• Manchester police activate counter-terror response protocol.
• PM Starmer chairs emergency meeting after leaving summit early.
• King Charles, Israel condemn attack on Yom Kippur as horrific.

Two people were killed on Thursday and three badly wounded outside a packed synagogue in Manchester in a car and stabbing attack, with the suspect believed shot dead by UK police.

As the Jewish community marked the holiday of Yom Kippur in the northwestern city, police were called to the incident, activating a national terrorism-response protocol.

The attack struck days ahead of the second anniversary of Hamas’s October 7, 2023, raids on Israe,l which sparked a fierce offensive in Gaza, inflaming passions in Britain.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer swiftly condemned the attack as “horrific”, and announced security was being boosted at UK synagogues.

He left a European political summit in Denmark early to chair an emergency security meeting in London.

King Charles III said he and Queen Camilla were “deeply shocked and saddened to learn of the horrific attack in Manchester, especially on such a significant day for the Jewish community”.

Greater Manchester Police declared a “major incident” shortly after 9:30am (0830 GMT) after officers were called to the Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation Synagogue in the Crumpsall neighbourhood.

The force initially said paramedics were treating four people for “injuries caused by both the vehicle and stab wounds” while confirming firearms officers had shot one man “believed to be the offender”.

Within hours, it announced two people had died and the suspected offender shot by officers was “also believed to be deceased”.

Police said the death could not be confirmed due to “suspicious items on his person”, noting a bomb disposal unit was at the scene.

Three people were also in a “serious condition”, police added.

Starmer said he was appalled and pledged to “do everything to keep our Jewish community safe”.

“The fact that this has taken place on Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar, makes it all the more horrific,” he added.

Israel’s embassy in the UK said it was “abhorrent and deeply distressing” that “such an act of violence should be perpetrated on the holiest day of the Jewish calendar”.

“The safety and security of Jewish communities in the United Kingdom must be guaranteed,” it added on X.

Police said officers first responded to calls from the public about a car driving into people outside the synagogue, as well as reports that a security guard had been attacked with a knife.

A witness told BBC Radio he saw police shooting a man after a car crash.

“They give him a couple of warnings, he didn’t listen until they opened fire,” he said.

“He went down on the floor, and then he started getting back up, and then they shot him again.”

Police said “a large number of people worshipping at the synagogue… were held inside while the immediate area was made safe”, but then evacuated.

Manchester mayor Andy Burnham told the BBC police had “dealt with it very quickly with some amazing support from members of the public”.

He urged people “not to speculate on social media”, while noting the Jewish community “will be very worried by the news”.

The city, famous around the world for its two Premier League football clubs and industrial history, is home to one of the largest Jewish communities in the UK.

It totalled more than 28,000 in 2021, according to the Institute for Jewish Policy Research.

MP Graham Stringer said the area was home to both large Jewish and Muslim communities.

“By and large, community relations are excellent between all the different ethnic groups and religious groups,” he told BBC Radio Manchester.

The Community Security Trust (CST), a Jewish charity that records antisemitic incidents, said it was “working with police and the local Jewish community”.

“This appears to be an appalling attack on the holiest day of the Jewish year,” CST added.

The city has witnessed several deadly terror attacks, notably in 2017 when Salman Abedi detonated a homemade suicide bomb outside an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester Arena.

It killed 22 people, some of them children, and injured hundreds more.

Billionaire Elon Musk, the world’s richest person, is nearly halfway to becoming the planet’s first trillionaire, Forbes magazine has reported.

The Tesla and SpaceX CEO became the first person to achieve a net worth of $500 billion, briefly, as the shares in his electric vehicle company rebound from his clumsy stint in politics, amid other gains.

The 54-year-old’s net worth hit $500.1bn on Wednesday before dipping back to $499.1bn, the publication’s “Real-Time Billionaires” tracker reported.

Ranked after him are Oracle CEO Larry Ellison with a net worth of $350.7bn, followed by Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg with a net worth of $245.8bn on the Forbes list.

After graduating from the University of Pennsylvania and dropping out of Stanford University, Musk banked his first millions when he sold an online publishing software company to US computer maker Compaq for more than $300 million in 1999.

His next company eventually merged with PayPal, and after leaving that venture, the South African-born tech entrepreneur founded space rocket company SpaceX in 2002 and became the chairman of electric carmaker Tesla in 2004.

• 30 boats continue towards Gaza despite Israeli interception.
• International protests and diplomatic tensions arise.
• Israel offers to transfer aid through “safe channels”. 
  

Israeli forces have stopped 13 boats carrying foreign activists and aid bound for Gaza, but 30 boats are continuing to sail towards the war-ravaged Palestinian enclave, flotilla organisers said on Thursday.

A video from the Israeli foreign ministry verified by Reuters showed the most prominent of the flotilla’s passengers, Swedish climate campaigner Greta Thunberg, sitting on a deck surrounded by soldiers.

“Several vessels of the Hamas-Sumud flotilla have been safely stopped and their passengers are being transferred to an Israeli port,” the Israeli foreign ministry said on X. “Greta and her friends are safe and healthy.”

The Global Sumud Flotilla, transporting medicine and food to Gaza, consists of more than 40 civilian boats with about 500 parliamentarians, lawyers and activists.

The flotilla put out several videos on Telegram with messages from individuals aboard the various boats, some holding their passports and claiming they were abducted and taken to Israel against their will, and reiterating that their mission was a non-violent humanitarian cause.

The flotilla is the most high-profile symbol of opposition to Israel’s blockade of Gaza.

Its progress across the Mediterranean Sea garnered international attention as nations including Turkey, Spain and Italy sent boats or drones in case their nationals required assistance, even as it triggered repeated warnings from Israel to turn back.

‘Dastardly attack’

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has strongly condemned the recent Israeli attack on the Samud Gaza flotilla, describing it as a “dastardly” act.

Pakistan “strongly condemns the dastardly attack by Israeli forces on the 40-vessel Samud Gaza flotilla, carrying over 450 humanitarian workers from 44 countries,” the premier wrote on X handle.

The prime minister expressed concern for those apprehended, saying, “We hope and pray for the safety of all those who have been illegally apprehended by Israeli forces and call for their immediate release.

“Their crime was to carry aid for the hapless Palestinian people.”

He added, “This barbarity must end. Peace must be given a chance, and humanitarian aid must reach those in need.”

Meanwhile, Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar called the interception of the Global Sumud Flotilla and detention of international activists a “flagrant violation of international law”. 

He demanded an immediate ceasefire, lifting of blockade, swift release of activists and unhindered aid to Gaza.

Turkey’s foreign ministry called Israel’s “attack” on the flotilla “an act of terror” that endangered the lives of innocent civilians.

Colombian President Gustavo Petro ordered the expulsion of Israel’s entire diplomatic delegation on Wednesday following the detention of two Colombians in the flotilla. Israel has not had an ambassador in Colombia since last year.

Petro called the detentions a potential “new international crime” by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and demanded the release of the Colombians. He also terminated Colombia’s free trade agreement with Israel.

Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim on Thursday condemned Israel’s interception of the flotilla, adding Israeli forces had detained eight Malaysians.

“By blocking a humanitarian mission, Israel has shown utter contempt not only for the rights of the Palestinian people but also for the conscience of the world,” Anwar, whose country is predominantly Muslim, said in a statement.

Israel’s interception of the flotilla sparked protests in Italy and Colombia. Italian unions called a general strike for Friday in solidarity with the international aid flotilla.

Israel’s navy had previously warned the flotilla it was approaching an active combat zone and violating a lawful blockade, and asked them to change course. It had offered to transfer any aid peacefully through safe channels to Gaza.

30 boats sailing towards Gaza

The flotilla is the latest sea-borne attempt to break Israel’s blockade of Gaza, much of which has been turned into a wasteland by almost two years of war.

The flotilla’s organisers denounced Wednesday’s raid as a “war crime.” They said the military used aggressive tactics, including the use of water cannon, but that no one was harmed.

“Multiple vessels … were illegally intercepted and boarded by Israeli Occupation Forces in international waters,” the organisers said in a statement.

The boats were about 70 nautical miles off the war-ravaged enclave when they were intercepted, inside a zone that Israel is policing to stop any boats approaching. The organisers said their communications had been scrambled, including the use of a live camera feed from some of the boats.

According to the flotilla’s ship tracking data, 13 boats had been intercepted or stopped as of early Thursday. Organisers have remained defiant, saying in a statement that the flotilla “will continue undeterred”.

Thirty boats were still sailing towards Gaza, flotilla organisers said in a post on Telegram early on Thursday, stating they were 46 nautical miles away from their destination.

The flotilla had hoped to arrive in Gaza on Thursday morning if it was not intercepted.

Israeli officials have repeatedly denounced the mission as a stunt. “This systematic refusal (to hand over the aid) demonstrates that the objective is not humanitarian, but provocative,” Jonathan Peled, the Israeli ambassador to Italy, said in a post on X.

Israel has imposed a naval blockade on Gaza since Hamas took control of the coastal enclave in 2007 and there have been several previous attempts by activists to deliver aid by sea.

In 2010, nine activists were killed after Israeli soldiers boarded a flotilla of six ships manned by 700 pro-Palestinian activists from 50 countries.

In June this year, Israeli naval forces detained Thunberg and 11 crew members from a small ship organised by a pro-Palestinian group called the Freedom Flotilla Coalition as they approached Gaza.

Israel began its Gaza offensive after the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack on Israel in which some 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken as hostages back to Gaza, according to Israeli tallies. The offensive has killed over 65,000 people in Gaza, Gaza health authorities say.