Friday, October 02, 2026

10/02 Links Pt1: The Morality of the Gaza War; Oman banned flydubai terrorist due to suspected extremism; Two Iranian men charged with terror plot targeting UK Jews

From Ian:

The Morality of the Gaza War
The most clearly legitimate reason for going to war, one that finds universal acceptance, is self-defense. That is a basic principle – perhaps the basic principle – of international law. Beginning on October 7, Israel fought to defend itself. It had terminated completely its presence in Gaza in 2006, removing its troops, its settlements, and even its graves. Hamas took control there and eleven years later launched its October 7 attack. Without it, there would have been no war. By any reading of international law, Israel had the right to defend itself by force against Hamas.

If Israel’s actions unambiguously conformed to the requirement of jus ad bellum, those of Hamas clearly violated it. The Palestinian group engaged in cross-border aggression, which the Western ethical tradition prohibits. In international legal terms, Hamas did to Israel on October 7, 2023, what Nazi Germany did to Poland on September 1, 1939, and what Vladimir Putin’s Russia did to Ukraine on February 24, 2022: it invaded a neighboring country with the intent to destroy it. That is a war crime, one of which several Nazi officials were found guilty after World War II and for which they were then executed.

Still, even a country engaged in legal and legitimate self-defense, as Israel was, must, according to the traditional ethical rules of war, defend itself in proper ways. Or, more accurately, it must avoid defending itself in improper ways. Here again, in the Gaza war Israel passed the test of jus in bello while Hamas conspicuously and indeed intentionally failed it.

The major rule governing the conduct of war is the avoidance, as far as possible, of civilian casualties. The Gaza war presented Israel with two challenges in abiding by this norm. First, the fighting took place in crowded urban areas. Wherever and whenever such wars have been waged, they have taken a heavy toll in civilian noncombatants. Second, Hamas placed military equipment and fighters in or beneath civilian facilities – houses, schools, mosques, hospitals – in order to maximize the number of civilian deaths and injuries, which counts as another war crime.

Israel took the opposite approach. It adopted measures to minimize harm to non-Hamas Gazans. When about to attack a civilian area in which Hamas military forces were present, the Israeli government warned the people in the area – through tens of millions of emails, leaflets, social media posts, and telephone calls – that an attack was coming. Israel designated safe areas to which civilians could go to avoid forthcoming military operations. The IDF also embedded with its forces legal experts who vetted proposed targets in real time and sometimes called off planned attacks because of the danger they posed to noncombatant Gazans.

By forfeiting the military advantage of surprise through such advance notification, as well as by canceling what would have been militarily effective attacks in order to spare civilians, Israel put its own soldiers at higher risk than they would otherwise have been. History offers few if any other examples of countries at war ready to sacrifice the lives of their own troops in order to comply with international law. The Israeli government also ensured food shipments to Gazans — press reports of famine there were fabricated, although Hamas did steal a good deal of the aid – and even interrupted the war to vaccinate hundreds of thousands of children in Gaza against polio.

Civilians did die in Gaza, but perhaps half of all Arabs killed there were not civilians but rather active Hamas combatants, although they ordinarily did not wear uniforms so as to blend in with the civilian population. Israel was clearly targeting Hamas but was not able, because of the location of the war as well as because of Hamas’s efforts, to avoid all noncombatants. Given this fact, an assessment of Israel’s compliance with the demands of jus in bello depends on the ratio of civilian to military deaths. In Gaza, the best estimates put it at between 1 and 1.5 to 1. In other, comparable conflicts the ratios were far higher. American military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq are estimated to have cost 4 or 5 civilian deaths for every combatant killed. Other, similar conflicts reached ratios as high as 9 or 10 to 1. According to Major John Spencer, the chair of urban warfare studies at the Modern War Institute at West Point, in Gaza “Israel has implemented more precautions to prevent civilian harm than any military in history – above and beyond what international law requires and more than the United States did in its wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.”

Hamas, for its part, bears ultimate responsibility for all deaths, civilian and military, on October 7 and thereafter because it began the war. During the fighting, it violated the basic norm of noncombatant immunity that governs the conduct of war in two ways. It murdered Israeli civilians; and it caused the deaths of Gazan non-combatants by making them military targets through its policy of surrounding them with military infrastructure. In addition, Hamas built, at great cost, several hundred miles of underground tunnels in Gaza, beneath hospitals, schools, and residential blocks, which it used to shelter its personnel and its weaponry. Had Gazan civilians been able to take shelter in them, they, too, would have enjoyed some protection from the war; but Hamas prevented Arab noncombatants from doing so. Deliberately causing the death of civilians is a war crime, and Hamas committed this crime on a large scale.

It did so for the purpose of falsely blaming Israel for civilian deaths and thus contributing to the demonization of the Jewish state in the West. In this it has succeeded, the mark of its success being the wide dissemination of the myth that Israeli is responsible for genocide. Those propagating it are, wittingly or not, validating Hamas’s pernicious tactics and thereby acting as its allies and accomplices. This will have consequences. It will encourage Hamas to persist in its campaign to destroy Israel by employing the tactics it used on October 7 and thereafter. It may also encourage other, similar groups to make use of these tactics.

Albert Camus, the French Nobel laureate in literature, once said: “False ideas always end in bloodshed, but it is always other people’s blood. That is why some of our intellectuals feel free to say just about anything.” Substitute for intellectuals (in French philosophes) the Westerners who propagate the charge of genocide against Israel and his words apply to the present case. The false charge – or, to call it by its proper name, the lie – that Israel committed crimes in Gaza, including the worst crime of all, genocide, supports the perpetuation of the criminal project that Hamas exists to carry out: the slaughter of innocent Jews and Arabs.
JPost Editorial: Governments cannot stay silent on the threat against Israel after flydubai hijacking
How will the world respond to the flydubai hijacking attempt?

India responded by honoring Capt. Smit Machchhar, the injured Indian pilot. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Droupadi Murmu praised his courage. Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong thanked those who intervened and wished the injured a full recovery.

US President Donald Trump, who discussed the incident after speaking with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, acknowledged that the full account had not been established. The United Nations said it was following developments and was thankful that a major tragedy had been averted.

Beyond that, the reaction was thin. The UAE opened a formal investigation, but Saudi Arabia had issued no substantive statement about its investigation by Thursday morning, Reuters reported. Oman had not commented on the Israeli report that the suspect was an Omani national. By early Thursday afternoon, no public condemnation had come from the European Union’s leadership or most major Western governments.

What more is required before they speak? Condemning the confirmed violence would not require endorsing every Israeli account. It would not require calling the incident terrorism, assigning a motive, or accusing another country of involvement. It only would require saying that violence in the cockpit of a passenger aircraft is intolerable and demands a thorough, transparent investigation.

The absence of a death toll should be a source of relief, not an excuse for indifference. An act does not become less worthy of condemnation because the people caught up in it prevented its worst possible consequences.

Passenger aircraft are not battlefields. The International Civil Aviation Organization requires states to report unlawful or attempted seizures and other acts of unlawful interference, because a breach aboard one aircraft can expose vulnerabilities affecting travelers everywhere.

Passengers also cannot be treated as extensions of the government at their destination. People do not lose their claim to international concern when they board a flight to Tel Aviv.

Flight FZ1073 connected two countries that established relations under the 2020 Abraham Accords. Flydubai inaugurated scheduled commercial service between Dubai and Tel Aviv that November, making direct aviation one of the agreement’s most visible results. The people placed at risk on Wednesday included an Indian captain and passengers of several nationalities aboard an Emirati aircraft bound for Israel.

The heroes aboard FZ1073 did not have the luxury of waiting for perfect information. They saw a cockpit in chaos and acted. Governments have official confirmation of violence aboard a civilian aircraft and the safety of solid ground. As such, they should be able to manage a sentence.


Omani pilot 'cooperating' with authorities as flydubai investigation continues
The Omani pilot suspected of hijacking a flydubai aircraft between Dubai and Tel Aviv on Wednesday is "cooperating" with the investigation, sources briefed on the investigation told ABC News on Saturday.

Earlier reports identified the pilot as 29-year-old Omani national Hamam al-Hammami.

ABC reached out to representatives of flydubai, Oman Air, and the Omani Embassy for comment, but they did not immediately respond.

On Friday, The Wall Street Journal reported that the flydubai hijacker was previously banned from flying by Omani authorities over concerns regarding his radical ideological views.

The report cited several people familiar with the matter, who told the WSJ that the pilot was hired by UAE-based carrier flydubai despite the concerns, though it is unclear whether the airline knew about the issue.

It is further unclear exactly what sort of radicalism Omani authorities cited as their reason for grounding the pilot, who stabbed Capt. Smit Machchhar in a failed attempt to hijack flydubai flight FZ1073 on Wednesday.

The WSJ reached out to a UAE spokesperson, who declined to comment on the matter “to avoid prejudging the outcome of the investigation or interfering with its course.”

The Omani government and flydubai did not respond to the WSJ's requests for comment.

A CNN report early on Saturday cited sources saying the pilot, an Omani citizen, was removed from flight training after a previous position at Oman Air and reassigned to a different role amid concerns over his radical views.

According to the report, the pilot was born in the UAE to Omani and Syrian parents and spent several years in the UAE, a detail CNN confirmed with an Israeli official.
Oman reportedly banned flydubai terrorist from flying due to suspected extremism
The flydubai copilot who attempted to crash a plane full of Israelis earlier this week was previously banned from flying by Oman over concerns that he had been radicalized, a person familiar with the matter said.

Despite that, the Omani copilot still flew flydubai’s Dubai to Tel Aviv route, with several US media outlets on Friday naming him as Hamam al-Hammani, 29. On Wednesday, he stabbed the pilot and, according to witnesses, tried to crash the plane in an attempted terror attack.

It was not known if Muscat shared its concerns about the pilot with other countries or airlines, and the nature of his reported radicalization remained unclear. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s has said he “underwent Islamist radical indoctrination,” without elaborating.

US television networks CNN and ABC reported that Oman’s national airline removed the attacker from training over concerns about his extremist views, shifting him to another position at Oman Air. The ABC report, which cited senior intelligence and law enforcement officials, said he was found to be in possession of extremist material in 2024.

CNN said a since-deleted LinkedIn page with the name Hamam al-Hammani showed he worked at Oman Air for a seven-year period ending in February 2025, before starting at Morocco’s Royal Air Maroc in June 2025 and departing this January 2026. The network said the profile did not mention flydubai but said a source familiar with the matter confirmed it was his account, which also showed he studied at Buckinghamshire New University in England.

The report quoted a source at the university telling CNN that he studied remotely at the school for three years, graduating in 2023 with a degree in aviation management.

CNN said that al-Hammani’s X and Instagram accounts were also deleted, with the latter sharing two videos after the attack — one of which included footage of Israeli planes that were filmed from other cockpits, before ending with photos of former al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri and Jordanian triple agent Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi, who carried out a deadly suicide bombing in 2009 targeting a CIA base in Afghanistan.

The other post reportedly included an AI image of Islam’s three holiest cities of Mecca, Medina and Jerusalem, while a defiant poem was recited in the background.

CNN, which said both posts were also shared on his LinkedIn before it was deleted, additionally reported that al-Hammani was born to an Omani father and Syrian mother in the United Arab Emirates, where he had lived for several years.
UAE president's senior advisor calls flydubai plane hijacking 'dangerous terrorist act'
The United Arab Emirate's president's diplomatic advisor, Anwar Gargash, said on Friday that the recent attempted hijacking of a flydubai flight to Tel Aviv was a "dangerous terrorist act."

Gargash said this while praising the Indian pilot of the flight, Capt. Smit Machchhar, who fought back against his Omani co-pilot and helped allow passengers into the cockpit and rescue the plane.

"He embodied the meaning of courage and responsibility in the face of a dangerous terrorist act and a potential disaster," Gargash wrote in a post on X/Twitter.

"His professionalism and moral sense in the darkest of circumstances make him a true hero."

Gargash also cautioned that vigilance was essential to confronting future possible acts of extremism and terrorism, and warned against promoting conspiracy theories about the attack.

Netanyahu says hijacking had potential to be a disaster on 'scale of 9/11'
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave an update on the incident on Friday, characterizing the attempted hijacking as a potential "disaster on the scale of 9/11."

Regarding the Omani hijacker-pilot, Netanyahu said he "underwent Islamist radicalization."

"He intended to crash the plane with all its passengers on board," Netanyahu said in a post on X. "We are now investigating whether he was sent, and whoever sent him will pay a very heavy price.”


Flydubai captain recounts fight to save Israel-bound flight
The Indian captain seriously wounded during the midair attack aboard a flydubai flight bound for Israel has spoken publicly for the first time about his fight to save the aircraft and the more than 180 people aboard, confirming that he opened the cockpit door, allowing passengers and crew to intervene.

Capt. Smit Machchhar recounted the dramatic moments during a video call from his hospital bed in the United Arab Emirates with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday.

“I had so many injuries, but I told myself that I had to get up and act,” Machchhar said. “At that moment, I pushed myself to open the cockpit door. I fought for my life. I understood that if I did not show courage, 170 passengers would lose their lives.”

Machchhar was piloting flydubai Flight FZ1073 from Dubai to Tel Aviv on Wednesday when his co-pilot allegedly attacked him and attempted to crash the Boeing 737 MAX 8 while it was flying over Saudi Arabia. The aircraft was carrying 182 people: 174 passengers and eight crew members.

Despite suffering severe injuries, Machchhar managed to open the locked cockpit door, allowing passengers and crew members to enter and overpower his attacker. Two off-duty pilots traveling aboard the aircraft then helped bring the plane under control and land it safely at Tabuk Airport in northwestern Saudi Arabia.

Modi praised Machchhar during their conversation, telling him that India was praying for his recovery.

“Your courage, composure and calm saved many lives,” Modi said. “The country can proudly say that Indians are not people who take lives, but people who are willing to risk their lives to save others.”

Machchhar replied, “I never thought I would have the opportunity to speak with you.”

The 38-year-old captain underwent emergency surgery in Tabuk after the aircraft landed and was subsequently transferred to the UAE for further treatment.

Machchhar suffered serious wounds to his neck and hands during the attack, according to reports. Despite his injuries and the aircraft’s rapid loss of altitude, he was able to raise the alarm and release the cockpit door, enabling those outside to intervene.

Modi had already publicly hailed Machchhar as a “hero,” saying his “immense courage and unwavering resolve” helped avert a major tragedy.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has similarly praised the Indian pilot, saying his actions prevented what could have become a “9/11-style” attack.

“The amazing heroism here of the Indian pilot, the Israeli passenger and his colleagues, and those pilots managed to prevent a 9/11 disaster because that’s what it looks like was happening,” he told CNN on Wednesday.

Netanyahu said on Thursday that the Omani co-pilot appeared to have undergone “Islamist radical indoctrination” and that “it looks very likely that he was going to down the plane,” while stressing that the investigation was continuing.


MirYam Institute: FlyDubai Hijack Exposed Security Gap Israel’s Enemies Will Try To Exploit
The attempted hijacking of FlyDubai Flight 1073 exposed a potentially dangerous gap in the security procedures protecting flights into Israel — despite the extraordinary actions that brought the aircraft safely to the ground.

In this episode of The Benjamin Anthony Show, Benjamin examines what happened aboard the Tel Aviv-bound flight and what the incident could mean for Israel. He is joined by MirYam Institute in-house analyst Yaakov Lappin, who argues that the remarkable outcome should not obscure what he sees as a serious failure in the system.

Benjamin and Yaakov examine the threat posed by the rogue Omani co-pilot, previous warnings over the vetting of international pilots flying into Israel, what now needs to change and why hostile actors may take notice of the vulnerability exposed by Flight 1073.

They also recount the extraordinary actions of those who helped save the aircraft, including Capt. Smit Machchhar, the badly injured pilot who managed to unlock the cockpit, and Israeli passenger Yaniv Chayon, who helped overpower the attacker and stabilise the aircraft during its catastrophic descent.

The discussion also examines Saudi Arabia’s response after the aircraft was forced to land in Tabuk, the implications for Israel’s relationship with the UAE, and the lessons that could now reshape the safeguards protecting international flights into Israel.




Two Iranian men charged with suspected terror plot targeting Manchester Jewish community
Two Iranian men who arrived in the UK on small boats have been charged over an alleged plot to target the Jewish community in the Manchester area ahead of Yom Kippur, Counter Terrorism Policing (CTP) has confirmed

Salam Ahmadyan, 36, of Liverpool, and Rahman Salehi, 34, of Salford, were arrested in Manchester on Sunday, September 20, and were both charged on Friday with engaging in conduct in preparation for terrorist acts, contrary to Section 5 of the Terrorism Act 2006.

Jewish News understands the two individuals charged are Iranian nationals who arrived via small boat in 2020 and 2023. One was granted asylum, and the other has a live asylum claim.

It is alleged that the two men were in contact with an overseas third party who may be in Iran in relation to the plot, CTP said.

Both men have been remanded in custody to appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Saturday.

Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said:”These recent events are a stark reminder of the threats posed against this country from both terrorists and foreign state actors.

“Two suspects have been charged with planning a terrorist attack against Jewish communities in Manchester. This news will be deeply distressing for our Jewish communities, coming so soon after Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. I know this will be especially true in Manchester, as we mark one year since the terrorist attack at Heaton Park Synagogue.

“The fact both suspects arrived by small boat several years ago is a reminder of the importance of our relentless work to tackle illegal migration into this country. While numbers are down, I know there is more we must do.”

It is alleged that Salehi and Ahmadyan, on or before September 20 2026, with the intention of committing acts of terrorism, or assisting another to commit such acts, engaged in conduct in preparation for giving effect to that intention.

This includes communicating with others using encrypted applications to acquire components to assemble a homemade explosive device; acquiring a document entitled “steps for making (a) powder chlorine and car brake oil/fluid bomb”; acquiring video material containing instructions on how to manufacture or assemble an improvised explosive device; acquiring liquids, components and equipment required in order to manufacture or assembling an improvised explosive device; using the internet to identify and research potential targets for attack; acquiring images, plans and maps of potential targets for attack; and conducting reconnaissance of potential locations for attack.

As part of the investigation, searches at addresses in Epworth Street, Liverpool, and Lancaster Road, Salford, were carried out.
Exclusive: Salford City Council using a fifth of Jewish safety fund on street art
Salford City Council is spending around a fifth of a £600,000 fund, given to it to support the Jewish community after the Heaton Park Synagogue attack on street art, the JC can reveal.

The funds were allocated to the council by the government as part of Operation Hutton, a recovery scheme put in place to provide support and security to the Jewish community in the wake of the attack last Yom Kippur, which left two Jewish men, Melvin Cravitz and Adrian Daulby, dead.

On receipt of the grant, the council wrote: “On Thursday, October 2, 2025, a terrorist attack commenced at the Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation Synagogue on Yom Kippur, one of the holiest days in the Jewish calendar.

“This led to immediate support and the development of a short, medium and long-term recovery plan.”

The council stated specifically that the recovery plans “were developed to support Jewish communities in the aftermath of the attack”, adding they were intended to “rebuild confidence and resilience within their community and to challenge direct and indirect antisemitic and racist rhetoric by supporting cohesion structures, programmes and projects within the city”.

However, council documents seen by the JC reveal a budget decision approved by its cabinet on September 22 this year allocates £120,000 of the fund to a “Centenary Project” which will “celebrate the city’s centenary year”.

The project consists of creating “murals” to mark the anniversary as well as a “city-wide grant for community organisations to apply to put on events in their neighbourhood/city”.

According to the council documents, the sum from the fund being spent on the Centenary Project will “directly benefit between 250 and 300 people”.

The document states that this allocation has been listed as an “internal DDN,” meaning it is being used for council purposes other than those for which it was originally intended.

A spokesperson from the council told the JC: “The proposed £120,000 allocation for the Centenary was intended to support communities to share in arts and creative activities across Salford, celebrating the distinct identities of different communities while bringing people from different backgrounds together through their neighbourhoods, which includes opportunities for Salford’s diverse faith and cultural communities to participate in and help shape activity.”

But in internal communications between a representative of the council and a city councillor, also seen by the JC, the representative said: “It was one of a number of grants from government in the aftermath of the Heaton Park Synagogue attack, but was specifically to promote cohesion and tackle antisemitism across the city as a whole, and with all communities in mind.


In ‘Good Morning Gaza,’ tank commander gives first-person look at troops’ inner lives
When reservist Matan Sacofsky was called up on October 7, 2023, to command a tank in Gaza, the artist and filmmaker brought his camera gear.

“I’m a film student,” said Sacofsky. “When you’re in a tank, you actually have a place to put your stuff.”

On that day, Sacofsky and his unit made their way to the military base near Kibbutz Nahal Oz, which had been overrun by terrorists, before heading to Kibbutz Kfar Aza, which was devastated in the surprise invasion led by the Hamas terror group.

(Months later, Sacofsky and his twin brother, a paratrooper, discovered they had been battling side by side in Kibbutz Kfar Aza, Sacofsky in his tank, his brother on foot.)

Some 1,200 people in southern Israel were butchered in the bloody onslaught, which touched off the Gaza war, while 251 were kidnapped to the Gaza Strip. The vast majority of both were civilians.

Sacofsky, a recent graduate of the Sam Spiegel Film School in Jerusalem, didn’t touch his equipment during the first two weeks of the war, as he and his crew adjusted to the realities of combat in the Gaza Strip.

Eventually, he began filming his fellow soldiers in his spare time and decided to create a diary showing what it was like being on the front lines.

As a tank commander sent into reserve duty, Sacofsky has an unusually direct vantage point: He often rides with his head and shoulders exposed above the vehicle’s top hatch, giving him a clear view of the battlefield.

At some point during that initial tour of reserve duty in Gaza, Sacofsky heard the podcast of tank driver and psychology student Or Brandes.

Sacofsky knew Brandes from their post-high school gap year, when they both spent time learning at Yeshivat Ma’ale Gilboa in northern Israel; his own cousin also happened to be Brandes’s commander.

The podcast was full of banter and jokes, as well as heavier moments when Brandes encouraged his fellow reservists to open up about their complicated emotions as they battled terrorists in Gaza.

Sacofsky took a clip of Brandes’s podcast, included several shots of his tank heading into Gaza, and showed it to his film school instructors.

They introduced Sacofsky to Hanan Brandes, a journalist and filmmaker related to Brandes, and the two immediately decided to work together.

Sacofsky shot “Good Morning Gaza” from a point-of-view perspective, making viewers feel as if they are in Gaza, in the tank, with Brandes and his crew.

Brandes’s voice is heard, as are other soldiers’ voices speaking on the podcast. It’s not long into the film before viewers understand that Brandes was killed in Gaza in December 2023.

As the film developed, Sacofsky added one-on-one nighttime conversations with other reservists, shot in red light that made their faces harder to see — an artistic decision he made deliberately.
Commentary Podcast: Rocketless
It's Friday, and we are back to discuss marking a full year without any rockets or missiles fired into Israel from the Gaza Strip and how this relates to the fierce opposition to Netanyahu in Israel as the election approaches and how this can be viewed through the prism of Israeli political history. Plus, Israel's connection to thwarting the terrorist attack on an American airbase in the UK on the backdrop of British politicians ratcheting up their anti-Israel rhetoric and policies.




IDF says Hamas Northern Brigade chief killed this week held 15 hostages during war
The IDF announced Friday that the commander of Hamas’s Northern Gaza Brigade, who it killed in Gaza City earlier this week, had overseen the holding of at least 15 Israeli hostages during the war.

The IDF said in a statement that “following extensive intelligence research,” it could reveal that Izz al-Din al-Bik, who was killed on Tuesday, “commanded the captivity of Israeli hostages during the war.”

The hostages under Bik’s responsibility included Mia Schem, Hisham al-Sayed, Amit Buskila, Uriel Baruch, Cpl. Nik Beizer, Sgt. Ron Sherman, Elia Toledano, Shani Louk, Michel Nisenbaum, Staff Sgt. Tamir Nimrodi, Yitzhak Gelerenter, Eitan Levy, Hanan Yablonka, Ron Benjamin and Orion Hernandez.

Bik had commanded Hamas’s Northern Gaza Brigade since his predecessor, Ahmed Ghandour, was killed by Israel on November 10, 2023, according to the military and Hamas.

Before taking over the brigade, Bik held several other senior positions, including chief of intelligence in the Northern Gaza Brigade and commander of the Western Jabalia Battalion.

“In these roles, he advanced and financed numerous attacks against Israeli civilians and was among the founders of Hamas’s Nukhba forces in northern Gaza,” the military said. Hamas’s Northern Gaza Brigade commander, Izz al-Din al-Bik, who was killed by Israel on September 29, 2026. (Social media: used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)

According to the IDF, Bik also “commanded and participated in the infiltration into Israeli territory” during Hamas’s October 7, 2023, onslaught.

Gaza’s Hamas-run civil defense agency said that Israeli strikes and gunfire had killed at least seven people in the Strip on Tuesday, including Bik. It said the Hamas commander was killed alongside another man in a strike west of Gaza City.

Separately, the IDF said Friday that Tamer Hamaida, who served as a sniper in Hamas’s military wing, was killed in a strike on Khan Younis.

Throughout the war, Hamaida had plotted various attacks, including sniper attacks against IDF troops and Israeli civilians, the military said.


ABC begins quietly scrubbing Gaza ‘journalists’ after IDF releases terror evidence
The ABC [Australia] has quietly begun scrubbing its Gaza "journalists killed" coverage as evidence mounts that many of those named were in fact operatives of Hamas and other terrorist groups in the strip.

In a statement provided to Rebel News, and in an editor's note dated October 2 now visible on some articles on the public broadcaster's website, the ABC says 22 names have so far been removed. It is deferring the decision to a list maintained by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).

But timing is everything. Rebel News had already contacted the ABC on September 26, after it became clear the broadcaster had listed multiple terrorists as journalists in articles published on its website. That coincided with the BBC launching an internal review after an investigation found it too had relied on news provided by terrorists linked to Hamas.

At the time, the ABC's response was brief: "The ABC is aware of the reports. Nothing further to add at this time." Until today, no correction appeared on its website.

What has changed is the IDF. It has launched a public website containing dossiers on up to 170 terrorists "who posed as journalists," complete with documents and photographs relating to their terror activity. In an accompanying press conference, the IDF identified the ABC among the media organisations that amplified these individuals and stories about them in their coverage.

So while the ABC has begun scrubbing names by deferring to the CPJ, that information was available well before today. The ABC's statement provided to Rebel News says as much:

"The ABC has accurately reported the data provided by the Committee to Protect Journalists. Following the CPJ publishing updated statistics on the number of journalists killed in the Middle East since 7 October 2023 the ABC is updating graphics and content to reflect the revised information.

We have published an editor's note on the relevant content: Subsequent to publication, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) released a report removing 22 names from a list of journalists killed in the Middle East since October 7 2023. Those names have been removed from a graph contained in this story. According to the CPJ, the number of journalists killed in the Middle East as of September 25 2026 is 247."

The CPJ's revised figures are dated September 25. The ABC's notes went up a week later.

And they don't go far enough. Checked live on Friday, the removals described in those notes are incomplete. The ABC pages still name people the IDF dossiers allege held military roles. They also name people the CPJ had already removed for combat engagement, including names Rebel News previously flagged. Out of the 247 ABC is attributing to a CPJ list there are 150 + names that are listed in connection with evidence and photographs for involvement in October 7th, terrorism, murder and rape.

The ABC continues to list Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad-linked terrorists as Gazan ‘journalists’ despite clear evidence of links to terrorist activities. In the UK, the BBC has launched an urgent review after an investigation found at least 53 of those names on its own stories. Those same names appear on the taxpayer-funded ABC website as journalists.

Deferring to the CPJ is also a weak substitute for accountability from a taxpayer-funded broadcaster that receives more than a billion dollars a year. Critics say the CPJ applied a very wide definition of "journalist," counted staff from outlets affiliated with Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and only cut some names in volume after the armed groups' own obituaries forced the issue. It is seen as a very sympathetic organisation when it comes to investigating Hamas and other terrorist groups.





 




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