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Israel strikes airports in Syria and retrieves some hostages’ bodies as it prepares to invade Gaza
(JTA) — Israel bombed airports in Damascus and Aleppo following missile fire from Syria — a signal that tensions may escalate on Israel’s northern border as it prepares for a large-scale invasion of the Gaza Strip.
The invasion, which is expected in the coming days, will follow Hamas’ Oct. 7 invasion of Israel, which killed more than 1,300 people, largely civilians, and wounded thousands. Hamas is holding more than 100 people captive in the Gaza Strip, according to Israeli figures.
Israeli troops have already entered Gaza in limited incursions aimed at retrieving hostages, and Haaretz reported on Saturday that one of those raids did return several bodies of hostages captured and killed by Hamas. The raid also attempted to find clues as to the whereabouts of other hostages.
The U.S. government says 29 of its citizens have been killed since Hamas’ invasion, according to the Times of Israel, and that 15 are unaccounted for. President Joe Biden spoke with the families of some missing Americans on Friday. The families of the missing have organized into a coalition to draw attention from their own government and beyond.
According to a report in the New York Times, Israel’s invasion — which has been delayed in part by overcast skies — will aim to eliminate the leadership of Hamas and will be focused on the terror group’s stronghold of Gaza City in the northern part of the territory. Israel told residents of northern Gaza, more than one million people, to relocate to the strip’s southern half, though Israel’s military said Hamas blocked civilians from leaving.
Israel has conducted airstrikes in Gaza since Hamas’ invasion, killing more than 2,000, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza. Hamas and other terror groups have also shot rockets into Israel. Israel’s last ground invasion of the territory was in 2014.
On Saturday, Egypt began allowing foreigners to leave Gaza through a border crossing on the strip’s southern border, which Egypt controls. World leaders including Biden are urging an agreement to allow humanitarian supplies into Gaza, days after Israel announced a “complete siege” that cut off electricity, food and fuel.
Israel’s bombing of Syria comes after two rockets were fired from Syria into the Golan Heights. The past week has seen other exchanges of fire across the Israeli-Lebanese border amid fears that Hezbollah, a terror group based in Lebanon, will begin attacking Israel’s northern border. Both Hamas and Hezbollah are funded by Iran. Three Hezbollah fighters and one Israeli soldier have been killed in the clashes, as has Issam Abdallah, a Reuters journalist.
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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War
Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests
A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan
Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.