Friday's International Day of Non-Violence [October 2, 2026] marks the birthday of Mahatma Gandhi, a leader who remained committed to the principle of non-violence, even in the most difficult circumstances

https://x.com/UN/status/2105870639475429640/photo/1

[AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES (or quotes) IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine, or at least fair and just laws and policies here, there- and everywhere] 

https://www.un.org/en/observances/non-violence-day 

The “Non-Violence” (or “Knotted Gun”) sculpture by Swedish artist Carl Fredrik Reuterswärd on display at the UN Visitors’ Plaza. The Knotted Gun is the symbol of the Non-Violence Project Foundation. Photo:UN Photo/Fan Xiao

In these highly charged times, let’s summon the courage, empathy, dignity and shared humanity that Gandhi exemplified throughout his life.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres

 

Say No to Violence

The International Day of Non-Violence is observed on 2 October, the birthday of Mahatma Gandhi, leader of the Indian independence movement and pioneer of the philosophy and strategy of non-violence.

According to General Assembly resolution A/RES/61/271 of 15 June 2007, which established the commemoration, the International Day is an occasion to "disseminate the message of non-violence, including through education and public awareness". The resolution reaffirms "the universal relevance of the principle of non-violence" and the desire "to secure a culture of peace, tolerance, understanding and non-violence".

Introducing the resolution in the General Assembly on behalf of 140 co-sponsors, India’s Minister of State for External Affairs, Mr. Anand Sharma, said that the wide and diverse sponsorship of the resolution was a reflection of the universal respect for Mahatma Gandhi and of the enduring relevance of his philosophy. Quoting the late leader’s own words, he said: "Non-violence is the greatest force at the disposal of mankind. It is mightier than the mightiest weapon of destruction devised by the ingenuity of man".

Gandhi and the struggle for non-violence

The name of Mahatma Gandhi transcends the bounds of race, religion and nation-states, and has emerged as the prophetic voice of the twenty-first century. The world remembers Gandhi not just for his passionate adherence to the practice of non-violence and supreme humanism, but as the benchmark against which we test men and women in public life, political ideas and government policies, and the hopes and wishes of our shared planet.

https://www.unesco.org/en/articles/ahmisa-non-violence-gandhi-and-global-citizenship-education-gced 

WCNSF — Wounded Child, No Surviving Family... Medical workers [in GAZA PALESTINE] began using it to describe children who arrive at hospitals wounded, but with no surviving family left to find them. Nothing can make the deliberate or indiscriminate harming of children acceptable. There are an estimated 30,000 WCNSF in Gaza, they are not statistics. They are someone's whole world — until there is no one left.

WCNSF — Wounded Child, No Surviving Family GAZA Palestine

 

Zara Zhar

@Boudicca61AD

WCNSF — Wounded Child, No Surviving Family 

This is an acronym being used in Gaza that should never have had to exist: 

Medical workers began using it to describe children who arrive at hospitals wounded, but with no surviving family left to find them. 

And let’s not hide behind vague language. 

These are Palestinian children being wounded and killed amid Israeli military bombardment and ground operations in Gaza to this day. 

UNICEF has repeatedly documented children killed and injured in Israeli strikes, including children sheltering in homes, schools and makeshift shelters. 

Some children survive the strike that destroys their family. 

They wake up in a hospital bed with injuries they may carry for the rest of their lives — and discover that there is nobody left to take them home. 

No mother. 

No father. 

No brother. 

No sister. 

No family member coming through the hospital doors asking: 

“Where is my child?” 

 UNICEF has documented cases in which children were the sole survivors of attacks that killed their entire families. 

This is what WCNSF means. 

Not an abstract statistic. 

Not a political talking point. 

A child who survived — and everyone who loved them did not. 

Nothing can make the deliberate or indiscriminate harming of children acceptable. 

The scale of destruction documented in Gaza demands scrutiny, accountability and protection for civilians. 

A wounded child should have a family rushing to their bedside. 

They should not have to become a five-letter acronym because everyone they loved was killed. 

WCNSF. 

Five letters created because ordinary language could no longer keep up with the scale of the suffering. 

No child should ever have to become a category. 

No hospital should have to need a term for a wounded child with nobody left to come for them. 

Remember the children behind those letters. 

There are an estimated 30,000 WCNSF in Gaza, they are not statistics. 

They are someone's whole world — until there is no one left. 

https://x.com/Boudicca61AD/status/2105767757589680171 

[AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES (or quotes) IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine, or at least fair and just laws and policies here, there- and everywhere] 

Just a gentle reminder from Dr. Hanan Ashrawi of Palestine: "In Gaza, Israel continues to shell Palestinians, killing up to a dozen daily, while Palestinian civil defence employees continue to dig up hundreds of remains of the ten thousand that Israel massacred in their own homes & neighborhoods. In the West Bank, Israeli settler thugs continue their daily raids & pogroms armed, funded & aided by the Israeli government & army. They uproot hundreds of thousands of mainly olive trees & steal the olives that Palestinian farmers picked. In the meantime, the Israeli government brazenly announces the stealing of more land & the building of more settlements while re-engineering the demographic reality & courses of movement in the West Bank to facilitate its fragmentation & annexation"

 Hanan Ashrawi  [Just Hanan. #FreePalestine]

@DrHananAshrawi

 

In Gaza, Israel continues to shell Palestinians, killing up to a dozen daily, while Palestinian civil defence employees continue to dig up hundreds of remains of the ten thousand that Israel massacred in their own homes & neighborhoods. 

 

In the West Bank, Israeli settler thugs continue their daily raids & pogroms armed, funded & aided by the Israeli government & army. They uproot hundreds of thousands of mainly olive trees & steal the olives that Palestinian farmers picked. 

 

In the meantime, the Israeli government brazenly announces the stealing of more land & the building of more settlements while re-engineering the demographic reality & courses of movement in the West Bank to facilitate its fragmentation & annexation. Just a gentle reminder.

 

https://x.com/DrHananAshrawi/status/2105954028135776443 

[AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES (or quotes) IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine, or at least fair and just laws and policies here, there- and everywhere] 

New Google Maps images reveal massive scale of devastation in Gaza: Satellite imagery shows further destruction of homes, businesses and places of worship since fragile ceasefire

Al-Mawasi in Rafah in 2023 (left) and 2026, with huge tented camps lining much of the shoreline. Composite: Google

Gaza in The Guardian 

Jason Burke and Eithne Staunton

Thu 1 Oct 2026 

An update to Google Maps has revealed the extent of devastation during the three-year Gaza war and the severity of the continuing humanitarian crisis faced by the territory’s 2.3 million inhabitants.

The images were taken in June this year and show further destruction of homes, businesses, places of worship and infrastructure since a fragile ceasefire came into effect almost 12 months ago.

They show huge tented camps lining much of the shoreline, often within a few metres of the sea. Gaza’s once busy main port, now badly damaged and empty of fishing boats, is surrounded by makeshift accommodation. Any available open space in Gaza City is packed with shacks, tents and huts.

The images also show massive damage to northern towns such as Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun, as well as the destruction of places of worship such as the Istiqlal mosque in Khan Younis. Major neighbourhoods in Gaza City such as Jabaliya and Shuja’iya, which were targeted in repeated Israeli offensives, are clearly now uninhabitable.

Swaths of rubble are visible in the south of Gaza, where a wide strip appears to have been cleared by Israeli forces along the border with Egypt. The town of Rafah appears to have been almost entirely reduced to rubble and Tel al-Sultan razed to the ground.

More than 2.1 million displaced people are living in tents and temporary shelters in Gaza, where about 82% of structures – roughly 200,000 buildings – have been damaged, with about two-thirds of those destroyed, according to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, Unrwa.

A recent UN assessment estimated that the number of destroyed structures across Gaza had increased by 9% since the declaration of a ceasefire in October 2025.

“The estimate of the total amount of rubble in Gaza is 61m tonnes. It is approximately 20 times the amount of rubble generated in all wars across the world over the last 18 years,” Jaco Cilliers, the UN Development Programme’s special representative in Palestine told the Guardian last month. The presence of human remains still buried under the rubble remains one of the most urgent humanitarian problems... READ MORE  https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/oct/01/new-google-maps-images-reveal-massive-scale-of-devastation-in-gaza

[AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES (or quotes) IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine, or at least fair and just laws and policies here, there- and everywhere] 

"Perhaps I should be terrified by this announcement from a man who, for all his sins, knows a thing or two about technology. But I’m sick of hearing about the hypothetical dangers of AI when the technology is being used to kill people today. Gates may not be directly involved in Microsoft any more, but, rather than making prophecies about the future, I’d love to hear what he thinks about the company’s role in the AI-enabled destruction of Gaza." Arwa Mahdawi

Bill Gates thinks AI could kill a billion people – but can we trust his judgment after Epstein?

Arwa Mahdawi

in The Guardian  

He knows a thing or two about tech, but what to make of the views of a man who met Jeffrey Epstein 30 times and couldn’t see what a monster he was?

The Bill Gates rehabilitation tour is in full swing. After having his carefully cultivated image tarnished by the revelation of his connection to Jeffrey Epstein, Gates lay low for a while. Now, however, the Microsoft co-founder is once again thrusting himself into the public consciousness, this time with a dire warning about AI. If left unchecked, AI could cause “a billion deaths”, Gates declared in an interview with NBC on Sunday.

Perhaps I should be terrified by this announcement from a man who, for all his sins, knows a thing or two about technology. But I’m sick of hearing about the hypothetical dangers of AI when the technology is being used to kill people today. Gates may not be directly involved in Microsoft any more, but, rather than making prophecies about the future, I’d love to hear what he thinks about the company’s role in the AI-enabled destruction of Gaza.

Another thing I’d like to hear Gates explain is why he reckons anyone should trust his judgment about anything... READ MORE https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/sep/30/bill-gates-thinks-ai-could-kill-people-can-we-trust-judgment-after-epstein

[AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES (or quotes) IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine, or at least fair and just laws and policies here, there- and everywhere] 

"For me, as a Palestinian from Gaza who survived the ongoing genocide, when I look at the rubble of homes on Google Maps, I am not seeing only the remains of buildings, which from far look like a decaying wall. I am seeing the remains of people whose bodies were crushed beneath walls and ceilings they painted with their own hands. I see children’s toys. Books. Backpacks. Coloring pencils. An unfinished meal. Blankets. Shoes. Photo frames of grandparents whose grandchildren never met. An old key to a home in Yaffa or Haifa. I can also hear the last words of a broadcaster on the radio before the news occurred, before the radio was broken and the family crushed..." Mosab Abu Toha

 Mosab Abu Toha

@MosabAbuToha

 

For me, as a Palestinian from Gaza who survived the ongoing genocide, when I look at the rubble of homes on Google Maps, I am not seeing only the remains of buildings, which from far look like a decaying wall. 

 

I am seeing the remains of people whose bodies were crushed beneath walls and ceilings they painted with their own hands. 

 

I see children’s toys. Books. Backpacks. Coloring pencils. An unfinished meal. Blankets. Shoes. Photo frames of grandparents whose grandchildren never met. An old key to a home in Yaffa or Haifa. 

 

I can also hear the last words of a broadcaster on the radio before the news occurred, before the radio was broken and the family crushed. No breaking news there. No news at all.

Gaza 2026

They see them, then kill them: Israeli quadcopters track, deliberately target civilians in Gaza

An Israeli quadcopter drops bombs on tents housing displaced Palestinians in Jabalia refugee camp, northern Gaza Strip. 20 October 2024 (Al Jazeera).

  12 Sep 2026 

Geneva - The Israeli military continues to use armed quadcopter drones to carry out deliberate killings of Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip. Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor has documented the killing of at least 60 civilians by gunfire from these drones or by munitions dropped by them since the ceasefire took effect on 10 October 2025 through early September 2026.

The repeated occurrence of these incidents after the ceasefire, and the targeting of children, displaced people, farmers, shepherds, and people returning to check on their homes, reveals a continuing pattern of the deliberate killing of Palestinian civilians, in which Israel employs military technology capable of identifying specific individuals, tracking their movements, and striking them with precision, despite the clear civilian status of those targeted and their non-participation in hostilities or posing of any imminent threat to Israeli forces or others.

Quadcopters are small, multi-rotor tactical drones, some systems of which can be operated by a single soldier. They can be equipped with daytime and thermal cameras, target-identification and tracking systems, and weapon stabilization systems. Depending on the mission, some models can also be fitted with 5.56mm and 7.62mm weapons or 40mm explosive munitions, enabling the operator to closely monitor individuals, track their movements, and then fire at them or drop munitions toward them with a high degree of accuracy.

These technical capabilities give the operator the ability to observe the targeted person, verify their identity, and track their movements before opening fire. This greatly narrows the margin for error in target identification and heightens the obligation to refrain from an attack when the civilian nature of the target becomes apparent or when there is any doubt as to their status. The repeated killing of children, displaced people, farmers, and shepherds by direct gunfire or munitions dropped from these drones, despite their clear civilian status and absence of any direct participation in hostilities or imminent threat, therefore provides, taken together, strong evidence that civilians themselves were intentionally selected as targets of attack, rather than being killed as a result of mistaken identification or accidentally struck. Such attacks are prohibited in themselves and cannot be justified by military necessity or subjected to a proportionality assessment, since a direct attack against a civilian is prohibited from the outset and cannot be made lawful by invoking military necessity or the rules of proportionality.

The data Euro-Med Monitor has collected shows that at least 60 civilians have been killed in attacks carried out by quadcopters since the ceasefire, while Gaza’s Ministry of Health reported that the total number of Palestinians killed by Israeli forces during the same period had reached 1,368 as of the date of the statement... READ MORE  https://euromedmonitor.org/en/article/7105/They-see-them,-then-kill-them:-Israeli-quadcopters-track,-deliberately-target-civilians-in-Gaza

[AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES (or quotes) IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine, or at least fair and just laws and policies here, there- and everywhere]