism to be employed by the United Nations and allies such as France.
Israel has bombed Lebanon consistently since October 2023, after the Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel ignited the region.
A November 2024 ceasefire brokered by the former Biden administration did little to curb Israel's insistence that it was targeting Hezbollah leaders and weapons depots across the country, including in the capital, Beirut.
But it wasn't until this year that Israel significantly ramped up its military operations, mounted a ground invasion, and occupied long stretches of the south and east of Lebanon.
Since the US and Israel launched their joint war on Iran on 28 February, which prompted Hezbollah to launch attacks on Israel in defence of its ally, Israel has killed more than 4,300 Lebanese and displaced one million people in the country.
Lebanese officials have prioritised returning the displaced to their lands and demanded a timetable to do so from the Israelis, but there has been no movement on the issue since the US-sponsored framework was signed by the two sides in June.
Stalled progress
Lebanon and Israel agreed to a trilateral framework with the Trump administration in Washington earlier this year, following five rounds of talks hosted by Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
The three countries held what was billed as a historic signing ceremony on 26 June.
Rubio said it was "the beginning of the beginning" in remarks to reporters at the time.
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He later added the US would commit $100m in "humanitarian assistance in coordination with the UN" for affected communities, though he did not specify whether it was just for Lebanon or also for northern Israeli border towns.
Rubio said the LAF would be "reimbursed" by the Trump administration to the tune of $30m.
The framework led to the creation of the Military Coordination Group for Lebanon, which Washington would facilitate.
But the "pilot zones" that the Israelis pledged to withdraw from, in order to allow the LAF to take over, have not been expanded since July, with the Israelis claiming that the LAF have not had the capacity to disarm Hezbollah fighters.
Hezbollah, which the US has designated a terrorist organisation, is the key party to the conflict that was not represented in the talks.
Hezbollah refused to enter into direct discussions with Israel, but appears to have had backchannel communications with the Trump administration.
The group remains the country's most powerful military organisation and far outmatches the LAF's capabilities. It was formed in the 1980s in response to the illegal Israeli occupation of Lebanon.
It has insisted that it cannot disarm while Israel remains a threat to Lebanon, and as Israeli officials normalise rhetoric about expanding Israel's borders to the north.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said a large-scale military operation in the occupied West Bank is “on the way”, after two Israeli soldiers were killed in an attack in Hebron on Friday.
Speaking in Hebron later on Friday, Netanyahu said he and Defence Minister Israel Katz were considering an army operation in the West Bank on a scale not seen since Israel occupied the territory in 1967.
The Israeli army “is ready to execute it and we will set the timing, but it is on the way”, he said.
Visiting the site of the attack with his right-wing allies, Netanyahu added that the first phase would involve forced displacement of Palestinians in Hebron, searching homes and destroying what he called “terrorist infrastructure”.
Israeli army chief Eyal Zamir, who also visited the scene, said troops would “act forcefully, pursue and reach all those involved in the attack”.
“We are at the highest level of readiness and alert across all fronts,” Zamir said, according to The Times of Israel.
He added that the army would not be “drawn in” by its enemies during what he called a “sensitive week”, referring to the election.
Following the attack in Hebron earlier on Friday, Israeli forces killed the two Palestinians in an exchange of fire that also wounded six Israeli soldiers.
Bell was accused of singling out Muslim faith schools for criticism in 2005 when he was head of Ofsted
Sir David Bell, who led the antisemitism review published this week, made the remarks in 2005 when he was the head of Ofsted, Britain's schools regulator. (Screengrab)
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The lead reviewer into antisemitism in British schools has previously been accused of singling out Muslim schools by suggesting they could potentially threaten Britain's coherence as a nation, it has emerged.
Sir David Bell, who led the antisemitism review published this week, made the remarks in 2005 when he was the head of Ofsted, Britain's schools regulator.
He called on Muslim schools to reform their curriculums to allow pupils to "acquire an appreciation of and respect for other cultures in a way that promotes tolerance and harmony".
"I worry that many young people are being educated in faith-based schools, with little appreciation of their wider responsibilities and obligations to British society," Bell said during a lecture on citizenship education, warning that religious segregation in schooling "must not put our coherence at risk".
He argued that pupils must be made "aware of the political institutions in society, of being part of a democracy, of other faiths. In some of the Muslim schools that is not happening to a sufficient degree."
Bell said: "This growth in faith schools needs to be carefully but sensitively monitored by government to ensure that pupils receive an understanding of not only their own faith but of other faiths and the wider tenets of British society."
He added: "We must not allow our recognition of diversity to become apathy in the face of any challenge to our coherence as a nation."
Bell was widely criticised for the remarks, including by senior colleagues.
Christopher Schenk, who was an inspector of independent faith schools, disputed the idea that Muslim schools did not promote tolerance and harmony.
He said after Bell's speech that Muslim headteachers argued "that tolerance and harmony are Islamic virtues and they want their pupils to appreciate and respect other cultures".
"As I inspect Muslim schools I meet headteachers and trustees who talk about the need to educate the next generation of good British Muslims so that they can play a full part in the life of their country," said Schenk.
'Highly irresponsible'
Meanwhile Iqbal Sacranie, then the secretary-general of the Muslim Council of Britain, said: "With only 3 percent of Muslim children attending Muslim faith schools, it is astonishing that they have been singled out in this way, especially when considering the fact that state-funded Muslim schools and many independents are now outperforming the state sector."
Sacranie criticised Bell's remarks, saying "we consider it highly irresponsible to suggest that the growth of Muslim faith schools poses a threat to 'our coherence as a nation'.
"The issue around schools not adequately fulfilling their responsibility in preparing children for 'their wider responsibility and obligations' is a generic issue affecting all poorly resourced schools."
Dr Mohamed Mukadam, then the chairman of the Association of Muslim Schools, said: "I think it's a misconception of Islamic schools and a further example of Islamophobia. For a person in his position to make such a generalised comment just beggars belief."
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He added: "If you look at the statistics of those young people who come to British Muslim schools and compare them to state schools you will find a far higher proportion of them are going on to further and higher education to fulfil their role fully towards society."
The Ofsted report which followed Bell's remarks accused 18 out of 50 Muslim schools inspected by the agency of failing to teach tolerance, along with 17 out of 40 evangelical Christian schools - a higher proportion than that of Muslim schools.
Middle East Eye has contacted Bell for comment.
The Labour government said this week that it will encourage schools to adopt the widely criticised International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism, on the recommendation of Bell's review into antisemitism in schools.
Bell has previously been named as sitting on the National Council of the Academic Study Group on Israel and the Middle East, which has opposed the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement.
Earlier this week Bell said: "My report was on antisemitism and not Israel and the Middle East.
"While I might have been named as being on the National Council of the Academic Study Group on Israel and the Middle East, I have never carried out any work on its behalf, attended any meetings of the group, or been consulted on any issues relating to it."
Controversy over new report
Bell's report says that "a significant proportion of Jewish children are educated in Jewish schools", adding: "In the 1970s an estimated 20 percent of all school-aged Jewish children attended Jewish schools and this has risen to nearly 70 percent."
It says that "almost three in five (59 percent) who identify as Jewish" reported "having experienced antisemitism", leading to headlines in the media that "three in five Jewish pupils" experience antisemitism at school.
An analysis of the report itself indicates that statistic is based on a survey of 16- to 18-year-olds, including 92 Jewish students.
The report says: "It is important to note the data collected is not representative of all school and college students and a low sample size of 92 students who identify as Jewish should be treated with caution.
"Nevertheless, the conclusions still provide a valuable insight into students’ experience of antisemitism."
The annex further notes: "These results are not representative of the entire student population as a significant number within this age group have not applied to study at university or college."
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Of the 92 Jewish students, 70 responded to a question about whether they have personally experienced or witnessed antisemitism.
Twenty-nine Jewish students said they had experienced antisemitism, which equalled 41 percent of the Jewish respondents, not three in five, which would be 60 percent.
The review calls on schools to recognise antisemitism as a distinct category of harm. The government said it would accept the review’s findings in full.
But Bell's review has been criticised by the National Education Union, whose general secretary, Daniel Kebede, said: "Recommending the IHRA definition risks tightening the chilling grip already stifling classroom discussion of the Gaza genocide.
"Schools need practical support to confront antisemitism, not a contested framework that risks shutting down legitimate discussion."
The IHRA definition of antisemitism was originally formulated in 2004 as a non-legally-binding tool to assist in monitoring antisemitism.
Examples appended to it include "claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavour", which critics say blurs the line between antisemitism and political criticism of Israel.
Its lead author, Kenneth Stern, has warned against its use as a disciplinary or legal instrument, arguing that it may risk restricting legitimate political expression.
Italy has called for the immediate release of five Italian activists, all women, held by Israeli forces in the West Bank, Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said on Friday.
Italian foreign ministry sources said the women were detained on Thursday by Israeli police in Kiryat Arba settlement near Hebron in the occupied West Bank, along with other international activists.
They were seeking to protect Palestinian farmers from settler attacks during the olive harvest.
"What happened is unacceptable, they were not committing any crime," Tajani told reporters on the sidelines of an international summit in Istanbul, adding he hoped they would be released in a matter of hours.
Israeli forces and armed settlers order Palestinians and activists to leave the area of olive plantation near the occupied West Bank town of Hebron, 13 October 2026 (Hazem Bader /AFP)
Likud is set to haemorrhage seats but the election is too close to call and voters appear not to have lost any of their right-wing fervour
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meets members of the public at a mall in Ramla, 19 October 2026 (Amir Cohen/Reuters)
On
As so often in recent years, Israel’s latest election has centred on the personality of Benjamin Netanyahu.
You might think, exactly three years after the 7 October 2023, that the Hamas-led attack and Israel’s genocide in Gaza would be the formative issue for these polls.
And in a sense they are, but only in so much as how they relate to Netanyahu, his conduct and to what extent the prime minister knew an assault was going to take place.
There is a feeling before polling day on Tuesday that the electorate has already made its mind up. Those who vote for Netanyahu or his coalition partners are doing so despite - or indeed because of - 7 October and everything that Israel has done since.
This has contributed to a surprisingly muted election.
It wasn’t so long ago that Israelis mobilised in their hundreds of thousands in opposition to Netanyahu and his judicial reforms.
He also repeatedly drew angry protesters to the streets during the Gaza genocide for relentlessly prosecuting the war regardless of the danger it placed on Israeli captives held in the Palestinian enclave.
After all this, you would expect tension to be a lot higher, and for Netanyahu and the right wing to be set to lose power.
Yet you see no demonstrations on the streets, no mass mobilisation.
Right-wingers on both sides
On a personal level, Netanyahu is weak. His Likud party is set to lose 10 to 15 seats, around a third of its current total.
But while the right-wing prime minister may be weak individually, the right-wing mentality of Israeli voters remains very strong.
There are at least three far-right parties that have the deportation of Palestinians as part of their agenda. Polls suggest that together these parties will win around 20 seats next week - a sixth of the total.
As for the opposition, we do not see a unified group of parties with a clear political agenda. There are just two things they can all agree on: Netanyahu must leave office and the ultra-Orthodox should serve in the army.
Several of these parties can be described as right wing themselves.
Naftali Bennett, head of the Together party, and Israel Is Our Home leader Avigdor Lieberman are both former defence ministers under Netanyahu.
Gabi Eisenkot, the military chief of staff turned chief rival of Netanyahu, is heralded as Israel’s centre-left figure of hope.
Yet he has promised to develop existing settlements and has several settlers, ex-settlers and right-wingers on his electoral list, including people who supported Netanyahu’s highly controversial judicial reforms.
And while he has previously opened the door for the participation of parties representing Palestinian citizens of Israel, criticism of that stance from key allies has prompted him to pour cold water on the prospect.
No one really knows what to expect from Eisenkot. He has certainly tried to portray a quite right-wing image to the domestic Israeli public, while seeming more liberal to the international community.
Meanwhile, though Bennett and Lieberman have sought to attract left-wing and centrist voters, there is no hiding that they are openly racist, supportive of settlements and hawkish.
The threat of a settler rebellion
Importantly, there’s almost zero talk about where Israel is heading, and what will happen with Gaza, Lebanon, the occupied West Bank and Iran.
The opposition parties do not talk about having a political settlement in Gaza, or progressing with the second stage of last year’s ceasefire deal.
They do not discuss how to handle the West Bank, the rampaging settler attacks there or relations with the Palestinian Authority.
In fact, violent settlers could be emboldened by an Eisenkot victory.
The former army chief has vowed to bring the settlements back under the control of the military, reversing Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich’s reforms that amounted to a form of de-facto annexation.
I think that even now, Eisenkot is quite afraid that he will lose control, and settlers will do their best to prove to him that he has no real leverage in the West Bank.
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Even conservative Israeli commentators are saying that the army has lost control of the West Bank. If Eisenkot wins, he could face a sort of settler rebellion.
There is great fear that the settler attacks on Palestinians that we have seen in the West Bank over recent months will be nothing compared to what they will do to undermine a government led by Eisenkot.
The settlers have hundreds, if not thousands, of armed militiamen. They are well-connected in the army, and it’s not clear where the military’s loyalties will lie in such a situation.
One solution to Eisenkot, to relieve himself of the right-wing settler pressure in the West Bank, could be to form a unity government with Netanyahu.
To be clear, this will be difficult to do. The last thing that Eisenkot’s voters and allies want to see is Netanyahu in government, taking up a power-sharing rotating premiership as the prime minister did with another former army chief, Benny Gantz, in 2020 to disastrous effect.
And it is extremely unlikely that Netanyahu would accept any deal where he would not have primacy in the government.
However, such an outcome could take the sting out of the radical right wing, avoiding the prospect of a settler rebellion and even ensuring that radical ministers Itamar Ben Gvir and Smotrich are locked out of government.
Much depends on how close Netanyahu and his allies get to the magic number of 61 seats - a majority in the Knesset.
Currently, polls put the prime minister’s coalition at 51 seats. If Netanyahu is able to get closer to 61, there is a large chance that he will manage to steal some of the many right-wing MPs from rival parties and stay in power once again.
US President Donald Trump said on Friday that Washington could end the war with Iran quickly, but questioned whether to seek a swift conclusion or let the conflict wind down gradually.
"We could end it very quickly," Trump said. "Do we want to finish it off or just want to let it wither?"
Speaking to reporters on the White House South Lawn before departing for Florida, Trump said oil was passing through the Strait of Hormuz.
"We are getting everything we want,” he said.
He praised the US Navy for doing a “great job” of helping secure the passage of oil through the waterway and repeated his earlier claim that Hormuz was “totally ours and that’s the way we’ll keep it”.
German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said on Friday that Germany, France and Britain were ready to negotiate with Iran to ensure it does not acquire nuclear weapons.
Speaking on the sidelines of an international summit in Istanbul, Wadephul also called for Saudi Arabia and Yemen’s government to be supported in defending themselves and paving the way for talks with the Houthis to resume.
Armed Israeli settlers arrived in two vehicles near the Ajja roundabout, south of Jenin, and demolished a memorial honouring Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, Palestinian news agency Wafa reports.
The local municipality had erected the monument to commemorate the Palestinian journalist.
An Israeli soldier shot Abu Akleh in the head in 2022 as she reported on an Israeli military raid in Jenin.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel will decide when to carry out a major military operation in the occupied West Bank.
“I have reviewed a very extensive operation in the West Bank that will be unprecedented since ’67, and we will choose the timing of its implementation,” Netanyahu said.
In the 1967 war, Israel captured the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza, alongside Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula and Syria’s Golan Heights. Israel continues to occupy the Golan Heights.
Balad leader Sami Abu Shehade's ousting from the Knesset race marks an escalation of repression in a system that has always made Palestinian representation conditional
A Joint List election billboard in Nazareth featuring Balad leader Sami Abu Shehadeh (left), with Yousef Jabareen and Ahmad Tibi, on 21 October 2026 (Ahmad Gharabli/AFP)
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When Sami Abu Shehadeh appeared before Israel's Supreme Court on 1 October, the hearing revealed a great deal about the political position of Palestinian citizens of Israel.
In September, the Central Elections Committee had disqualified both Palestinian electoral lists from the election due on 27 October, along with two individual candidates: Ofer Cassif, a Jewish Israeli lawmaker from Hadash, and Abu Shehadeh, the leader of Balad.
Before a nine-justice panel, Abu Shehadeh was subjected to a public interrogation of his political identity, his sympathy for Israelis killed on 7 October 2023 and his loyalties, centred on an article he published on the Arab48 news site the following day.
He repeatedly tried to reason with the judges and to demonstrate his opposition to the attack and the killing of civilians. He was repeatedly pressed to express remorse for having written the article.
The court overturned the bans on the two lists and on Cassif. But it told Abu Shehadeh that a majority of justices would uphold his disqualification, and gave him a day to withdraw.
He did so, saying he wanted to spare the Joint List and parliamentary work more broadly the repercussions of a formal ban, and became the first Palestinian leader forced out of a Knesset race since Israel's disqualification law was enacted in 1985.
Many Palestinians with Israeli citizenship experienced the hearing as humiliating, though hardly surprising. What does it reveal about the political status of Palestinians who remained in the territory on which Israel was established in 1948 and became citizens of a settler-colonial state?
And how does the Israeli affective system - the fear, hostility and suspicion through which Palestinian political expression is interpreted - shape the conditions of Palestinian political participation, even when there are no legal grounds for the punitive measures and political targeting Palestinians face?
Abu Shehadeh's interrogation raises a fundamental question: under what conditions can Palestinians participate in the political institutions of a settler-colonial state while continuing to identify politically with the people whose dispossession constitutes the historical foundation of that state?
To approach these questions, we must return to the formation of Palestinian citizenship after the Nakba.
Military rule
Palestinians who remained were, after a struggle, included in the institutions of the state as citizens. At the same time, they were subjected to military rule, land dispossession, surveillance and the systematic suppression of their national identity and political organisation.
Their citizenship marked no departure from the settler-colonial project. It became one of the means through which they were governed, dominated and dispossessed, and their participation in the Knesset emerged within that structure.
Palestinian parliamentary participation has been permitted, regulated and threatened with elimination
During military rule, which lasted until 1966, many Palestinian citizens voted either directly for Zionist parties, particularly the ruling Mapai, or for "satellite lists" led by Arab candidates but tied to and dependent on those parties.
This pattern was shaped by the aftermath of the Nakba, which left Palestinians struggling for survival after dispossession and defeat, and by military rule itself, which made them dependent on military governors for freedom of movement, employment, permits and nearly every aspect of daily life.
Political mobilisation in this period was shaped by the struggle for survival and resistance to military rule. Discourse centred on sumud, or steadfastness, remaining on the land and civic demands for basic rights, above all the abolition of military rule. The wider Palestinian national question was approached cautiously, through clandestine means.
Forming an independent Palestinian party was not possible. The first Palestinian participation in Israeli elections outside the Zionist parties came through the National Liberation League, which joined the Communist Party, Maki, before the 1949 elections. The party became an important framework for Palestinian political organisation and opposition to military rule.
In 1965, Maki split over Zionism and Palestinian national rights, and its predominantly Palestinian faction established Rakah, which increasingly aligned itself with the Palestinian national movement. The same year, the Arab Socialist List, linked to the nationalist Al-Ard movement, tried to run for the Knesset and was disqualified.
Palestinian political actors have since sought to use the institutions of the state to organise, represent their communities and articulate collective demands, while confronting the limits imposed on their political existence. The current attempt to block Palestinian parties belongs to a long history in which their parliamentary participation has been permitted, regulated and threatened with elimination.
National politics
As the scholars Muhannad Mustafa and As'ad Ghanem have documented, the 1967 war was a turning point. It strengthened Palestinian national consciousness and reconnected Palestinian citizens of Israel with the wider national movement.
New movements and autonomous national institutions followed, including the National Committee of Heads of Arab Local Authorities in 1974 and the Committee for the Defence of Arab Lands in 1975, which organised the first Land Day protests the following year.
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In 1977, Rakah joined other Arab and Jewish groups to establish Hadash, the Democratic Front for Peace and Equality.
Its programme combined demands for civic equality and workers' rights with recognition of Palestinian national self-determination, in line with the Palestinian national movement's political programme. Hadash played a central role in Palestinian political organisation and parliamentary representation.
The Islamic Movement, which began developing in the 1970s, expanded its social, religious and political activities during the 1980s and became an increasingly significant force in local politics.
The First Intifada of 1987 deepened political solidarity between Palestinian citizens of Israel and Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza, expressed in protests against Israel's suppression of the uprising and material support for those under occupation.
The Oslo Accords of 1993 marked another turning point, shifting Palestinian political discourse towards questions of citizenship, collective national rights and the character of the Israeli state.
In this context, Balad, the National Democratic Assembly, emerged in 1995, bringing together nationalist activists and intellectuals from different currents. Its programme challenged the Zionist and colonial foundations of the state, advocating a state of all its citizens and recognition of Palestinians as a national collective with collective rights and cultural autonomy.
Parliamentary limits
Balad's leadership debated whether to enter the Knesset at all. It eventually chose parliamentary politics as a platform for challenging the state's foundations and advancing Palestinian national demands, without accepting the legitimacy of the existing political order.
The Islamic Movement, meanwhile, split into northern and southern branches in 1996 over the same question, with the southern branch entering parliament through the United Arab List, Ra'am.
Alongside Ta'al, the Arab Movement for Renewal, these three parties contested elections with varying Palestinian turnout. The Second Intifada marked another turning point, and turnout fell to its lowest level to that point in 2009, amid lively debate over the effectiveness of parliamentary participation.
In 2014, the Knesset raised the electoral threshold, a move widely seen as an attempt to exclude Palestinian representation, since none of the parties could be sure of clearing it alone. In response, the four parties formed the Joint List for the 2015 election.
This history shows that Palestinian parliamentary participation has never been a settled arrangement. There has never been a broad political consensus on whether to take part at all.
Its forms and meanings have been reshaped repeatedly by the wider national struggle and by the changing conditions of Palestinian citizens, yet these different strategies have continued to confront the structural limits imposed on Palestinian political participation.
Palestinian parties are contesting the 27 October election on two lists: the Joint List, comprising Hadash, Balad and Ta'al, and Ra'am on its own.
The split goes beyond electoral tactics. It reflects a broader debate among Palestinians over the purpose of parliamentary representation and the implications of seeking integration into Israeli state institutions, with Ra'am taking an increasingly integrationist approach while the Joint List has largely held to an oppositional stance.
Narrowing margins
Palestinian participation in the Knesset has never been free of the constraints of Zionist politics, dominant Israeli affects and a politics of fear. The attempts to disqualify Palestinian parties, culminating in Abu Shehadeh's questioning over his political views, invite us to ask what is changing in the way those constraints are enforced in the conjuncture since 7 October 2023.
Palestinian political expression has historically been shaped by Zionist dominance, securitisation and repression. But the period since 7 October has seen a sharp intensification of these restrictions, redrawing the boundaries of permissible Palestinian political life.
People avoid demonstrations, delete social media posts, withdraw from political activity or stay silent, even when nothing they have done is unlawful
This is evident in the growing criminalisation of political expression, including solidarity with Gaza; restrictions on political organisation and collective mobilisation; police raids on party offices such as those of Hadash; the suppression of demonstrations; and the arrest and prolonged detention of activists.
It is evident, too, in the use of administrative detention against Palestinian citizens of Israel. According to Justice Ministry data, Israeli courts handled 297 such cases involving Palestinians from inside Israel and East Jerusalem between the start of the genocide in Gaza and May 2025.
The already narrow margins for political organising have shrunk further, and the line between lawful and unlawful political activity has blurred. Forms of expression and organisation that were possible before 7 October, even within a restrictive climate, are increasingly prohibited, punished or prevented in practice.
These restrictions are not imposed through legislation or state repression alone. The prevailing climate, growing hostility towards Palestinian political expression, and the spread of surveillance and disciplinary practices across universities, hospitals and workplaces also shape what Palestinians can say and identify with.
Expressions of Palestinian national identity, collective grief and solidarity are increasingly treated as support for terrorism, while the fear of arrest, dismissal, disciplinary action or social retaliation leads Palestinians to police themselves. People avoid demonstrations, delete social media posts, withdraw from political activity or stay silent, even when nothing they have done is unlawful.
The boundaries of permissible participation are thus being redrawn through political sentiment, the anticipation of punishment and the internalisation of threats.
Leadership under fear
Here we return to the question of parliamentary participation and its limits in the current conjuncture. At stake is not only whether the narrow margins for Palestinian participation in Israeli politics are closing further, but also how this intensification of hostility and political violence might reshape Palestinian strategies and collective mobilisation more broadly.
It raises, in particular, the question of how far the Palestinian political leadership inside Israel has itself been shaped by Israeli affective politics of fear, hostility and intimidation since 7 October.
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The prevailing atmosphere of fear and caution was reflected in the leadership's response. Police banned protests in Umm al-Fahm and Sakhnin, and in November 2023 arrested the head of the High Follow-Up Committee, Mohammad Barakeh, on his way to a vigil in Nazareth.
A leadership-only vigil organised by the committee in Nazareth on 28 December 2023 was announced minutes beforehand to evade the police. On 20 January 2024, more than three months into the genocide, a Hadash-led rally went ahead in Haifa, after three police refusals and a petition to the Supreme Court, with attendance capped at 700.
Such caution is understandable amid intensified repression. But it has shielded neither Palestinian political leaders nor Palestinians more broadly from persecution and political targeting, as Abu Shehadeh's forced withdrawal shows.
That raises a more fundamental question about whether the Palestinian leadership inside Israel can respond adequately to the magnitude and complexity of the transformations it confronts.
Could these conditions push Palestinians inside Israel towards a renewed articulation of their struggle as part of the broader Palestinian national struggle, and what would that mean for the future of parliamentary participation? And will they prompt a more fundamental rethinking of political organising beyond the ever more restrictive boundaries of parliamentary representation?
The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Eye.
Some 400 people will risk arrest under the Terrorism Act days before a Supreme Court hearing reviewing the controversial proscription
Defend Our Juries said thousands have faced charges under the Terrorism Act for opposing the ban on Palestine Action (Reuters)
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Hundreds of people are expected to risk arrest under the Terrorism Act at a "mass action" days before the Supreme Court hears an appeal against the ban on direct action group Palestine Action.
On Friday, the campaign group Defend Our Juries (DOJ) will announce a "mass defiance" act outside the US embassy in London on 31 October.
Over 400 people have volunteered to hold signs reading "I oppose genocide- I support Palestine Action", risking arrest under Section 13 of the Terrorism Act, which criminalises expressions of support for a proscribed organisation.
The group added that a "dual action" will take place outside the US consulate in Edinburgh.
Next week's protest will come days before a Supreme Court hearing on 4 and 5 November that will review a Court of Appeal decision earlier this year upholding the proscription as lawful.
A DOJ spokesperson said the action will "lay bare the fundamental rights to free expression” at stake, pointing to the withdrawal of Sally Rooney's books from sale in the UK.
The government of former British Prime Minister Keir Starmer proscribed Palestine Action in July 2025, making membership of the group and certain expressions of support criminal offences punishable by up to 14 years in prison.
Jewish, 94, and arrested for supporting Palestine Action: Margaret Owen on Ed Miliband and the right to protest
Since then, DOJ estimates that around 3,850 people have been arrested, with at least 2,250 charges brought over alleged expressions of support for the banned group.
The campaign group said staging protests outside US diplomatic premises would highlight questions about President Donald Trump's influence on the implementation of the ban after Palestine Action activists spray-painted his Turnberry golf course in Scotland.
During a judicial review of the proscription last November, it emerged that Starmer spoke to Trump on 10 and 30 March following the incident.
Around the same time, Trump denounced the activists on Truth Social as “terrorists” who had caused “serious damage” - wording that appeared to reference language in Britain’s Terrorism Act 2000 - and said they would “hopefully be treated harshly”.
Public scrutiny of the controversial ban is mounting, alongside pressure on Prime Minister Andy Burnham to reverse it.
Calls to lift the ban are also coming from within his own party, with senior Labour peer Shami Chakrabarti denouncing the move as "making a mockery" of counter-terrorism laws.
Chakrabarti told LBC's Andrew Marr that "changes in circumstances" required the home secretary to revisit the proscription.
She added that the power to proscribe organisations "should be an exceptional power", "used with great care" and "should be constantly under review".
Washington Post journalist Heidi Levine has described how Israeli settlers knocked her down, kicked her and struck her with sticks during an attack last week.
Speaking to CNN on Thursday after leaving hospital in Israel, Levine said the experience had deepened her understanding of the violence Palestinians face.
What hurt most, she said, was that she could now “really understand what others have gone through, what Palestinian women, children, men have gone through”.
“I can’t imagine what it’s like for all the victims that have gone through the same ordeal and are living with the threat of this violence on a daily basis,” she said.
Levine recounted the moments before the assault: “There was tear gas, there was gunfire. From what I understand, a man was shot; a Palestinian man was shot in the leg, and the settlers charged forward,” she told CNN.
“I was thrown to the ground… They just kept kicking me and hitting me with sticks, and it just kept going on and on. And then I actually thought, okay, maybe I’ll just play dead and pretend I’m dead, and they’ll stop and they’ll leave me alone.”
She said the attack had strengthened her “commitment to continue working to try to make a difference”.
The Bell report finds that anti-Jewish attitudes are 'less prevalent', while 'anti-Israel sentiments are more prevalent'
Britain's Education Secretary Lucy Powell arrives ahead of the annual Labour Party conference in Liverpool, north-west England, on September 26, 2026. (AFP)
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New questions have emerged about the British government's plans to promote a contentious definition of antisemitism, which has been accused of stifling criticism of Israel in schools and cautioned against by its lead author.
The government has said it will encourage schools to adopt the widely-criticised International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism, on the recommendation of a new review into antisemitism in schools.
It has been widely reported that the review, which was led by Sir David Bell and published its findings earlier this week, found that "three in five Jewish pupils" experience antisemitism at school.
The Bell report itself says that "almost three in five (59 percent) who identify as Jewish" reported "having experienced antisemitism". But where does this figure come from?
The report itself says that "a significant proportion of Jewish children are educated in Jewish schools." It adds: "In the 1970s an estimated 20 percent of all school-aged Jewish children attended Jewish schools and this has risen to nearly 70 percent."
The report's annex gives a detailed breakdown of the survey on which the antisemitism statistics are apparently based. The survey was of 16-to-18-year olds who were registered with UCAS, the Universities and Colleges Admission Service, not schoolchildren in general.
'Anti-Jewish attitudes are typically less prevalent and have remained more stable, whereas anti-Israel sentiments are more prevalent and have been increasing'
- The Bell report
Ninety-two Jewish students took part in the survey, out of 5,000 respondents.
The report says: "It is important to note the data collected is not representative of all school and college students and a low sample size of 92 students who identify as Jewish should be treated with caution. Nevertheless, the conclusions still provide a valuable insight into students’ experience of antisemitism."
The annex further notes: "These results are not representative of the entire student population as a significant number within this age group have not applied to study at university or college."
Of the 92 Jewish students, 70 of them responded to a question about whether they have personally experienced or witnessed antisemitism. Twenty-nine Jewish students said they had experienced antisemitism, which equalled 41 percent of the Jewish respondents, not three in five, which would be 60 percent.
Anti-Israel views on the rise, report says
The survey found that 30 percent of students who did not identify as Jewish said they had personally experienced discrimination, bullying or harassment. Of these, 21 percent said this was due to their religion and 46 percent said it was due to their race or ethnicity.
The Bell review used the IHRA definition of antisemitism, according to its published terms of reference.
The report says: "British attitudes relating to Jewish people and Israel show two broad trends. Anti-Jewish attitudes are typically less prevalent and have remained more stable, whereas anti-Israel sentiments are more prevalent and have been increasing.
"For example, in 2025 an estimated three percent of British adults disagreed with the question 'I am just as open to having Jewish friends as I am to have friends from other sections of British society'.”
'Schools need practical support to confront antisemitism, not a contested framework that risks shutting down legitimate discussion'
- Daniel Kebede, National Education Union
"This compares to an estimated 25 percent of British adults who disagree with the statement 'I am comfortable spending time with people who openly support Israel'. This rises to 49 percent for those aged 18-24."
The review calls on schools to recognise antisemitism as a distinct category of harm. The government said it would accept the review’s findings in full.
But the Bell review has been criticised by the National Education Union, whose general secretary, Daniel Kebede, said: "Recommending the IHRA definition risks tightening the chilling grip already stifling classroom discussion of the Gaza genocide.
"Schools need practical support to confront antisemitism, not a contested framework that risks shutting down legitimate discussion."
The IHRA definition of antisemitism was originally formulated in 2004 as a non-legally-binding tool to assist in monitoring antisemitism. Examples appended to it include "claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavour", which critics say can blur the line between antisemitism and political criticism of Israel.
Its lead author, Kenneth Stern, has warned against its use as a disciplinary or legal instrument, arguing that it may risk restricting legitimate political expression.
'Schools are a place to be impartial'
On Wednesday, Education Secretary Lucy Powell told Sky News: "I don't think that our schools should be a place where it's about making protests and statements about geopolitical events around the world."
UK says schoolchildren shouldn’t wave Palestine flags. Ukraine flags are fine though
Powell was asked whether pupils should be "allowed to display Palestinian flags" in schools.
She replied: "That's not what we would expect in schools, that's not expected at all. Schools are a place to be impartial."
However, the Department for Education has previously published a video online of Powell's predecessor as education secretary, Bridget Phillipson, in a classroom with pupils waving the Ukrainian flag.
On 24 August 2024 the Department for Education released a statement saying: "On Ukrainian Independence Day we celebrate everything Ukraine is fighting to defend: democracy, sovereignty and the Ukrainian way of life."
And on 19 October 2023, after the Hamas attack on Israel and 11 days into Israel's bombardment of Gaza, the Department for Education said in a statement: "The UK unequivocally condemns these terrorist attacks and stands in solidarity with Israel in its hour of need."
Since Israel's genocide in Gaza began, there has been a reported rise in the number of schoolchildren referred to the Prevent counter-extremism programme for wearing pro-Palestine badges and stickers.
Kashmiris have been living with curtailed civil liberties and thousands of books have been removed from circulation
Kashmiri Muslim women walk past a mural in Srinagar, 9 October 2026 (Tauseef Mustafa/AFP)
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On 3 September, the Jammu and Kashmir High Court in Indian-administered Kashmir quashed the preventive detention order of research scholar Shafat Maqbool Wani, ruling that owning books with controversial titles does not make a person a criminal or justify detention without trial.
Justice Moksha Khajuria Kazmi said in her order that “owning books with grim titles does not make their owner a criminal”.
She held that authorities had failed to establish any specific subversive activity warranting Wani’s detention under the Public Safety Act (PSA), which allows administrative preventive detention without trial for up to two years.
Wani, a resident of north Kashmir’s Kupwara district, was initially arrested under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), an anti-terrorism law. A special National Investigation Agency court in Jammu later granted him bail.
On 13 September 2025, the same day he secured bail in the UAPA case, the Kupwara district magistrate ordered his detention under the PSA, citing concerns that his activities could be “detrimental to state security”.
The detention order cited four grounds: his father’s alleged militant links, invitations to international academic conferences, the UAPA case, and literature seized from his home.
According to the order, Wani’s father, Mohammad Maqbool Wani, had been associated with the then militant outfit al-Barq before surrendering to authorities in 1990.
Authorities also cited invitations Wani had received to present academic papers at Columbia University and Dublin City University.
'Erasing historical facts': India orders massive crackdown on books in Kashmir's libraries
The detention record also mentioned the seizure of books from his residence, which authorities described as “anti-national”; it included Construction of an Islamic Order in Hindutva Reimagination, which police alleged he had authored, and The Saffronisation of Occupied Kashmir: Demystifying Hindutva Settlers, Colonial Designers.
The High Court found that the books had been wrongly attributed to him.
Since the ruling BJP government abrogated Article 370 unilaterally in the region, Kashmir has been going through sweeping administrative restructuring with the introduction of new domicile laws that critics describe as a “settler-colonial project” aimed at altering the region’s Muslim majority character.
Residents have been living with curtailed civil liberties, and dissent has been criminalised, with journalists and academics facing arbitrary detentions and sweeping book bans and passport withholdings, leaving public life under continuous state surveillance.
This tightening grip has extended into the region’s religious places as well; last week the Jammu and Kashmir Waqf Board, the state body managing Islamic shrines and mosques, now headed by a senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) politician, directed uniform Friday sermons across the region’s mosques, sparking outcry.
No space for thought
The ruling in Wani’s case comes amid concerns among academics, lawyers and rights groups about the impact of security measures and surveillance on intellectual life in Kashmir, which is growing each day.
The case, experts say, exposes just how far authorities have gone in treating critical thinking and scholarship as a security threat.
Many in the region’s small academic community warn that years of such detentions are already changing what gets written, and who dares to write it.
From autonomy to 'settler colonialism': How India redrew Kashmir's demographic and political landscape
“When books are banned and also discarded in large numbers, and people are detained on the presumption that they are anti-national, imagine the situation of writers," said a Kashmiri writer in their 40s based in Srinagar, the main city, on the condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.
"Some are struggling, and some of us have given up writing, and others are writing not to annoy anyone. In media, you will not find any critical stories; there is only writing that is acceptable."
“There is no space for critical thought,” the writer said.
The authorities last year also banned the publication, sale and circulation of 25 books on Kashmir, alleging they promoted “false narratives” and “secessionism”.
The list included work by internationally recognised scholars and journalists, among them Arundhati Roy, AG Noorani, Victoria Schofield, Hafsa Kanjwal, Ather Zia and Anuradha Bhasin, published by presses including Cambridge University Press.
The order also directed schools, colleges, universities and public libraries to screen their collections for “objectionable content”.
'Objectionable content'
In July this year, authorities began a mass filtering of books at the region’s prominent libraries and educational institutions over allegations that they carry objectionable content, including extolling leaders associated with Kashmir’s liberation movement.
All educational institutions have been ordered to vet books, journals, dissertations, doctoral theses and digital resources to “prevent any activity prejudicial to the sovereignty and security of the nation”.
India's Kashmir railway is an engineering feat - and an occupation project
Even inside the region's universities, students told Middle East Eye that a strict mandate requires vetting seminar topics, monitoring guest speakers, and scrubbing syllabi of critical political science and literature topics that touch on regional conflict or its history.
The region’s education minister, Sakina Itoo, told the local legislative assembly in September that authorities pulled 4,249 books from public, school, and college libraries and sent another 1,752 titles for “expert examination” after screening more than 2.18 million books for “objectionable content” following the July order.
Sheikh Khurshid, an independent legislator who raised the question about the books, told journalists in Srinagar that the way books are being removed is an indication that “Kashmir history is being erased”.
“We have not been given details of the books that have been removed, and it is most ironic,” he said.
Khurshid said that banning books is contrary to the claims that there is complete “freedom of expression” in Jammu and Kashmir.
Scholars warn of a chilling effect
Mohamad Junaid, an assistant professor of anthropology at the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, told MEE that academic freedom is closely connected to freedom of conscience, which is at the core of modern, liberal, tolerant societies.
"Its lack means the country has drifted in the opposite direction," Junaid said. "Freedom to pursue academic work benefits the entire society even if the government doesn’t like it. Not allowing critical academic work blinds society to its own flaws and injustices.
India: Outrage after Cambridge-educated Muslim academic arrested over online post
"In these recent cases, it is not just a matter of freedom to pursue academic research that is at the centre, but whether Kashmiris can produce knowledge about themselves and their society."
Ather Zia, an assistant professor of anthropology and gender studies at the University of Northern Colorado, whose own work is among the 25 banned titles, said that all aspects of Kashmiri life, from simply existing day to day to doing critical scholarship and writing, have become harder.
“When books become contraband, especially for scholars who must read and question widely, it is not only what it tells us about the state of academic freedom or expression but what it tells us about the state itself,” she said.
Kashmir’s elected chief minister Omar Abdulah has voiced his helplessness over books being banned in the region as the government powers now remain curtailed.
“I have my own views on whether books should be banned or not. But unfortunately, in the current system we in the elected government don’t get to decide these things; we will take a fresh look at what’s happening,” he said in September, hoping for future changes.
'No academic freedom'
Goldie Osuri, an associate professor of sociology at the University of Warwick, said Wani’s case is another indicator that there is no academic freedom in Kashmir.
"When possession of academic or literary work is cited as a reason for detention, it is clear that a state that attempts to preventatively detain and charge anyone on this basis is engaging in fascism," Osuri said.
In Kashmir, a desperate father set himself on fire. India looked away
"We already know that 25 books were banned on 5 August 2025. And even if the J&K High Court quashed Shafat Wani’s detention, the fact that they described the academic material as having ‘dispiriting titles’ says something about state and legal attitudes to critical academic research," she added.
Osuri said that laws such as the UAPA and the PSA function to intimidate academics, journalists and ordinary citizens.
"Indeed, the detention of Shafat Wani under the PSA for more than a year is a way of signalling to others the punitive consequences of any academic research, journalistic or literary work," she said.
"Preventive detention does not appear to bear any relation to justice as such in Kashmir. It is a political weapon intended to silence and punish any perceived whiff of criticism or dissent against the state.
"In Shafat Wani’s case, the mere possession of academic material appeared to be enough of a reason for preventative detention."
At least seven people were killed and dozens wounded by unidentified gunmen
People and security forces gather outside a Greek Orthodox Church in the village of Hammoud in Jordan's Karak governorate following a shooting on 23 October (AFP)
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Two gunmen shot and killed at least seven people and wounded 34 others in an attack on a church in Jordan’s Karak region on Friday, the Public Security Directorate said.
State-owned broadcaster Al-Mamlaka reported that the gunmen got out of a vehicle and opened fire during a funeral procession at Hamoud Church. Some of the wounded are in critical condition, the report said.
An eyewitness told the station that the gunmen, one carrying a rifle and another carrying a pistol, fired continuously for several minutes before fleeing the scene.
Between 150 and 200 people were inside and around the church at the time, according to the witness, who added that most of the victims were aged between 50 and 70.
Jordan's King Abdullah said those behind the attack would be punished "with an iron fist".
"The terrorist attack against Karak will be met with the harshest retaliation. Those who delude themselves into thinking that they can divide Jordanians with their bullets have no chance in the face of our unity," he said in a statement.
Jordan's interior minister said the attack was carried out by a group of extremists.
No one immediately claimed responsibility, and the attackers have yet to be identified.
Security forces were deployed to the church and were pursuing the suspects, Al-Mamlaka reported.
Jordanian authorities said an investigation was under way.
Recent Houthi attacks on Saudi oil infrastructure and the Yemeni group’s growing leverage over Red Sea shipping have played to Iran's strategic advantage, increasing pressure on Riyadh and strengthening Tehran’s position in the regional conflict.
The Houthis’ capture in September of the strategic Yemeni port city of Mokha from Saudi-backed government forces has placed a vital alternative route for Saudi oil exports through the Bab al-Mandab Strait at risk.
For Tehran, this presents an opportunity to drive up oil prices and pressure US President Donald Trump to end the war, while linking threats to shipping through Bab al-Mandab to disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz.
But as Saudi Arabia sought Tehran’s help in containing the Houthis, Iran must also contend with the limits of its influence over the Houthis, who have their own domestic objectives.
The escalation has also left Iran facing a delicate balancing act of supporting a key regional ally without allowing the conflict to spiral beyond its control.
The Houthi blockade of the Red Sea benefits Iran but also risks the conflict spiralling beyond its control
Commercial vessels are anchored off Yemen's coast at Bab al-Mandab, in the straits connecting the Red Sea with the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean on 12 September 2026 (AFP)
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Recent Houthi attacks on Saudi oil infrastructure and the Yemeni group’s growing leverage over Red Sea shipping have played to Iran's strategic advantage, increasing pressure on Riyadh and strengthening Tehran’s position in the regional conflict.
The Houthis’ capture in September of the strategic Yemeni port city of Mokha from Saudi-backed government forces has placed a vital alternative route for Saudi oil exports through the Bab al-Mandab Strait at risk.
For Tehran, this presents an opportunity to drive up oil prices and pressure US President Donald Trump to end the war, while linking threats to shipping through Bab al-Mandab to disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz.
But as Saudi Arabia sought Tehran’s help in containing the Houthis, Iran must also contend with the limits of its influence over the Houthis, who have their own domestic objectives.
The escalation has also left Iran facing a delicate balancing act of supporting a key regional ally without allowing the conflict to spiral beyond its control.
'Not an Iranian proxy'
Tensions between Saudi Arabia and the Houthis, officially called Ansar Allah, have been simmering for months.
In July, Tehran reportedly sent a plane carrying between 10 and 21 the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) personnel, including senior commanders, to Yemen, according to sources speaking to Reuters, to challenge the Saudi-led blockade.
A senior conservative source told Middle East Eye that the Saudi ambassador to Iran, who has a security background, subsequently met Iranian officials in an effort to defuse tensions.
Can Iran negotiate between Saudi Arabia and the Houthis?
The source said that "Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi had signalled his readiness to travel to Saudi Arabia at Riyadh’s request, but the trip did not take place".
According to the source, Riyadh wanted Tehran to pressure the Houthis to halt their attacks and threats. Tehran, in turn, called for the Saudi blockade to be lifted and offered to mediate between the warring sides.
The source added that Pakistani officials had also repeatedly travelled to Tehran or contacted Araghchi by phone, urging Iran to use its influence to persuade the Houthis to de-escalate.
However, a senior source close to the establishment told MEE that Saudi Arabia and Pakistan were mistaken in viewing the Houthis as an Iranian proxy.
While Hezbollah in Lebanon could be considered an extension of Iran, the source argued, the Houthis have acted according to their own interests.
If the Houthis were simply an Iranian proxy, he said, they would have blocked all ships from passing through the Bab al-Mandab Strait, including American vessels, rather than targeting only Saudi-linked shipping.
"Saudi asked Iran to help secure a ceasefire for several weeks, however, Houthies didn't agree," the source added.
On 11 October, following two Houthi attacks on Riyadh's main airport that killed 13 people, Araghchi said in a phone call with his Saudi counterpart that Tehran was ready to help initiate talks between Saudi Arabia and Ansar Allah and work toward a political solution to the crisis in Yemen.
An unresolved conflict
A Saudi affairs analyst writing for a reformist media outlet in Iran argued that the 2022 ceasefire between the Houthis and Riyadh, which largely halted fighting in Yemen, had not resolved the crisis but merely pushed it to the margins.
The crisis, he told MEE, had resurfaced at the slightest sign of regional escalation because its underlying causes remained unresolved, while security around the Bab al-Mandab Strait had become increasingly intertwined with developments in the Strait of Hormuz.
As a result, he added, Yemen’s crisis was evolving from an internal conflict, and later one largely confined to the Arabian Peninsula, into a broader regional and international confrontation.
The analyst argued that in addition to immediate security concerns, Riyadh’s insistence on a military approach also stemmed from its view of Yemen as a matter of national and regional prestige and historical credibility.
In the analyst’s view, this mindset, coupled with Riyadh’s perception of its eminent role in the Arabian Peninsula, has left Saudi Arabia unwilling to adopt a more flexible approach to Yemen, recognise the Houthis or accept the emergence of a Shia-led government on its border.
Sanaa’s new rules of engagement
Following the Houthis’ rapid advances along the Red Sea coast and around the Bab al-Mandab Strait, Riyadh turned to Beijing last month for help, as the group’s gains threatened Saudi oil exports and shipping.
Iranian sources told Reuters that China had privately urged Tehran to rein in the Houthis to prevent further escalation along vital energy routes on which China depends.
Yemen war: Why Egypt's vow to defend Saudi Arabia is a risky gamble
A conservative analyst close to Iran's power centres told MEE that strikes on vital installations deep inside Saudi territory signalled that Sanaa’s response to Saudi Arabia’s actions and blockade against Yemen was moving beyond conventional military retaliation.
In recent weeks, the Houthis have attacked Saudi airports several times, including King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh and Abha International Aiport in Asir province.
On 10 October, an attack on King Khalid airport killed at least 12 people and wounded more than 300. The following day, another attack on the airport killed one person and wounded nearly a dozen others.
The Houthis, the analyst said, were seeking to establish a new set of battlefield equations: “Riyadh for Sanaa”, “airport for airport”, “oil for oil” and “blockade for blockade”.
“The phrase ‘Riyadh for Sanaa’ is more than a political slogan,” the analyst added.
“It reflects an attempt to redefine the relationship between attack and retaliation, signalling that, according to Sanaa’s leadership, Yemen’s territory will no longer be the only battleground.”
The analyst said the military message was inseparable from the political one: Sanaa wanted to demonstrate that continuing the war would carry consequences for Saudi Arabia itself.
Tehran faces a big danger
A Iranian reformist academic said Iran risks losing its strategic position as regional and international actors move towards a new security arrangement around the Bab al-Mandeb Strait, the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. He believes Tehran must therefore seek to ease tensions between Saudi Arabia and the Houthis.
In July, Saudi Arabia and 13 other countries announced the creation of a maritime military coalition to safeguard freedom of navigation through the three waterways. The significance of the alignment, the academic argued, extends well beyond the immediate confrontation with Ansar Allah.
'The phrase ‘Riyadh for Sanaa’ is more than a political slogan. It reflects an attempt to redefine the relationship between attack and retaliation'
- Conservative analyst
He noted that what initially appeared to be a campaign focused on countering Houthi attacks on commercial shipping may be evolving into a broader effort to establish a lasting regional maritime security framework, with the Bab el-Mandab Strait at its centre.
Countries with different strategic priorities – and, in some cases, competing interests – are increasingly finding common ground around the security of vital maritime routes.
This, he added, could have far-reaching implications for global trade and the regional balance of power.
"For Tehran, the implications are particularly serious. The challenge is no longer confined to its relationship with the Houthis or its ability to influence events in Yemen,” he said.
“It concerns the possibility that a new regional arrangement could gradually constrain Iran’s strategic reach and diminish its influence over one of the world’s most important maritime corridors."
The academic’s central concern is that Tehran may be focusing too heavily on immediate tactical calculations while overlooking a much larger transformation unfolding around it.
Linked outcomes
Iran’s Tasnim News Agency, an outlet affiliated with the IRGC, has argued that the outcome of the US-Iran war and the future of the Strait of Hormuz will directly affect the conflict in Yemen, particularly the strategic balance around the Bab al-Mandab Strait and Saudi oil exports through the Red Sea.
Houthi restrictions on Red Sea shipping, combined with disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz, have increased pressure on Saudi Arabia’s energy exports.
'The challenge for Iran is a new regional arrangement could gradually constrain its strategic reach...over one of the world’s most important maritime corridors'
- Reformist academic
“Whatever outcome emerges in the Strait of Hormuz will have a direct impact on the Yemen file, whether positive or negative,” Tasnim wrote, quoting an Iranian expert who warned that weakening the Houthis or ending their control over parts of the Red Sea coastline could have serious consequences for Iran.
“If the Houthis are weakened, lose access to the Red Sea and its coastline, or if the United States, the West and Saudi Arabia secure guarantees that Saudi energy infrastructure is no longer threatened from the south, the consequences for Iran could be highly damaging, giving Washington and its allies greater freedom to act against Tehran,” the outlet quoted the expert as saying.
Tasnim urged Tehran to step up its diplomatic support for the Houthis, arguing that Iran should not expect its allies to defend it if it fails to support them.
"When we do not deploy all our capabilities to defend an ally, we should not expect that ally to deploy all of its capabilities to defend us," the expert said.
Fakhri Abu Diab and his family are among hundreds of people being pushed out of al-Bustan, as Israel takes over residential areas of occupied East Jerusalem
‘We have the right to live peacefully and securely,’ says Fakhri Abu Diab, who is being pushed out of his home in the al-Bustan area of occupied East Jerusalem (Supplied photo)
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Down a track and past a pile of debris, 20 or so well-dressed people are waiting, all diplomats. I am joining them on a trip around al-Bustan, a Palestinian neighbourhood in occupied East Jerusalem that has been scheduled for demolition.
Many homes have been destroyed already. Bustan (“the Orchard”) is to be turned into a car park and recreation ground for settlers - but not for Palestinian residents, who will by then be absent.
We stumble past the ruins of what used to be a house. In the garden is a caravan, where we are met by the owner, Fakhri Abu Diab. His wife Ameena, mother of their five children, stands nearby.
“They arrived at three in the morning, armed soldiers with black masks putting a gun to my head,” Fakhri recalls of a recent visit. “They took me to interrogation.”
On another occasion, they broke Ameena’s glasses. Terrified, she “clenched her jaw so hard that she broke her teeth”.
The diplomats shuffle their feet. Fakhri and Ameena, now in their sixties, have lived in Bustan all their lives. Fakhri is chairman of the local residents’ committee, but he won’t be a resident much longer.
Their temporary home is scheduled for demolition within 21 days of 4 October, when a new demolition order was pasted on his gate. They don’t know where to go next.
“Whenever I hear bulldozers or any machinery, my automatic reaction is that they are coming for us,” Fakhri tells Middle East Eye.
Reshaping demography
Suitcases stand packed just outside the door. Fakhri explains that bulldozers sometimes arrive without notice, and often leave no time to gather belongings.
The Jerusalem municipality gives Palestinians the opportunity to “self-demolish”. Fakhri warns that “if you don’t do that, the municipality does it for you and sends you the bill”.
Fakhri says he paid 43,000 shekels ($13,800) when they destroyed his home.
A couple of the diplomats examine their mobile phones.
'We are not allowed to have an identity or a state. We wish for action, not just words'
- Fakhri Abu Diab
Some 1,500 Palestinians lived in Bustan, located at the bottom of a valley half a mile southwest of Al-Aqsa Mosque. It is being destroyed as part of a massive project to reshape the demography of occupied East Jerusalem.
According to a statement from the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem, these demolitions are “a clear manifestation of an Israeli policy aimed at engineering the demographic balance and ‘Judaizing’ the neighborhood by exploiting discriminatory laws”.
The group adds: “These measures are designed to expand Israeli presence and control over one of the most politically and religiously sensitive areas in the region, serving as a crucial component of the broader ethnic cleansing currently unfolding across the West Bank.”
Fakhri, meanwhile, makes a despairing plea to the diplomats: “We ask the world to pressure Israel not to demolish our remaining homes. We have the right to live peacefully and securely in our homes. The international community is allowing Israel to be above international law. Why are you afraid of Israel even when it’s acting against international law?”
He says his house was demolished on Valentine’s Day 2024, one month after Andrew Miller, then the US deputy assistant secretary of state for Israeli-Palestinian affairs, had made an official visit to his home in Bustan.
“Why meet diplomats when our homes get demolished afterwards?” Fakhri asks.
Sleeping in cars
Fakhri says he has also been visited by three delegates from countries that manufacture the bulldozers used to destroy Palestinian houses. “These tools were made to advance civilisation, not to demolish civilisation,” he says.
Not many diplomats are taking notes. Most are from Europe; some appear bored, but a Swiss delegate seems genuinely interested.
“What can you do to help?” pleads Fakhri. “We have lost hope. We would like to see help from the international community. We are not allowed to have an identity or a state. We wish for action, not just words.”
He adds a note of warning: “We do not know how the young men will react.”
There are no British diplomats present, Israel having evicted most of them from the British consulate the previous week in reprisal for Britain decision to sanction West Bank settlements.
This change of policy has come too late to rescue Al-Bustan and does not apply here in any case.
It’s the Jerusalem municipality and Israeli government, not Israeli settler terrorism, which is ethnically cleansing Palestinians from East Jerusalem neighbourhoods.
Palestinians are still totally abandoned even after the euphoria of a British shift in policy
The Israeli non-profit organisation Ir Amim shows in a devastating report published yesterday, "Expulsion: The State Architecture of Dispossession", that virtually all Israeli governmental bodies are involved in forcibly displacing East Jerusalemites.
In other words, Palestinians are still totally abandoned even after the euphoria of a British shift in policy.
Fakhri leads us out and past the wreckage of what used to be his home. On our right is a playground, also marked for destruction. On the left is a football pitch. Ditto.
Everything will be destroyed: property, public amenities, communities, families, lives, hope.
I ask Fakhri where people will go. “We don’t know. Some are now sleeping in cars.”
We climb some steps into the living room of another house. It belongs to Imad Badran, a 56-year-old blind man, who is challenging his demolition order in court.
“I am disabled,” he says. “I live with my wife who is also disabled, and our son whose house has already been demolished. In my situation, as a blind man, how do I look for a home? Even if there was a place to go, how could I afford the 6-7,000 shekels a month?
“There is no need for these demolitions,” he adds. “If they are carried out, I will be left on the street.”
Pleas ignored
Badran says he explained all this to a worker from the Jerusalem municipality, who replied: “That’s not my problem.”
One of the diplomats spoke: “It’s important to hear your voice and your words.”
Israeli settlers 'hike' through my West Bank village. Next is the violent land grab
Our next stop was to visit an elderly lady whose house had been demolished last month - but when we arrived, she wasn’t there. It was explained that she’d been waiting for us outside.
It was the first time she’d been back to her former home, and her son texted Fakhri to say she found it too upsetting, couldn’t bear to speak, and had already left.
The world’s attention is focused on the wave of settler pogroms across the occupied West Bank. A few days after our visit, a convoy carrying European diplomats was surrounded and pelted with stones by settlers.
These dispossessions are happening all over occupied East Jerusalem, and are part of the same programme of ethnic cleansing.
Fakhri later told MEE that many famous names have come to Bustan to hear his story: former US President Jimmy Carter, former Irish President Mary Robinson, former US special representative for Palestinian affairs Hady Amr, and the UN undersecretary for humanitarian affairs, Tom Fletcher. Navi Pillay, the South African jurist who was recently awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, has also visited.
All listened and witnessed, to no effect. If the Jerusalem municipality has its way, Bustan - until recently a flourishing Palestinian community - will soon become a car park.
The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Eye.
Israel’s Channel 12 reports that far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has ordered Israeli forces to demolish numerous Palestinian buildings around Hebron’s northern entrance following a shooting there.
Israeli forces killed two Palestinians during the exchange of fire, which also wounded six Israeli soldiers.
Israeli forces arrested US congressional candidate Brad Lander for helping Palestinians harvest olives in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday, before releasing him with a "warning".
In a post on X, Lander said: “I’ve been released from [Israeli military] custody with a 'warning,' apparently because of my public profile”.
Lander added that several dozen rabbis and other people harvesting olives with him were still in detention, calling for their immediate release.
“To be clear: Palestinians face far worse consequences every day. These detentions by the [Israeli military] are one more attempt to undermine Palestinians’ right to harvest their olive groves, travel on their roads, and live in their homes. Yet one more element of escalating, and very clearly state-sponsored ethnic cleansing,” he said.
Lander is the Democratic Party nominee for New York's 10th congressional district, and describes himself as a liberal Zionist Jew, although he is an outspoken critic of the Israeli government.
I’ve been released from IDF custody with a “warning,” apparently because of my public profile (I told them I wasn’t even a congressmember yet, just a nominee). But several dozen rabbis & participants harvesting olives with me are still in detention. For harvesting olives. They should all be released immediately. To be clear: Palestinians face far worse consequences every day. These detentions by the IDF are one more attempt to undermine Palestinians’ right to harvest their olive groves, travel on their roads, and live in their homes. Yet one more element of escalating, and very clearly state-sponsored ethnic cleansing. We’ll update on their status as soon as we hear.
Turkey, Qatar, Pakistan and Indonesia signed a deal on Wednesday laying the groundwork for the joint production of military hardware and expanded cooperation in military training, research and development.
Turkey has emerged as a major player in the defence industry, with Turkish companies exporting billions of dollars’ worth of military equipment each year, including drones, air defence systems and armoured vehicles.
Turkish Defence Minister Yasar Guler and the president of Turkish Defence Industries, Haluk Gorgun, signed the memorandum of understanding in Doha alongside Qatari Deputy Prime Minister Saoud bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, Pakistani Defence Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif and Indonesian Deputy Defence Minister Yusuf Jauhari.
Turkey’s defence ministry said in a statement that the agreement would be known as the “Badr deal”, a reference to the Battle of Badr in 624, when the Prophet Muhammad and his followers defeated their opponents in one of Islam’s earliest battles in the Arabian Peninsula.
“Badr means ‘full moon’ - as the four participating nations complement one another through this pact, which holds significant military and economic importance,” the statement said.
A Turkish Air Force (THK) aerobatic team performs a demonstration flight over Istanbul's Sultanahmet Mosque in Istanbul on 30 August 2024 (Kemal Aslan/AFP)
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi said on Wednesday that Cairo's proposed military support for Riyadh was to "defend Saudi territory, and does not include an attack on Yemen".
At a government event titled Egypt Forum 2026, Sisi said the "objective is to defend the kingdom's lands and borders, as well as those of any other Arab state, should it be requested of Egypt", according to a statement from his office.
"Egyptian military operations do not extend beyond the borders of Egypt or those of any sisterly nation," he added.
The Egyptian president asked parliament on Saturday to authorise support for Saudi Arabia in its war with the Houthis, "if requested", saying it was "inconceivable" for Cairo to stand by as Riyadh's security and stability were threatened.
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