Dozens of Turkish boats were seen sailing with Palestinian flags off the coast of Hatay in the south of the country, in solidarity with Gaza-bound flotilla activists who were intercepted and detained by Israeli forces.
Published On 2 Oct 20252 Oct 2025
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Funeral services have been held for the six people killed in an Israeli strike targeting Hamas leaders in the Qatari capital Doha, as Arab leaders continue to visit the Gulf nation to express solidarity.
One coffin bearing a Qatari flag and five others bearing Palestinian flags were brought to Doha’s Imam Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab Mosque, live footage from Qatar television showed on Thursday.
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“The mood has been sombre since the death toll from Israel’s failed assassination attempt against the leadership of Hamas in Doha was announced earlier this week,” Al Jazeera’s Osama Bin Javed reported.
“We heard the Qatari prime minister giving special prayers for him at the funeral ceremony,” he added.
The Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani was also present, standing in the front row, “signalling that Qatar stands by its people, especially with those who gave their lives in this unprecedented attack on a Gulf Cooperation Council country”, Bin Javed said, reporting from the Qatari capital.
The Israeli military targeted Hamas leaders in Doha on Tuesday as they were meeting to discuss the latest Gaza ceasefire proposal put forth by US President Donald Trump.
At least six people were killed in the attack, including five low-ranking Hamas members. However, the group said its leadership survived the assassination bid.
Qatari Lance Corporal Badr Saad Mohammed al-Humaidi al-Dosari was also among the killed.
In the aftermath of the Doha attack, US President Donald Trump said he felt “very badly” about the location of the attacks and later told reporters he was “not thrilled” by Israel’s actions.
Former Israeli government adviser Daniel Levy says Israel’s attack against a Hamas delegation in Qatar sends a message not just to the Palestinian group, but to the region.
“Either get on board with our project of regional hegemony, which includes the displacement and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians, or we dare you because we have America on our side and we are unassailable militarily,” Levy said.
A slew of Arab and Muslim leaders descended on Doha since Israel’s unprecedented attack, including United Arab Emirates President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, who met the emir on Wednesday.
Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif also arrived in the Qatari capital to express his country’s show of support for the tiny Gulf nation. Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was expected in Doha on Thursday.
The Qatari Emir also received a verbal message of solidarity from Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi on Thursday, conveyed by his Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty during a meeting in Doha.
Egypt’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Abdelatty’s visit was aimed at expressing the country’s “full solidarity” with Qatar and “to discuss ways to deal with the dangerous Israeli escalation and coordinate positions” with senior Qatari officials.
Qatar will convene an emergency Arab-Islamic summit to discuss Israel’s attack, according to the state news agency QNA, a possible hint of what shape a collective regional response would take.
The summit will take place in Doha on Sunday and Monday.
The announcement came as the United Nations Security Council opened an emergency session on Thursday to discuss the attack, which was delayed a day to allow the Qatari prime minister to attend the meeting.
Hamas spokesperson Fawzi Barhoum, in a televised statement on Thursday, said the Israeli attempt to assassinate Hamas’s negotiating delegation in Doha and continued threats to target the movement’s leadership abroad showed Israel’s “failure to achieve its goals” after 23 months of genocidal war on Gaza that has killed more than 64,000 Palestinians.
In the Palestinian group’s first address since Tuesday’s attack, Barhoum said that the group will keep fighting despite the assassination attempt.
“The Israeli attack cannot dent our resolve by targeting our leaders,” the Hamas spokesperson said. “The crime did not target the negotiating delegation, but rather the entire negotiation process.”
The attack on Tuesday was the first such attack by Israel on Qatar, which has been a key mediator in ceasefire talks between Israel and Hamas. Qatar’s Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani has dubbed Israel’s targeting of Hamas leaders “state terrorism”.
“There is a response that will happen from the region. This response is currently under consultation and discussion with other partners in the region,” he told US media outlet CNN on Wednesday, adding that “the entire Gulf region is at risk”.
However, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu seemed undeterred, threatening further attacks on Qatar.
“I say to Qatar and all nations who harbour terrorists, you either expel them or you bring them to justice. Because if you don’t, we will,” Netanyahu said on Wednesday.
Israel has assassinated many of Hamas’s top military and political leaders in the last two years, such as top political leader Yahya Sinwar; military commander Mohammed Deif, one of the founders of the Qassam Brigades in the 1990s; and political chief Ismail Haniyeh, who was assassinated in Iran’s capital, Tehran.
Qatar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned the Israeli prime minister’s comments, calling them a “shameful attempt … to justify the cowardly attack that targeted Qatari territory, as well as the explicit threats of future violations of state sovereignty”.
On Thursday, the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs “condemned and denounced” Netanyahu’s comments, calling them “hostile”.
“Any aggression against a GCC member state constitutes an attack on the collective Gulf security framework,” the ministry said, stressing that “the continuation of such provocative and hostile rhetoric undermines prospects for stability and pushes the region towards extremely dangerous trajectories”.
Scotland: Chloe Rollie; Rhona Lloyd, Emma Orr, Lisa Thomson, Francesca McGhie; Helen Nelson, Leia Brebner-Holden; Leah Bartlett, Lana Skeldon,Elliann Clarke, Emma Wassell, Sarah Bonar, Rachel Malcolm (capt), Rachel McLachlan, Evie Gallagher
Replacements: Elis Martin, Molly Wright, Lisa Cockburn, Jade Konkel, Eva Donaldson, Alex Stewart, Caity Mattinson, Beth Blacklock.
Wales: Nel Metcalfe; Lisa Neumann, Hannah Dallavalle, Courtney Keight, Jasmine Joyce-Butchers; Lleucu George, Keira Bevan; Gwenllian Pyrs, Kelsey Jones, Donna Rose, Alaw Pyrs, Gwen Crabb, Kate Williams (co-capt), Bethan Lewis, Alex Callender (co-capt).
Replacements: Carys Phillips, Maisie Davies, Sisilia Tuipulotu, Abbie Fleming, Georgia Evans, Seren Lockwood, Kayleigh Powell, Carys Cox.
Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem Pierbattista Pizzaballa and Greek Orthodox Patriarch Theophilos III condemned Israel’s bombardment and blockade of Gaza as “morally unacceptable” after a rare visit to the besieged territory on July 18. Their trip followed an Israeli strike on Gaza’s only Catholic church, which killed three people.
Published On 22 Jul 202522 Jul 2025
VATICAN CITY — Pope Leo XIV urged the warring sides in the Israel-Iran war to “reject the logic of bullying and revenge” and choose a path of dialogue and diplomacy to reach peace as he expressed solidarity with all Christians in the Middle East.
Speaking at his weekly Wednesday general audience, the American pope said he was following “with attention and hope” recent developments in the war. He cited the biblical exhortation: “A nation shall not raise the sword against another nation.”
A ceasefire is holding in the 12-day Iran-Israel conflict, which involved Israel targeting Iranian nuclear and military sites and the U.S. intervening by dropping bunker-buster bombs on Iranian nuclear sites. Iran has long maintained that its nuclear program is peaceful.
“Let us listen to this voice that comes from on High,” Leo said. “Heal the lacerations caused by the bloody actions of recent days, reject all logic of bullying and revenge, and resolutely take the path of dialogue, diplomacy and peace.”
The Chicago-born Leo also expressed solidarity with the victims of Sunday’s attack on a Greek Orthodox church in Damascus, Syria, and urged the international community to keep supporting Syrian reconciliation. Syria’s Interior Ministry has said a sleeper cell belonging to the Islamic State group was behind the attack at the Church of the Holy Cross, which killed at least 25 people.
“To the Christians in the Middle East, I am near you. All the church is close to you,” he said. “This tragic event is a reminder of the profound fragility that still marks Syria after years of conflict and instability, and therefore it is crucial that the international community doesn’t look away from this country, but continues to offer it support through gestures of solidarity and with a renewed commitment to peace and reconciliation.”
The streets of Tehran are telling a story of chaos: suitcases dragged across pavements, a single mother holding her young son with one hand while balancing a blanket and pillow in the other, heading into a subway station to spend yet another night underground. With no shelters, alerts, or public evacuation plans, young Iranians are turning to the only safe space left as Israel attacks Iran: the internet, and chat apps like Discord and WhatsApp.
“We don’t know where to go,” says Momo, a 24-year-old IT engineering student in Tehran.
“We never know if the building next door houses the IRGC [Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps] or the Ministry of Intelligence. I don’t know if my upstairs neighbour is a regular person or a regime official. The facility near me might be part of a secret military programme,” he said, alluding to Israel’s attacks on residential buildings, ostensibly to target individuals associated with Iran’s military or with its nuclear programme.
Despite it all, Momo has chosen to stay in Tehran – not just for his two-year-old rescue cat, but out of principle. “Where would I even go? My home is here. My life is here. We won’t give in to a repressive regime or Israeli aggression. Many of us are staying. We don’t know how long this will last, but I’d rather my home become my grave than live in displacement.”
With conventional safe havens out of reach and communication networks under heavy surveillance or blocked entirely, Iran’s Generation Z – those born between the mid-1990s and mid-2010s – are carving out new refuges in the digital world. Forums have become lifelines, serving as makeshift shelters, therapy rooms, and organising hubs.
Momo has been a Discord user for seven years. “It’s the only place where I can breathe,” Momo says. “I used Discord just for voice chats while gaming with friends. Now, it feels like home. We’re often in touch with people there more than our families. In the middle of the bombings, we watched movies and TV series together. Sometimes, we even fall asleep online.”
This generation of Iranians came of age in the shadow of sanctions, political unrest, and censorship. Many were also key players in the 2022 anti-government protests sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini in police custody after she was arrested for wearing “improper hijab” – a movement known globally by the slogan “Woman, Life, Freedom”. Online platforms played a pivotal role then, and they continue to serve as vital tools today.
According to Iranian daily Shargh, nearly 14 million Iranians – around 15 percent of the population – are Gen Z gamers and frequent Discord users. Despite official restrictions, they remain digitally connected, using VPNs and encrypted apps to stay in touch.
“When the attacks began, we were in the middle of a game,” Samin, a 23-year-old from northern Iran, says. “It was surreal – not knowing if the explosions were coming from inside the game or real life. These games are full of gunfire and bombs, creating this bitter irony: I couldn’t tell if I was playing Call of Duty or living it. Sadly, the sounds weren’t from the game – they were real bombings.”
Discord was blocked in Iran in April 2024, with some suspecting that the government shut it down in recognition of its use as a platform to organise protests, although Iran’s judiciary officially cited concerns over indecent content. But the ban hasn’t stopped Gen Z from finding their way back to the app.
“Sometimes we go to great lengths just to find a working VPN, just to log into Discord and join our channels. If someone doesn’t come online, we call them. If their voice cuts out mid-call, our hearts race – we worry they might have been killed in a bombing,” Samin says. “We’re online more than ever, constantly checking in on each other. We’ve shared so much – birthdays, the sound of missiles overhead, the loss of loved ones. We share our fears and daily struggles in that space. It’s a painful atmosphere, but there’s hope, solidarity, and care, too.”
Meanwhile, a WhatsApp group created initially for prenatal yoga in Tehran has become an unexpected hub of resilience. Its members – pregnant women who were unable to flee the capital – now share breathing techniques, emergency tips, and voice messages during blackout periods.
Ameneh and her friend Zohreh, PhD holders and United States green card recipients, had been waiting for their parents’ visas to be approved by the US for months. While both were expecting babies, they made different decisions: Zohreh returned to Iran to have her family’s support for childbirth, while Ameneh stayed in San Francisco to give birth alone – but safely – in the US.
Now, four days into Israel’s bombardment of Iran, both women are devastated – but still connected via a group chat on the encrypted messaging app called “Yoga for Pregnancy”.
“We give each other advice on self-care and breathing to manage panic attacks and do yoga together online. We light candles and send voice notes when things go quiet again,” says Zohreh, who is eight months pregnant in Tehran.
“The sound of an explosion woke me. A friend guided me to focus on breathing and heartbeat to calm my contractions. Another time, when my baby didn’t move for hours, they told me to play music, do a massage, and try yoga again.”
US President Donald Trump’s threat that Tehran be “evacuated” sent waves of panic through Tehran. Zohreh and many other pregnant women found themselves unable to leave the city due to their physical condition and limited access to medical care. “We had planned to leave Tehran,” she says, “but after seeing the traffic and the possibility of going into labour early, I decided to stay so I’d have access to a hospital.”
As the bombs fall and uncertainty deepens, Iranians’ defiance lives in digital spaces – quiet, steadfast, and deeply human. Even when the sky offers no warning and the regime offers no refuge, they are still finding each other and refusing to face the dark alone.
Editor’s note: Due to the sensitive nature of this story, names have been changed to protect the people involved.
This story was published in collaboration with Egab.
The French president says his US counterpart’s Greenland takeover threats are not something allies do.
French President Emmanuel Macron has arrived in Greenland with a “message of solidarity and friendship” from Europe and castigated United States President Donald Trump’s repeated threats that he intends to take control of the strategic autonomous Danish territory as not “something to be done between allies”.
Macron reiterated his condemnation on Sunday at the Arctic island’s Nuuk airport, where he was greeted by Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen and Greenland Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen.
“It’s important to show that Denmark and Europe are committed to this territory, which has very high strategic stakes and whose territorial integrity must be respected,” Macron added.
“It means a lot to me … to convey a message of friendship and solidarity from France and the European Union to help this territory face the different challenges: economic development, education, as well as the consequences of climate change,” he continued.
Since returning to the office in January, Trump has repeatedly said the US needs Greenland, a strategically located territory at the crossroads of the Atlantic and the Arctic, for security reasons and has not ruled out taking the territory by force.
However, Denmark has vehemently stressed that Greenland “is not for sale”.
Macron, who is the first foreign head of state to visit Greenland since Trump’s threats, said in a speech last week at the United Nations Ocean Conference that Greenland and the deep seas were not “up for grabs”.
US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth appeared to acknowledge that the Pentagon had developed plans to take over Greenland and Panama by force, if necessary, last week.
The Wall Street Journal reported last month that several high-ranking officials under the director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, had been ordered to investigate Greenland’s independence movement and US resource extraction in the territory.
But in Greenland, polls indicate that the vast majority of the country’s 57,000 inhabitants may want to become independent from Denmark, but they do not want to join the US.
While Greenland is not part of the EU, it is on the bloc’s list of Overseas Countries and Territories (OCTs).
During Macron’s six-hour visit before he travels to Canada for a Group of Seven meeting that Trump is also expected to attend, he plans to discuss Arctic security and ways to include Greenland in “European action” to contribute to its development while “respecting its sovereignty”, his office said.
Following talks with Frederiksen and Nielsen, Macron is also set to visit a glacier to witness the effects of global warming.
Gaza City – As the Madleen sails towards Gaza to try to deliver life-saving aid to its people, little is known about the woman the boat was named after: Madleen Kulab, Gaza’s only fisherwoman.
When Al Jazeera first met Madleen Kulab (also spelled Madelyn Culab) three years ago, she had two children, was expecting her third and lived a relatively quiet life in Gaza City with her husband, Khader Bakr, 32, also a fisherman.
Madleen, now 30, would sail fearlessly out as far as Israel’s gunship blockade would allow to bring back fish she could sell in a local market to support the family.
When Israel’s war on Gaza began, the family was terrified, then heartbroken when Israel killed Madleen’s father in an air strike near their home in November 2023.
They fled with Madleen nearly nine months pregnant to Khan Younis, then to Rafah, to Deir el-Balah and then Nuseirat.
Now, they are back in what remains of their home in Gaza City, a badly damaged space they returned to when the Israeli army allowed displaced people to head back north in January.
Madleen sits on a battered sofa in her damaged living room, three of her four children sitting with her: baby Waseela, one, on her lap; five-year-old Safinaz beside her; and three-year-old Jamal – the baby she was expecting when Al Jazeera first met her – at the end.
She talks about what it felt like to hear from an Irish activist friend that the ship trying to break the blockade on Gaza would be named after her.
“I was deeply moved. I felt an enormous sense of responsibility and a little pride,” she says with a smile.
“I’m grateful to these activists who have devoted themselves, left their lives and comforts behind, and stood with Gaza despite all the risks,” she says of the group of 12 activists, who include Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg and Rima Hassan, a French member of the European Parliament.
“This is the highest form of humanity and self-sacrifice in the face of danger.”
Khader sits on another sofa with six-year-old Sandy. He holds out his phone with a photo of the Madleen on it, flying the Palestinian flag.
Madleen has been fishing since she was 15, a familiar figure heading out on her father’s boat, getting to know all the other fishermen and also becoming well-known to international solidarity activists.
In addition to bringing home the fish, Madleen is also a skilled cook, preparing seasonal fish dishes that were so famously tasty that she had a list of clients waiting to buy them from her. Especially popular were the dishes made with Gaza’s ubiquitous sardines.
But now, she can’t fish any more and neither can Khader because Israel destroyed their boats and an entire storage room full of fishing gear during the war.
“We’ve lost everything – the fruit of a lifetime,” she says.
But her loss is not just about income. It’s about identity – her deep connection to the sea and fishing. It’s even about the simple joy of eating fish, which she used to enjoy “10 times a week”.
“Now fish is too expensive if you can find it at all. Only a few fishermen still have any gear left, and they risk their lives just to catch a little,” she says.
“Everything has changed. We now crave fish in the middle of this famine we’re living through.”
After the air strike near the family home in November 2023, Madleen’s family’s first displacement was to Khan Younis, following Israeli army instructions that they would be safer there.
After searching for shelter, they ended up in a small apartment with 40 other displaced relatives, and then Madleen went into labour.
“It was a difficult, brutal birth. No pain relief, no medical care. I was forced to leave the hospital right after giving birth. There were no beds available because of the overwhelming number of wounded,” she says.
When she returned to the shelter, things were just as dire. “We didn’t have a mattress or even a blanket, neither me nor the kids,” she said.
“I had to sleep on the floor with my newborn baby. It was physically exhausting.”
She then had to tend to four children in an enclave where baby formula, diapers and even the most basic food items were almost impossible to find.
The war, she says, has reshaped her understanding of suffering and hardship.
In 2022, she and Khader were struggling to make ends meet between Israel’s gunship blockade and the frequent destruction of their boats. There was also the added burden of being a mother with small children and undertaking such physically taxing work.
But now, things have gotten far worse.
“There’s no such thing as ‘difficult’ any more. Nothing compares to the humiliation, hunger and horror we’ve seen in this war,” she says.
Throughout the war, Madleen remained in touch with international friends and solidarity activists she had met through the years.
“I would share my reality with them,” she says.
“They came to understand the situation through me. They felt like family.”
Her friends abroad offered both emotional and financial support, and she is grateful for them, saying they made her feel that Gaza wasn’t forgotten, that people still cared.
She is also grateful for being remembered in the naming of the Madleen, but she worries that Israeli authorities will not let the ship reach Gaza, citing past attempts that were intercepted.
“Intercepting the ship would be the least of it. What’s more worrying is the possibility of a direct assault like what happened to the Turkish ship Mavi Marmara in 2010 when several people were killed.”
Regardless of what happens, Madleen believes the mission’s true message has already been delivered.
“This is a call to break the global silence, to draw the world’s attention to what’s happening in Gaza. The blockade must end, and this war must stop immediately.”
“This is also a message of hope for me. They may have bombed my boat, but my name will remain – and it will sail across the sea.”