9th October 2026

44-year-old Ali al-Bazzari died and nine others were injured during an Israeli settler attack followed by army intervention in an occupied West Bank village on Wednesday.  On Tuesday, Armed Israeli settlers on beat Jaafar Ashtiyeh, 58, a photographer for the international news agency  AFP, leaving him requiring hospital treatment, as he covered ongoing violence by settlers against West Bank olive farmers. He had tried to rush into a car for safety but two men tackled him down and clobbered him with their rifle butts, according to witnesses, his family and fellow journalists. At least six other people then ran towards the AFP journalists firing guns, with two of them beating Ashtiyeh as he tried to enter the car, which was clearly marked "Press". The Foreign Press Association, which represents international media in Israel and the Palestinian territories, said it was "deeply alarmed", adding, "This attack is a blatant attempt to intimidate the press and obstruct accurate reporting from the West Bank. International media have a responsibility to tell all sides of the story and will not be deterred by physical assaults or threats."  In the three years since Hamas' assault on Israel on 7th October 2023, 20,748 Palestinian students and 1,058 educational and administrative staff have been killed in Gaza and the occupied West Bank the Palestinian education ministry said yesterday.  The majority of schools have been damage, leaving hundreds of thousands of students without regular access to education.  UN experts have described the systematic destruction of educational institutions, personnel and intellectual life as “scholasticide.” 

God of love and mercy, compassion and peace, we place into your care all living in the occupied Palestinian territories and Israel.  You breathed life into each person, and made us in your image. We long for an end to suffering in Gaza and in the West Bank. We ask your protection for all who are oppressed, for journalists abused for doing their job and for children denied an education and subjected to live with horrific acts of violence. Give to those in authority wisdom to act with humanity for the good of all, so that we may see a just and peaceful resolution in Gaza, the West Bank and Israel. May the international community work constructively with all parties to bring peace, justice, and reconcilliation. In the name of the Prince of Peace, Jesus Christ the Lord we pray, Amen.

A partnership between the UN’s support mission in-country (UNSMIL), Italian foreign aid, Libyan domestic partners, and the HALO Trust has been working to remove landmines and unexploded ordnance from Libya since 2018. It was announced last week that 14,066 items of explosive ordnance were removed from Al-Sweihli Farm between January and September of this year, allowing displaced residents the option to return to their land. 

Loving Father, your presence is precious.

I thank you that you are close to me throughout the day.

I thank you for your guidance through the Holy Spirit.

I thank you for your magnificence that I see in nature

and in the kindness and compassion of others.

I thank you for your protection, comfort and grace.

I thank you that through the death and resurrection

of your Son Jesus Christ

the gates of heaven have been opened.

I thank you that through faith in him,

death may be faced without fear

and is not the end

for you raise us to new, eternal, life.

Amen.