Compilation of news reports – IAK staff
(Day 742 of Israel’s Latest War on Gaza)
Israel killed at least 8 Palestinians in Gaza on Saturday, in spite of the ceasefire.
Since the ceasefire went into effect on October 11, at least 38 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli attacks and 146 have been wounded.
Additional statistics below.
GAZA NEWS & HEADLINES:
(For some basic info on the Palestine-Israel conflict, go here. For more critical context, skim this, this, and this. To read about a remarkable but underreported, 20-month-long peaceful protest in Gaza against Israel, go here.)
BREAKING: Israeli air strikes hit Rafah, Jabaliya, Al Zuwayda, Al Bureij
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Israel has violated ceasefire 47 times and killed 38 Palestinians, says Gaza media office
Gaza’s media office has accused Israel of violating the ceasefire with Hamas 47 times since the truce came into effect in early October, killing 38 Palestinians and wounding another 143.
“These violations have included crimes of direct gunfire against civilians, deliberate shelling and targeting, and the arrest of a number of civilians, reflecting the occupation’s continued policy of aggression despite the declared end of the war,” reads the statement.
Authorities in Gaza called on “the United Nations and the guarantor parties of the agreement to intervene urgently to compel the occupation to end its ongoing aggression and to protect unarmed civilian populations”.
NOTE: The US State Department appears to ignore these violations, and instead accuses Hamas of a potential ceasefire violation against its own people, in the form of execution of Palestinian collaborators and traitors who worked with Israel to starve and kill the people of Gaza.
The United States has informed the guarantor nations of the Gaza peace agreement of credible reports indicating an imminent ceasefire violation by Hamas against the people of Gaza.
This planned attack against Palestinian civilians would constitute a direct and grave violation…
— Department of State (@StateDept) October 18, 2025
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Nine out of 11 bodies recovered from Friday’s Israeli massacre
Gaza’s civil defense says it has managed to recover the bodies of nine people following an Israeli attack yesterday that killed 11 people. The attack included four children and three women.
Two of the children’s remains “were scattered due to the intensity of the bombardment, and the difficult field and environmental conditions in the area have hindered retrieval efforts,” the group added.
RELATED: They Said The Massacres Would Stop When The Hostages Were Released. They Haven’t Stopped.
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Rafah border crossing closed ‘until further notice’, says Israel
The Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt will stay closed “until further notice”, Israel has said, after the Palestinian embassy in Cairo said the territory’s sole gateway to the outside world would reopen on Monday.
The statement by Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said reopening Rafah would depend on how Hamas fulfills its ceasefire role of returning the remains of all 28 dead hostages*, of which 12 have been returned so far. Israel’s foreign ministry earlier said the crossing would probably reopen on Sunday (continue reading here).
Israel has destroyed almost all of Gaza’s heavy machinery, bulldozers, and excavators, which are needed for retrieval operations, and is not cooperating with countries that are offering to help. Turkiye, for example, was ready to send 81 experts in the retrieval of bodies, and Israel has not allowed them to enter. It has also not allowed Turkiye to provide equipment that could possibly facilitate that.
Hamas says the closure of the Rafah crossing will cause significant delays in the handover of hostages’ remains.
*NOTE: CNN reported on October 9th that Israel and the US have known for months that “Hamas may not know the location of, or is unable to retrieve, the remains of some of the 28 remaining deceased hostages.” Some of the bodies are also believed to be within the nearly 60 percent of Gaza that remains under Israeli military occupation. That is to say, Israel is making a demand that it knows is impossible to fill.
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300,000 students resume classes in Gaza amid aid blockade, UN refugee agency says
About 300,000 Palestinian students resumed classes in Gaza on Saturday under the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, or UNRWA, the agency said, although Israel’s blockade continues to prevent hundreds of millions of dollars in aid from entering the enclave.
The agency has “put plans in place to resume the educational process for 300,000 Palestinian students in UNRWA and this number is likely to increase,” according to an UNRWA spokesperson. He said 8,000 teachers will take part in the program.
He said around 10,000 students will attend in-person classes in schools and shelters, while the vast majority will receive remote instruction because “it is absolutely impossible to have two years without schooling, preceded by two years of Corona.”
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170,000 people in Gaza need medical supplies that lie outside Rafah gates
The director of the Medical Relief Society in Gaza City has said 170,000 wounded people need procedures that cannot be performed due to a lack of medical equipment in the besieged enclave – but Israel has continued to seal the Rafah crossing with Egypt and blocked other key border crossings, preventing the needed supplies from entering.
Aid organizations, the UN and Palestinian authorities say that border crossings should also be opened for medical evacuations.
UNRWA has enough food in warehouses in Jordan and Egypt to supply the entire population of #Gaza for three months.
And enough shelter supplies to reach up to 1.3 million people.
We must be allowed to get all this aid into Gaza without delay.
This is what people need. pic.twitter.com/VNLjaD9d5P
— UNRWA (@UNRWA) October 18, 2025
OCCUPIED WEST BANK/EAST JERUSALEM HEADLINES:
(Every day, Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem endure dozens of incidents like the ones below, at the hands of Israeli soldiers and/or settlers. For background on the West Bank, read this and this. For information on the significance of Israeli settlers in the West Bank, read this and this.)
West Bank: Israeli forces blow up apartment in violent Tubas raid, detain Palestinians
Israeli forces launched a large-scale raid on the West Bank city of Tubas over the weekend, in the latest bout of Israeli violence in the occupied territory, blowing up a residential apartment following a 13-hour raid.
They detained several Palestinians while damaging infrastructure in the city’s streets. Two minors were among those detained in the incursion.
Israeli soldiers reportedly forced residents out of the apartment, planting explosives inside before detonating the residence, causing a loud explosion that could be heard across the city (continue reading here).
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Israeli settlers have destroyed tens of thousands of Palestinians’ olive trees
Settler attacks against farmers and olive pickers have escalated in recent days, as during the annual olive harvest season, Palestinians are subjected to repeated attacks by colonists and the occupation army.
Farmers constantly face attacks and violations that prevent them from accessing their lands, leading to significant material losses and exacerbating their daily suffering under the occupation.
Since October 7, 2023, colonists have carried out a total of 7,154 attacks against citizens and their property, resulting in the deaths of 33 citizens in the West Bank, and have resulted in the uprooting, destruction, and damage of a total of 48,728 trees, including 37,237 olive trees, according to the Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission.
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WEST BANK HEADLINES:
Soldiers Shoot One in Jerusalem, Assault Three in Hebron, Salfit
Israeli forces open gunfire at Palestinian olive harvesters near Ramallah
Israeli forces prevent Palestinian farmers from reaching their lands near Ramallah
Israeli forces set up military checkpoint near Ramallah, tear down posters of slain Palestinians
Israeli occupation forces assault several youths in Kifl Hares, central West Bank
Two children assaulted by Israeli occupation soldiers in Hebron
Husband and wife injured in colonist attack south of Hebron
Israeli forces detain 19 Palestinians across West Bank, including three minors
Two Palestinians and foreign activist injured in attack by Israeli colonists on olive pickers near Ramallah
ISRAEL HEADLINES
(Get a glimpse inside Israel and the turmoil and contradictions within the country. Often, our news items and headlines are taken from Israeli media.)
Israel’s far-right demand Netanyahu resume Gaza war
Far-right ministers in the Israeli government have demanded the prime minister resume the war on Gaza following allegations of Hamas attacks on Israeli forces earlier this morning.
“I call on the Prime Minister to order the IDF to fully renew the fighting in the Gaza Strip with full force,” extremist national security minister Itamar Ben Gvir wrote on social media.
“War!”, Bezalel Smotrich, the finance minister and leader of Religious Zionism, wrote on X.
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An open wound: 9,100 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons amid western silence
Beneath the world’s silence, Israel’s prisons consume lives like black holes — devouring the living and releasing only broken bodies and haunted souls.
Behind those walls are more than 9,100 Palestinians: around 400 children and 75 women, as well as doctors, teachers and journalists whose only act was to serve their people with a stethoscope, a pen or a camera that revealed the occupation’s cruelty.
Among them are Dr Husam Abu Safiya and Dr Marwan al-Hams, respected medical and humanitarian figures, both taken from their hospitals without trial or charge. The same occupational power that has long seized land now seizes human beings — a grotesque reality playing out in the twenty-first century while Western capitals continue to preach the language of “freedom” and “international law” (continue reading here).
RELATED: What we know about the torture, abuse of Palestinian prisoners by Israel
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ISRAEL HEADLINES
Israeli forces assault civilians during raid on Quneitra countryside in southern Syria
Israeli airstrike kills Lebanese citizen in southern Lebanon
HEADLINES FROM ISRAELI MEDIA:
Israeli Government to Discuss Diverting Education and Defense Funds to Benefit Religious Students
- Ministers are considering a proposal from the Israeli education minister to allocate nearly $11 million to programs run by Garin Torani, which sets up Jewish religious Zionist groups in underprivileged areas. The funding would come from budgets previously earmarked for housing, culture, defense, and sustainability
Israel Set to Deport 32 Foreign Activists Who Helped Palestinians Harvest Olives in a West Bank Village
- The IDF declared most of the land in the village of Burin a closed military area and arrested foreign activists who were there, eventually deciding to deport them all. Human rights activists say the order was issued to prevent assistance to Palestinians
Netanyahu’s War of Self-revival Against the Country He Abandoned and Failed
- The first government meeting after the war will focus on renaming it – not establishing an official state inquiry – reflecting Netanyahu’s malicious campaign to rewrite history. The war served his personal and political interests, at the cost of thousands of lives and Israel’s international reputation
Epstein victim: brutally raped by “well-known PM”
- In her posthumous memoir, Virginia Giuffre refers to her abuser only as “the Prime Minister,” citing fear of retaliation
Why Is Trump Threatening to Let Netanyahu Restart the Gaza War?
Security faults, major lapses in Gaza border barrier before October 7 massacre revealed
Ben Gvir says he gave PM deadline to dismantle Hamas, enact death penalty for terrorists
Hamas claims closure of Rafah Crossing delaying return of further hostages’ bodies
REMINDER: Israeli PM Netanyahu remains wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity.
OTHER NEWS & HEADLINES:
As solidarity with Palestine grows, thousands of film workers pledge to end complicity with genocide
Democrats finally seem ready to address the Gaza genocide, but it won’t matter if they don’t support Palestinian rights
Trump’s Knesset speech was a celebration of war crimes, not a vision for peace
ICYMI (IN CASE YOU MISSED IT) – A SELECTION OF YESTERDAY’S HEADLINES:
(Read yesterday’s daily update here.)
TAKE ACTION FOR GAZA
If Americans Knew has prepared a whole set of resources for educating and informing the public on the situation in Gaza: short videos, statistics, links, and downloadable flyers that you can print and hand out.
Watch this introductory video, and visit the website. Then pitch in to make a difference!
STATISTICS OCTOBER 7, 2023 – OCTOBER 18, 2025*:
- At least 69,211 Palestinians killed, 180,203 injured – including:
- At least 68,159 killed in Gaza (~20,000 children, 23,000 women) Note: 120 martyrs have been added to the cumulative statistics of martyrs, whose data has been completed and approved by the Judicial Committee following up on the file of reports and missing persons from October 10, 2025 to October 17, 2025.
- At least 1,052 killed in the West Bank (~212 children)
- At least 170,203 injured in Gaza
- More than 10,000 injured in the West Bank
- At least 463 have died from malnutrition in Gaza, including 157 children
- About 414 bodies have been recovered since the ceasefire began
*NOTE: Thousands of those killed in Gaza have yet to be identified, and an estimated 9,500 more are still buried under rubble. Additionally, the numbers of injured and starved are very conservative estimates. Only the dead who are brought to hospitals are included in the official fatality count.
Reported Israeli death toll from October 7, 2023 – October 18, 2025: ~1,658 – including ~1,139 on October 7, 2023 (~36 children), 468 military forces since the ground invasion began in Gaza, about 52 military and civilians in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Israel.
By one count, Israeli attacks have killed approximately 271 Palestinian journalists and media workers; Palestinians have killed 4 Israeli journalists (other groups have tallied between 205 and 323 Palestinian journalists killed – depending on the criteria used).
NOTE: It is unknown at this time how many of the deaths and injuries of Israelis on October 7 were caused by Israeli soldiers.
- Human rights reports on Israel-Palestine (regularly updated)
- ‘Wow’: Observers Surprised After Dem Moderate Rejects AIPAC Cash
- From Long Island to the Baltics: Drop Site Investigation Reveals New Details About Canary Mission’s Operations
- Journalist Ryan Grim discusses the disarming of Hamas & executions in Gaza
- My dream home lies in ruins. I will never forgive Israel, or the world
- The Israeli Scramble for Palestine’s Energy Reserves (Pt. 1)
- In pictures: Palestinians return to north Gaza to find devastation
- The Free Press Called Out “Incomplete” Reporting on Gaza’s Starving Children. Here’s the Complete Story.
- From Drug Lords to Death Squads: Israel’s Gaza War Continues through Collaborator Gangs
- Israel’s human shield: the secret Israeli military bunker under Tel Aviv tower struck by Iran
- A short history of the UN’s complicity in Israel’s mass rape propaganda since October 7
- Gaza war has killed an estimated 20,000 kids. CBS News meets many more orphaned, and “always scared.”
- Israel wants to pay US pastors a stipend to spread the word
- We Are Elated by the Gaza Ceasefire News. Now, the World Must Hold Israel to Account for 2 Years of Genocide
- Over 9,000 Palestinians remain in Israeli captivity following exchange deal
- Israeli Soldiers Torched Food, Homes, and a Critical Sewage Treatment Plant in the Wake of Ceasefire Announcement
- Robert Kraft’s pro-Israel, anti-hate group renames itself the Blue Square Alliance Against Hate
- Hostages, captives, prisoners: Western media still privileges Israeli over Palestinian lives
- Trump Keeps Admitting That He Is Bought And Owned By The World’s Richest Israeli
- The Israeli media is reporting on a ‘secret clause’ in the Gaza ceasefire deal that no one is talking about
