European-Palestinian Media Center (EPAL) Bulletin – Issue: 2588 – Date: Friday, 16/10/2026

1. Four martyrs in Gaza in 24 hours; death toll rises to 74,396

The Gaza Ministry of Health announced that hospitals in the Strip had received four new martyrs and nine injured people over the past 24 hours as a result of the ongoing Israeli aggression.

The cumulative death toll since the beginning of the Israeli aggression against the Gaza Strip has therefore risen to 74,396 martyrs, with 175,449 people injured.

## 2. Ten deaths and 250 people unable to travel during two weeks of Rafah crossing closure

Zaher al-Wahidi, head of the Information Department at Gaza’s Ministry of Health, revealed that ten people, including patients and wounded individuals awaiting medical transfers, had died during the two weeks since the closure of the Rafah land crossing.

Al-Wahidi said that those who died included patients suffering from cancer, kidney disease and heart disease, as well as wounded people. All had medical referral documents and were waiting to travel abroad for treatment.

## 3. Around 350 children face torture, starvation and medical neglect in occupation prisons

Approximately 350 Palestinian children are facing harsh conditions inside Israeli occupation prisons amid escalating practices of torture, starvation and medical neglect. Human rights organizations are also encountering difficulties accessing detention facilities and assessing the conditions of imprisoned children.

Israeli occupation forces have arrested more than 2,000 Palestinian children since the beginning of the genocidal war, while at least 350 children remain in detention. Their continued imprisonment has raised growing concerns about their lives and safety amid ongoing violations against them.

## 4. Occupation forces control 18% of the West Bank in two years and establish 185 pastoral outposts

Settlement expansion in the West Bank continues to accelerate as the Israeli occupation persists in seizing Palestinian land, establishing settlement outposts and expanding its control over open spaces and agricultural land. These actions threaten the Palestinian presence and place increasing pressure on local communities.

According to figures from the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, 185 pastoral settlement outposts have been established as part of the expansion targeting Palestinian land, particularly rural areas, Bedouin communities and areas classified as “Area C,” which are under full Israeli control according to the Oslo Accords.

## 5. Occupation forces arrest nine Palestinians, including a woman and former prisoners

Israeli occupation forces launched a widespread campaign of raids, incursions and arrests targeting cities, towns and villages across the West Bank. The operations resulted in the arrest of at least nine Palestinians, including a woman, most of whom were former prisoners who had been released.

In Qalqilya, occupation forces stormed the city and carried out a series of raids and arrests, detaining seven Palestinians, most of them former prisoners.

In Nablus, occupation forces entered the city through Checkpoint No. 17 and raided the Ras al-Ain neighborhood and al-Basha Street. They searched a residential building and arrested Umm Ahmad Sawafita after raiding her home on al-Basha Street.

## 6. Settlers intensify attacks across the West Bank: land clearance, raids and the expulsion of olive harvesters

Over the past 24 hours, settlers have carried out a series of ongoing attacks in various parts of the West Bank, targeting agricultural land, olive harvesters, private property and residents’ resources. The escalation has affected Hebron, Nablus, Jenin, Ramallah, Jericho and the Jordan Valley.

In Jenin, settlers began clearing land at the evacuated Sanur military camp south of the city, according to local sources.

In Nablus, settlers expelled olive harvesters from the al-Shaab area in Asira al-Qibliya, south of the city. They also cut electricity poles supplying the home of the Soufan family on the outskirts of the village of Burin, south of Nablus.

In Ramallah, settlers attacked several olive harvesters and scattered the crop they had collected from agricultural land in the village of Ras Karkar, west of the city.

## 7. Trade union coalition: UNRWA service cuts threaten refugees and employees’ rights

The Palestinian Professional Trade Union Coalition in the Gaza governorates warned of the consequences of cuts to the services provided by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), as well as measures affecting employees’ rights under the pretext of a financial deficit.

The coalition stressed that these measures threaten the essential services provided to refugees across the agency’s five fields of operation.

In a press statement, the coalition said that the cuts include reduced working hours and the termination of some employees’ contracts. It warned against shifting the burden of the agency’s financial crisis onto workers and refugees.

## 8. Two human rights organizations: 22 testimonies report shootings at prisoners in Israeli jails

Two Israeli human rights organizations revealed that they had received at least 22 testimonies from prisoners and detainees, most of them Palestinians, concerning Israeli prison guards allegedly shooting at them and causing serious injuries.

The organizations, Physicians for Human Rights–Israel and the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel, said they had received at least 22 testimonies, most of them during the past year.

The individuals who provided the testimonies reported that prison guards had fired projectiles they described as rubber, plastic or sponge bullets.

## 9. #Video: Palestinian mother says goodbye to her children before her arrest

#Watch: Emotional moments as Palestinian woman Samah Shahada, the mother of martyr Jihad Shahada, bids farewell to her two children before turning herself in to Israeli occupation forces at the Jabara military checkpoint near Tulkarem in the occupied West Bank.

## 10. #Video: Settlers set fire to a mosque in Jerusalem

#Watch: The aftermath of Israeli settlers setting fire to a mosque and a car and writing racist slogans on the mosque’s walls in the village of Mukhmas, northeast of occupied Jerusalem.

The incident comes amid continuing settler attacks against Palestinians and their property throughout the occupied West Bank.

# European News

## 11. French foreign minister attacks lawmaker who called for an end to arms supplies to Israel

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot attacked Thomas Portes, a lawmaker from the La France Insoumise party, after Portes called on him to halt exports of weapons and military components to Israel.

Portes also urged the minister to intervene to prevent Air France from excluding employees from its flights based on their nationality, allegedly in implementation of Israeli instructions.

## 12. Calls to cancel Le Mans’ match against an Israeli team in rejection of the whitewashing of genocide crimes

The French campaign to boycott Israel has called for the cancellation of an upcoming basketball match between French club Le Mans Sarthe Basket (MSB) and Hapoel Midtown Jerusalem, an Israeli team affiliated with the occupying state.

The match is scheduled for Wednesday, October 28, at the Antarès arena in the city of Le Mans, in France’s Sarthe department.

The campaign called on the municipality of Le Mans, arena management, sports officials and players to refuse to participate and reject complicity with an entity accused of committing genocide and ethnic cleansing in Palestine.

## 13. Paris Saint-Germain supporters raise the Palestinian flag

Supporters of French football club Paris Saint-Germain raised the Palestinian flag in the away supporters’ section at the Etihad Stadium during their match against English club Manchester City in the UEFA Champions League.

## 14. Student groups in Oregon call for the expulsion of the Zionist organization Hillel

Activists published posts attacking the organization’s director, Lenny Steinberg, describing him as an “enemy of the people” because of his promotion of Zionist ideology.

Protesters also organized a march to the organization’s headquarters, coinciding with the third anniversary of the genocide, and burned the American and Israeli flags outside the building.

The joint student mobilization was led by local chapters of the organizations Jewish Voice for Peace, the Revolutionary Women’s Committee, Young Democratic Socialists and the Eugene Revolutionary Study Group.

## 15. Attempts to expel a publishing house displaying a book about the “Holocaust of Palestinians” in Poland

A heated confrontation took place at a book fair in Poland after the fair’s organizers officially demanded that a publishing house be expelled and its booth closed for displaying a book entitled The Holocaust of Palestinians (Holokaust Palestyńczyków).

According to a video documenting the incident, a Jewish woman and a Catholic priest joined the fair’s organizing staff in pressuring those responsible for the booth and attempting to force them to leave.

However, the exhibitor and author insisted on remaining at the fair and demanded that the organizers identify the legal basis or specific provision in the fair’s regulations that would justify canceling their participation.

# International News

## 16. “Hours of Rage” campaign launched in Illinois to pressure the state treasurer to end complicity with the occupation

The Chicago anti-war organization launched an intensive public pressure campaign targeting the office of Illinois State Treasurer Michael Frerichs, demanding that he end investments in Israeli government bonds and withdraw taxpayers’ money from financing the genocidal war.

The movement decided to organize collective telephone actions, called “Hours of Rage,” over the next three Fridays from noon to 1 p.m.

The initiative aims to intensify calls and direct messages to Frerichs and pressure him to end financial complicity with the occupying state.

## 17. New York City rejects Israeli bonds and withdraws from financing genocide

The movement to boycott Israel and divest from it has secured a historic victory in New York City after the city’s comptroller, Mark Levine, formally withdrew his previous commitment to reinvest municipal pension fund money in Israeli government bonds.

The reversal came under mounting public and trade union pressure led by the “Break the Bonds NYC” campaign and Jewish Voice for Peace–New York (JVP-NY), which have spent more than a year opposing financial complicity with the Zionist state.

## 18. NFL player Azeez Al-Shaair defies fines and continues writing the names of Gaza’s children on his face

Houston Texans American football player Azeez Al-Shaair has insisted on continuing to write the names of Palestinian children killed in the genocidal war in the Gaza Strip on the black eye strips, known as eye black, that he wears during games in the 2026 season.

Al-Shaair has defied official warnings and repeated financial penalties imposed by the National Football League (NFL), which prohibits unauthorized political or humanitarian messages.

## 19. Miss Rachel cries for Palestinian children and what they are experiencing

Following a media interview, Rachel stated on her official account that her tears stemmed from the pain of seeing children and the Palestinian people denied recognition as human beings who deserve life and freedom.

She also reaffirmed that she would continue her activism calling for an end to the genocide and the liberation of Palestine, regardless of criticism.

She described the inaction of influential public figures as unjustifiable, arguing that such behavior allows the genocidal war to continue, directly targeting children.

## 20. Activists interrupt US defense secretary in Washington and call him a war criminal

Activists interrupted US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth while he was delivering a speech at the annual conference and exhibition of the Association of the United States Army (AUSA) in Washington, D.C.

The protest condemned the ongoing genocidal war in the Gaza Strip and the aggression against Iran.

The video shows protesters being subjected to violent assaults and severe repression by security personnel and members of several US intelligence and security agencies.

According to the report, the protesters were dragged along the ground and choked in an attempt to silence them. They were then taken away at gunpoint and confined inside elevators.

## 21. Himaya calls on Colombia to reverse course: “Your embassy in Jerusalem entrenches the occupation”

The Himaya Center for Human Rights called on the Colombian government to abandon its plans to open an embassy in occupied Jerusalem.

The center warned of the consequences for Palestinian rights and the city’s legal status, stressing that such a move would conflict with states’ international obligations not to recognize illegal situations arising from occupation or assist in maintaining them.

In an official memorandum addressed to the Colombian president and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the center stated that opening the embassy would represent a significant shift in Bogotá’s policy toward Israel and a decision that should be reconsidered in light of United Nations resolutions and the rights of the Palestinian people.

## 22. Representatives of more than 10 countries leave the CICA summit as Herzog begins his speech

Representatives of more than 10 countries, including Türkiye, left the hall during the summit of the Council of Heads of State and Government of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia (CICA), held in Azerbaijan, as Israeli President Isaac Herzog began his speech.

Since October 2023, Israeli occupation forces have been waging a genocidal war in the Gaza Strip, killing tens of thousands of Palestinians and destroying civilian infrastructure. These events have provoked condemnation and outrage among most countries and peoples around the world.