Iran Update, October 6, 2025

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Hamas agreed to a ceasefire with Israel on October 3 but called for negotiating other aspects of US President Donald Trump’s plan for peace in the Gaza Strip. Trump proposed a 20-point plan to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on September 29 that laid out a broad vision for the end of the Israel-Hamas War and the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip.[1] Trump warned that Hamas would face “all hell” if it did not agree to his peace plan by October 5.[2] Hamas leaders agreed on October 3 to release all living and deceased Israeli hostages as part of the ceasefire and expressed openness to engaging in negotiations on other elements of Trump’s plan.[3] Hamas endorsed one point of Trump’s plan that calls for a Palestinian body of independent technocrats to govern the Gaza Strip, but did not explicitly agree that an international transitional body chaired by Trump should have oversight and supervision over the Palestinian technocratic body.[4] Hamas’ statement also did not acknowledge that Trump’s plan requires Hamas and other Palestinian factions to disarm.[5] US, Israeli, and Hamas negotiators held indirect negotiations on the ceasefire plan in Egypt on October 6.[6] The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has continued offensive operations and airstrikes in the Gaza Strip, but halted its major offensive into Gaza City due to the ceasefire agreement.[7] Hamas and other Palestinian factions have continued to target Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip since Hamas agreed to the proposal on October 3.[8]

Pakistan, Iran deport over 6,000 migrants in one day

More than 6,000 Afghan migrants deported from Iran and Pakistan returned to the country on Sunday, Sept. 28, through various border crossings, according to the Taliban’s Commission for Refugees.

In its daily report, the commission said 6,348 people from 1,192 families were registered at border points in Herat, Nimroz, Kandahar, Nangarhar and Helmand provinces.

Gaza spy plane spotted leaving UK air base on Cyprus

Exclusive: Declassified captures first footage of an American spy plane taking off from a Royal Air Force base bound for Gaza.

We are standing on a sand dune in the pitch dark listening to the Mediterranean crash onto Lady’s Mile beach. The last Cypriot fisherman went home about an hour ago and the seaside bars have closed, leaving us alone save for the occasional white cats scurrying along the shoreline.

A high-stakes gamble

Like our earlier reports on the combat situation in Ukraine, this article takes stock of the recent developments on the battlefield based on open-source information. Meduza has condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine from the very start, and our detailed military analyses are part of our commitment to objective reporting on a war we firmly oppose.

Our map is based exclusively on open-source photos and videos, most of them posted by eyewitnesses on social media. We collect available evidence and determine its geolocation markers, adding only the photos and videos that clear this process. Meduza doesn’t try to track the conflict in real time; the data reflected on the map are typically at least 48 hours old.

Inside Hamas: How It Thinks, Fights, and Governs

Abstract: Hamas has evolved from a Muslim Brotherhood-rooted social-religious movement into a hybrid actor that governs, polices society, and wages organized violence. The October 7, 2023, terrorist attack marked a watershed for Israel and the world. Against that backdrop, this article maps how Hamas thinks, operates, fights, and governs—from its origins to the present—showing how a religious structure and social-welfare dawa network hardened into an organized war machine. Based on first-hand interviews with senior figures, including its founder Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, it details the ideology, organizational architecture, and decision-making that drive both the dawa apparatus and the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades. The analysis tracks pivotal inflection points—from the First Intifada and Marj al-Zuhr deportations through Gaza’s 2007 takeover, successive wars, and Iranian/Hezbollah backing—to October 7. It concludes by assessing Hamas’ degraded yet durable capabilities, internal factional dynamics, and implications for Gaza’s ‘day after.’

Five Key Considerations on Terrorism and Political Violence

Abstract

The evolving threat of terrorism and political violence in the United States cannot be understood without observing technological change, institutional memory, and societal resilience. Recent discussions underscore five urgent considerations: (1) sustaining lessons from two decades of counterterrorism, (2) preparing for AI and drone-enabled battlefields, (3) confronting the misuse of commercial technologies, (4) maximizing open-source intelligence collaboration, and (5) analyzing the connection between counternarcotics and counterterrorism. Across all five lies a central truth: adversaries exploit division, while unity across government, private sector, and civil society is America’s most credible form of deterrence.

SPECIAL REPORT: How Imo became Nigeria’s most dangerous state for journalists

In its 2024 Openness Index, the Centre for Journalism Innovation and Development (CJID) declared Imo State the worst place to be a journalist in Nigeria. The index, a subnational assessment of press freedom and civic space in Nigeria, was published in July. It ranked states based on political openness, media independence, and the safety of civic actors.

Trump’s Gaza peace plan: Ending the war, not Israel’s occupation

With Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at his side, US President Donald Trump unveiled a sweeping 20-point peace plan for the Gaza Strip on Monday – billed as a bold attempt to end the conflict and reshape the enclave’s political future.

The plan sets out a phased ceasefire, the creation of a governing body for Gaza, and a US-chaired “peace board” to oversee the transition, with the Trump administration in sole charge.

Is an Assadist insurgency emerging on the Syrian coast?

In a shaky handheld video uploaded on 2 September to an obscure Facebook page, a man crouching low behind an earth berm films a busy highway.

He mumbles the date and then says, “we are the Men of Light,” before an explosion immediately rips through a passing General Security vehicle in front of him.