The Times of Israel liveblogged Wednesday’s events as they unfolded.

Hamas denies any connection to three men arrested in Germany on suspicion of planning attacks on Jewish and Israeli sites.

Hamas “has no connection with the individuals arrested today in Germany,” the terror group says in a statement, adding the allegations that the detainees had links to Hamas were “completely unfounded.”

The Israeli Navy has begun to intercept the large flotilla attempting to break the Israeli maritime blockade on the Gaza Strip, according to activists.

Footage shows a Navy vessel close to one of the boats. According to the organizers, Israeli soldiers have boarded Alma, the flotilla’s lead boat, along with two others, Adara and Sirius.

Activists on Adara have thrown their phones into the sea after Israeli soldiers boarded them, livestream footage shows.

Footage of Israeli navy vessels intercepting global sumud flotilla pic.twitter.com/0PfcTFnnrO

— Global Sumud Flotilla Commentary (@GlobalSumudF) October 1, 2025

The Israeli military had repeatedly warned the activists to change course, including via radio this evening.

The 47-boat Global Sumud Flotilla is carrying over 500 activists, according to the organizers. Israel has accused some key participants of having ties to Hamas.

Italy’s foreign minister says that his Israeli counterpart assured him the Israeli armed forces will not use violence against activists on board the flotilla of ships sailing towards Gaza.

“The boarding was planned, we are talking about it … with Minister [Gideon] Sa’ar so that there would be no violent actions on the part of the Tel Aviv armed forces, and this has been assured to me,” Antonio Tajani says to Italian TV broadcaster Rai.

“We instructed our embassy in Tel Aviv and the consulate in Jerusalem to assist all Italians who will probably be taken to Ashdod, but then will be expelled,” he adds.

The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), a free speech advocacy group, condemns New York University’s law school for canceling an event scheduled for October 7, the two-year anniversary of the Hamas invasion of Israel.

The law school had been scheduled to host an event by the conservative Federalist Society, but reportedly canceled the talk due to “security concerns” related to expected protests related to the October 7 anniversary.

The Federalist Society event was scheduled to feature Ilya Shapiro, a Jewish attorney who has criticized anti-Israel protesters and universities.

A law school administrator first asked that the event switch locations, which student organizers agreed to, but then the administrator said that Shapiro could not come to the campus at all, The Free Beacon reported.

“Doing the work for the would-be censors without even needing them to show up, NYU Law School’s reported decision to cancel the Federalist Society’s event with Ilya Shapiro is a textbook heckler’s veto,” says FIRE Special Counsel for Campus Advocacy Robert Shibley.

“By preemptively canceling a student-sponsored lecture due to expected opposition, NYU allows the threat of disruption to override students’ and speakers’ rights to listen and be heard,” Shibley says. “By also approving other events scheduled for the same time, NYU sends the message that only some views can be heard on campus. Universities cannot selectively disfavor one speaker while approving other major events on the same day.”

“NYU must reaffirm its commitment to free expression by ensuring that all student groups, regardless of viewpoint, can peacefully host events with invited speakers without facing censorship disguised as logistics,” he says.

The Israeli Navy is calling on the large flotilla attempting to break the Israeli maritime blockade on the Gaza Strip to change course.

Israel’s Foreign Ministry publishes a video of a naval lieutenant speaking over a radio to the activists, saying they are “approaching a blockaded zone.”

“If you wish to deliver aid to Gaza, you may do so through the established channels. Please change your course toward the port of Ashdod, where the aid will undergo a security inspection and then be transferred into the Gaza Strip,” she says.

The sole purpose of the Hamas-Sumud flotilla is provocation. Israel, Italy, Greece, and the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem have all offered and continue to offer the flotilla a way to peacefully deliver any aid they might have to Gaza. The flotilla refused because they are not… pic.twitter.com/pLQj1FLIPA

— Israel Foreign Ministry (@IsraelMFA) October 1, 2025

The 47-boat Global Sumud Flotilla is carrying over 500 activists, according to the organizers. Israel has accused some key participants of having ties to Hamas.

The ministry says that “the sole purpose of the Hamas-Sumud flotilla is provocation.”

“Israel, Italy, Greece, and the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem have all offered and continue to offer the flotilla a way to peacefully deliver any aid they might have to Gaza. The flotilla refused because they are not interested in aid, but in provocation,” it adds.

Activists on the flotilla reported this evening that Israeli Navy vessels had approached them. Most of the livestreams from the various boats in the flotilla have been cut in the past hour.

Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani discussed with US President Donald Trump on Wednesday his plan to end the war in Gaza in a phone call, the emir’s office says.

Sheikh Tamim reiterated Qatar’s support for peace efforts and expressed confidence that the countries backing the plan could reach a just settlement that guarantees regional security and stability and protects Palestinian rights, according to the Qatari readout.

British primatologist Jane Goodall, who studied chimpanzees and became a renowned wildlife crusader, has died aged 91, her institute says.

Goodall “passed away due to natural causes” while in California on a speaking tour of the United States, the institute says in a statement on social media.

A Russian shelling attack has cut power to the confinement structure housing part of the Chernobyl nuclear plant, part of which was destroyed in a 1986 nuclear meltdown, Ukraine’s energy ministry says.

“As a result of power surges, the New Safe Confinement, a key facility that isolates the destroyed fourth power unit of Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant and prevents the release of radioactive materials into the environment, was left without power,” the ministry says on Telegram.

A US judge dismisses a lawsuit against the UN agency for the Palestinians, UNRWA, saying that UNRWA has immunity.

The ruling contradicts a statement by federal authorities earlier this year stating that UNRWA did not have immunity in the case.

The lawsuit, the Estate of Tamar Kedem Simon Tov v. United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), was filed last year in the federal Southern District Court of New York.

The families of around 100 victims of the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led terror assault claimed $1 billion in damages from UNRWA, asserting that the UN agency aided and abetted the terror group’s attack.

In April, the Department of Justice sent a letter to the judge, stating that UNRWA had played a significant role in “heinous offenses” by Hamas on October 7, and that “UNRWA is not immune from this litigation.”

That went against the position of the Department of Justice under the Biden administration, which had said that UNRWA had immunity in US courts.

The judge in the case — US District Judge Analisa Torres — dismisses the case, despite the Department of Justice’s position.

“Because UNRWA is a subsidiary organ of the United Nations and has not waived its immunity,” Torres writes, ” this court lacks subject matter jurisdiction over Plaintiffs’ claims. Defendants’ motion to dismiss is granted, and the complaint dismissed.”

A lawyer for the plaintiffs, Gavriel Mairone, says the judge “totally misinterpreted the most important argument that we made.”

“We’re definitely appealing and we think, respectfully, that the judge’s opinion is erroneous,” he says.

A nine-year-old girl in Gaza died due to severe malnutrition yesterday, UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric says during a briefing, citing the United Nations Children’s Fund, which operates in the Strip.

We’re heartbroken to share that 9-year-old Jana, whose story we shared recently, has passed away from severe malnutrition.@UNICEFmena's Tess Ingram, who was with Jana last year and again in August of this year, shares this tragic update.

This should not have been Jana’s life.… pic.twitter.com/tlFTilB8Yp

— UNICEF (@UNICEF) September 29, 2025

Five rockets were launched from the northern Gaza Strip at the coastal city of Ashdod in southern Israel, the military says.

According to the IDF, four of the rockets were intercepted by air defenses, and one landed in an open area.

There are no reports of injuries or damage.

The attack comes amid Yom Kippur, and as the Israeli Navy prepares to intercept the large flotilla attempting to break the Israeli maritime blockade on the Gaza Strip.

More than 400 people were arrested and nearly 300 injured during protests in Morocco demanding reforms in the public health and education sectors, the interior ministry says.

Unauthorized demonstrations were held for the fourth consecutive day at the call of the GenZ 212 group, a recently formed Discord-based collective whose organizers remain unknown.

The latest protests on Tuesday night turned violent in cities including Oujda and Inzegane.

Ministry spokesman Rachid El Khalfi says the clashes involved protesters using knives, Molotov cocktails and stones.

A total of 263 police officers were injured to varying degrees, along with 23 protesters, including one hospitalized in Oujda.

El Khalfi says 409 people were detained following the unrest, during which more than 140 police vehicles and 20 private cars were set ablaze.

“Protesters also stormed government offices, bank branches and shops, looting and vandalizing them,” especially in Inzegane and Oujda, he says.

Sirens sound in the southern coastal city of Ashdod amid a rocket attack from the Gaza Strip.

The IDF says it is looking into the details.

The rocket fire comes as the Israeli Navy prepares to intercept the large flotilla attempting to break the Israeli maritime blockade on the Gaza Strip.

Asked whether the three to four day timeline that US President Donald Trump gave yesterday for Hamas to respond to his Gaza peace deal still stands, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt says that it does.

“I will reiterate what the President of the United States said — three or four days,” Leavitt says during a press briefing.

“There are some very sensitive discussions that are taking place, but I certainly don’t want to get ahead of any announcement at this podium,” she adds.

Russia does not recognize the reimposition of United Nations sanctions on Iran, Russia’s UN Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia tells reporters on Wednesday when asked if Moscow would enforce the measures.

“We’ll be living in two parallel realities, because for some snapback happened, for us it didn’t,” he says at a press conference to mark the start of Russia’s presidency of the UN Security Council for October.

Several vessels are approaching an international flotilla carrying aid to Gaza, two sources on board the flotilla tell Reuters.

Israel has repeatedly warned the flotilla to turn back from its naval blockade of the Gaza Strip.

The Freedom Flotilla Coalition behind the effort issues a statement saying that the Israeli interception “may be within the hour.”

Radars show “a concentration of roughly 12 unidentified vessels, five to fifteen miles from the flotilla,” the statement says.

“Contact has seemingly been disconnected with some flotilla vessels, with some experiencing signal jamming.”

The Netherlands calls on the EU to sanction Yemen’s Houthis as a terrorist group, after the organization claimed responsibility for an attack on the Dutch-flagged general cargo ship Minervagracht in the Gulf of Aden.

The Iran-aligned group has launched numerous assaults on vessels in the Red Sea since 2023, targeting ships they deem linked to Israel in what they describe as solidarity with Palestinians over Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza.

“The Houthis have long posed a serious threat to freedom of navigation,” the Dutch Foreign Ministry says in a statement.

Countries including the United States, Israel, Canada and Australia have labelled the Houthis, formally known as Ansar Allah, as a terrorist organization.

The UN Human Rights Chief calls for renewed efforts to bring a permanent end to hostilities in Lebanon, as Israeli air strikes continue despite an agreed ceasefire.

High Commissioner for the Office of Human Rights Volker Turk says 103 civilians have been killed in the last 10 months.

“We are still seeing devastating impacts of jet and drone strikes in residential areas, as well as near UN peacekeepers in the south,” Turk says.

Israel has frequently targeted what it says are Hezbollah positions in southern Lebanon despite a US-brokered truce between Lebanon and Israel, which took effect in November following more than a year of conflict triggered by war in Gaza.

One of the deadliest strikes killed five people, including three children, when an Israeli drone targeted a vehicle and a motorcycle in the border area of Bint Jbeil on September 21.

The Israeli military says it killed a Hezbollah member in the strike but that “several uninvolved civilians were killed.”

“The IDF regrets any harm to uninvolved individuals and operates to minimize harm as much as possible. The incident is under review,” it said in a statement the following day.

Turk has called for an independent investigation into that........

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