News Digest — 9/30/25
Netanyahu After Meeting With Trump: ‘We Turned The Tables And Isolated Hamas’
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday night (29th) released a video summarizing his visit to the United States, during which he addressed the UN General Assembly and met with President Donald Trump, who presented his plan to end the war in Gaza and secure the release of hostages.
“It was an excellent visit – both the start at the UN and the conclusion in Washington. This is my fourth visit to Washington since President Trump took office. It’s a historic visit: instead of Hamas isolating us, we turned the tables and isolated Hamas,” Netanyahu said.
“Now the entire world, including the Arab and Muslim world, is pressuring Hamas to accept the conditions we set together with President Trump: to release all hostages – both the living and the deceased – while the IDF remains in most of the Gaza Strip. Who would have believed this? After all, people kept saying, ‘you must accept Hamas’ conditions, pull everyone out, the IDF must leave, and Hamas can recover and rebuild the Strip.’ That’s not happening.”
Netanyahu added, “And President Trump said that if Hamas refuses, he will fully back Israel to complete the military operation and eliminate them. So, from every angle, this was an excellent visit.”
The Prime Minister denied claims that he agreed to the establishment of a Palestinian state and stressed, “ Absolutely not, and it’s not in the agreement either. But one thing we did say is that we firmly oppose a Palestinian state. President Trump said this too; he said he understands it. He stated at the UN that it would be a huge reward for terrorism and a danger to the State of Israel, and of course, we don’t agree to it.”
Houthis, Islamic Jihad Oppose Trump Plan To End War
Mohammed al-Farah, a member of the Houthi terrorist organization’s political bureau, rejected US President Donald Trump’s plan to end the war in Gaza, calling it “unworkable.”
According to al-Farah, the plan seems to shift full blame to his organization, absorb global outrage against Israel, and undermine international solidarity with the Palestinian Arabs.
At the same time, Hamas officially received the plan from the Egyptian and Qatari mediators, and its leadership pledged to seriously review it.
Italy and France, in the meantime, commended the plan and expressed willingness to play an active role in its implementation.
On the other hand, the leader of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), Ziad al-Nakhba, expressed opposition to the plan, writing: “What they announced at Netanyahu and Trump’s press conference is an American-Israeli deal and it totally expresses the Israeli position and is a recipe for the continued aggression against the Palestinian people.”
He said that Israel is trying to use the United States to “force through what it failed to achieve in the war, and therefore, we regard the American-Israeli declaration as a recipe for igniting the region.”
Two Rockets Fired At Israel From Strip As IDF Pushes Into Gaza City
Two rockets were launched from the northern Gaza Strip at the Nahal Oz area on Monday (29th), the military said, the second time in just over a week that such attacks were made on Israeli territory.
Interceptors were fired at the two rockets, which ultimately did not cross the border and fell short inside the Strip, according to the Israel Defense Forces.
Alerts were activated in open areas only, and not in towns, “according to protocol,” the military added.
Last week, two rockets were fired at Ashdod, one of which was intercepted, while the other hit an open area.
Monday’s (29th) rocket fire came as the IDF pressed on with an all-out assault on Gaza City, whose aim, Israel says, is to wipe out Hamas in its final redoubts.
The Israeli Air Force struck some 140 targets in the Gaza Strip in the past day, including buildings used by Hamas operatives in the Strip’s north, the IDF said.
The strikes came as ground troops from three divisions continued to push into Gaza City.
The IDF said the 36th Division destroyed several buildings used by Hamas to observe forces and directed a drone strike that killed a cell of gunmen planting bombs; troops of the 98th Division killed a Hamas operative who had launched mortars at the forces, and soldiers of the 162nd Division killed several operatives and neutralized booby traps.
Elsewhere in northern Gaza, the 99th Division hit several more buildings used by Hamas for surveillance, while in the Strip’s south, soldiers of the Gaza Division killed several operatives near the forces in the southern Khan Younis area, the IDF said.
The war in Gaza was triggered by Hamas on October 7, 2023, when it led a devastating invasion of southern Israel that killed 1200 people and saw 251 hostages taken to Gaza.
The IDF has struck dozens of tall buildings in Gaza City in recent weeks, saying they were being used by Hamas as command posts and for surveillance, and some were rigged up with booby traps.
On Monday (29th), the military published a video showing troops locating an explosive device planted by Hamas in a high-rise building in the city.
According to the military, the bomb was found on the sixth floor of the tower using a drone. The booby trap was “neutralized,” and no soldiers were injured in the incident, the army said.
Meanwhile, Israeli tanks advanced to within a few hundred meters of Gaza City’s main Al Shifa Hospital, where doctors say hundreds of patients are still being treated despite Israeli orders to leave.
On Sunday (28th), the IDF and Shin Bet announced that a Hamas Nukhba Force commander who led the killing and kidnapping of Israelis from a roadside bomb shelter near Kibbutz Re’im during the October 7, 2023, onslaught had been killed in a recent airstrike on the Gaza Strip. According to the military, Hassan Mahmoud Hassan Hussein served as a Nukhba company commander in Hamas’ Bureij Battalion.
Hussein, alongside another Nukhba force commander, Muhammad Abu Attawi, led the attack on a bomb shelter near Re’im to which partygoers from the Nova Festival had fled.
Four people were taken hostage alive from the shelter and 16 were murdered. Seven more managed to survive and were later rescued.
Hussein was also involved in attacks on troops during the war in Gaza, soldiers said.
Attawi, the other Nukhba commander involved in the attack on the Re’im shelter, was killed in an Israeli strike in October 2024.
Also Sunday (28th), Israeli troops operating in Gaza City killed a Hamas operative who attempted to plant a bomb next to an armored personnel carrier, the military said.
According to the IDF, the troops spotted the operative and opened fire on him as he tried to detonate the bomb against a Namer APC.
A short while later, an additional cell of Hamas gunmen was identified in the area, and the forces called in a drone strike that killed them, the army said.
The army issued footage showing the operatives who were killed trying to approach IDF troops and airstrikes directed by the forces.
The incidents took place during operations of the 188th Armored Brigade and Bislamach Brigade – the IDF’s School for Infantry Corps Professions and Squad Commanders – under the 88th Division.
Thanks To The West’s ‘Useful Idiots,’ Iran’s Terror Proxies Celebrate Recognition Of ‘Palestinian State’ By Moving Jihad To Judea And Samaria – Khalid Abu Toameh
As all eyes are fixed on the Hamas-Israel war in the Gaza Strip, the Iranian regime and its Palestinian terror proxies are working to move the fighting to Judea and Samaria.
Recently, armed cells belonging to Iranian-backed Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) have escalated their terrorist attacks in Judea and Samaria against Israeli soldiers and civilians.
The Palestinian groups responsible for the death and destruction in the Gaza Strip over the past two years are even trying to fire rockets from Judea and Samaria into the rest of Israel.
The groups and their patrons in Tehran do not care if Palestinians in Judea and Samaria are killed and displaced as a result of their terrorism.
Iran’s mullahs and their Palestinian proxies have only one thing in mind: murdering Jews and eliminating Israel.
Last week the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) announced that they discovered a rocket in the northern Samaria city of Tulkarem.
Earlier, another rocket was reportedly fired at Israel from the village of Kufr Ni’meh, located near the city of Ramallah, the de facto capital of the Palestinians.
After the attack, forces found dozens of rockets and explosives in a building in the area of Ramallah.
Israeli security sources described the seized weapons and the firing of the rocket as a “game changer” in Judea and Samaria.
These sources asserted that Iran-linked elements were behind the scheme to turn Judea and Samaria into a further battlefield against Israel.
“Intelligence assessments indicate that armed groups in the West Bank are seeking to manufacture rockets locally to target Israeli cities in central and northern Israel, such as Kfar Saba, Ra’anana, Netanya, Hadera, Afula, and Beit She’an… Iran has also reportedly supplied mortar shells and ammunition to armed (Palestinian) factions recently in West Bank cities of Jenin and Tulkarem.”
These Palestinian armed groups, known as “The Battalions,” are affiliated with the armed wings of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad and several years ago began operating in Judea and Samaria.
For the past two years, dozens of their members have been killed or arrested by Israeli security forces. Since the beginning of 2025 the IDF has been waging a relentless war on the terrorist groups, especially in Jenin and Tulkarem.
Just when it seemed that the Israeli security forces had succeeded in their mission, the armed groups resurfaced, this time equipped with rockets designed to attack Israeli cities.
In the past week, PIJ’s armed wing, Al-Quds Brigades, issued a number of statements in which it claimed responsibility for terrorist attacks against Israeli soldiers
The Jenin Battalion said: “We detonated explosive devices targeting military reinforcements in the town of Silat ad-Daher near Jenin.”
The Ramallah Battalion proclaimed: “Our fighters succeeded at exactly 10.40 AM today in detonating a number of explosive devices of the Sijjil-2 type at a military point near the [Israeli] settlement of Psagot.”
It was the first time that Palestinians had heard of the Ramallah Battalion. Until recently such groups had emerged only in northern Samaria, especially in the areas of Jenin and Tulkarem.
Notably, Ramallah serves as the headquarters of the Palestinian Authority (PA), as well as of its security forces, which have so far failed to prevent the Iranian -backed terrorists from operating in the city.
On September 25, Israeli security forces killed two senior members of PIJ’s armed wing in northern Samaria: Mohammed Qassem and Ala’a Jawdat. PIJ said in a statement after the terrorists were eliminated : “We affirm that we will remain steadfast on the path of jihad (holy war) and resistance until liberation [of all of Palestine] and the return [of all of Palestinian refugees and their descendants to Israel].”
Hamas also mourned the slain terrorists and vowed: “The assassination of resistance fighters in the West Bank will only increase our people’s determination to escalate the confrontation and resistance against Israel.”
Iran’s effort to copy the Gaza Strip’s model of “resistance” against Israel to Judea and Samaria coincides with increased talk about the need for a “two-state solution” and recognition of a Palestinian state by Canada, the UK, Australia, France and other countries.These countries have decided that Judea and Samaria should be part of the proposed Palestinian state, meanwhile totally ignoring Iran’s ongoing efforts to transform the Palestinian cities, and villages into another base for jihad to kill Jews and destroy Israel.
Those Western countries, in addition, have chosen to ignore that the PA is unwilling to confront the terror groups in Judea and Samaria.
Under the current circumstances, it is obvious that Judea and Samaria would be used as a launching pad to attack Israel, in the same way the Gaza Strip was used on October 7, 2023
Last month, senior Hamas official Ghazi Hamad told Qatar’s Al-Jazeera television network: “Why are the countries recognizing a Palestinian state today? Before October 7, did any country dare recognize a Palestinian state? The fruits of Oct. 7 are what caused the entire world to open its eyes to this issue – and they are moving toward it with force.”
Western countries that have chosen unilaterally to recognize a Palestinian state have in fact emboldened the Iranian regime and its Palestinian jihadist proxies.
The leaders of Iran, Hamas and PIJ view Western leaders such as France’s Emmanuel Macron, the UK’s Keir Starmer, and Australia’s Anthony Albanese as “Useful idiots” in their jihad to eradicate Israel.
Even if the war in the Gaza Strip ends, Qatar, Iran, Hamas and PIJ will never give up the fight to destroy Israel and replace it with a radical Islamist state.
The attempt to transform Judea and Samaria into a second base for jihad, highlights that ending the war in the Gaza Strip will not end the dream of wiping Israel off the map.
UK Prime Minister’s Palestine Doesn’t exist – Stephen Daisley
In recognizing a state of Palestine, Prime Minister Keir Starmer is attempting to summon a tide which flows counter to history and human nature. Men like Starmer flatter themselves that they can, with the flick of a remote pen, turn a nation-state into being like modern heirs to Arthur Balfour.
This reflects the common misconception that the Balfour Declaration created the State of Israel, when that communique merely expressed British favor for the Zionist project in Palestine/Eretz Israel. Israel was (re)founded by the efforts of Jews, not the sympathies of the British Foreign Office.
Neither Starmer nor any other Western leader can recognize a Palestinian state because no such entity exists and there is no prospect of one in the near future. Across Palestinian politics, in culture, among intellectuals and activists, on the streets and in the mosques, the dominant cause is anti-Zionism.
Palestinian liberationism is a misnomer because, except for a narrow segment of liberal opinion, Palestinian society does not wish to be free from Israel, it wishes to be free of Israel. Theirs is a counter-nationalism, a common identity forged in reaction to and rejection of another people’s identity.
Starmer doesn’t want a Palestinian state, he wants his notion of a Palestinian state, a liberal market economy with free elections and the rule of law, living in peace with its neighbors. But you can’t press-release Western liberal democracy into the Middle East.
The lessons the Palestinians and others will take from this are that the West is weak and decadent, and that it will reward mass murder with diplomatic prizes. And that provoking Israel into war will quickly turn the West’s stomach and thereafter their policies. And that governments in Europe and the Anglosphere are ‘compelled by mass immigration’ to treat foreign policy as a domestic issue.
