“Oct 7 2023”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he hopes to announce the release of hostages being held in Gaza “in the coming days”.

In a televised statement, he also said “Hamas will be disarmed and Gaza will be demilitarised – either the easy way or the hard way, but it will be achieved.”

The comments came after Hamas released a statement on Friday in which it agreed to free the hostages under a US peace plan, but did not mention disarmament and sought negotiations on other issues.

Hamas? No one can trust them.

Yesterday’s attack outside Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation Synagogue in Manchester, which was rapidly declared a terrorist incident by the police, had all the outward signs of a jihadi attack. The perpetrator, Jihad Al-Shamie, rammed a vehicle into pedestrians before launching a marauding knife rampage. Two worshippers were killed, and three others were seriously injured, though the picture has now been complicated by reports that one of the victims died after being accidentally shot by armed police. Al-Shamie was wearing a fake suicide belt and very likely intended to die in the attack, knowing that the police wouldn’t take any chances once they saw it. As it happened, he was right.

Because of the swirling cross-currents of Middle Eastern affairs and the tumultuous state of international relations with two long-standing wars raging in Europe and the Middle East, it is easy not to notice the great achievement of the comprehensive Gaza peace plan now under intense consideration by the parties. Finally, and chiefly by the efforts of the much- reviled president of the United States, all of the powers, and all of the principal Muslim countries except the defeated and despised, belligerent, pseudo-theocracy of Iran, have been united on a plan that unambiguously recognizes the right of Israel to exist and flourish as a Jewish state, and requires the complete demilitarization of Gaza and the expulsion from any political influence of the Hamas terrorist organization.

I do not think lasting peace is possible in the ME.

At least 355 people have been arrested in central London during protests in support of the proscribed group Palestine Action the Metropolitan Police has said.

Organisers Defend Our Juries said around 1,000 took part in demonstrations backing Palestine Action – a group which was proscribed by the government in July making it illegal to show any support or affiliation to them.

Demonstrations went ahead despite calls from ministers and police who called for protests to be postponed following Thursday’s deadly synagogue attack in Manchester.

UK pro-Palestinian protests went ahead Saturday despite a plea from Prime Minister Keir Starmer, two days after a deadly car-ramming and knife attack on a synagogue.
➡️ https://t.co/rYScjjvZOn pic.twitter.com/S4zgJdtEq2

— AFP News Agency (@AFP) October 4, 2025

People in Gaza have reacted with shock after US President Donald Trump appeared to welcome Hamas’s response to his peace plan for the territory.

Hundreds of Palestinians flooded my social media accounts and messaging apps with questions like: “Has the war ended?” and “Is this a dream or reality?”

The pace of developments overnight has left many struggling to grasp what comes next.

The movement’s carefully crafted statement – thought to have been drafted with the help of mediators – stopped short of outright rejection and instead offered a qualified “yes”

There are no longer gray areas in the implied intent of major Western nations, such as France, Spain, Portugal, Canada, the UK, Australia and others, to isolate or destroy Israel.