Summary
Israel’s military said Tuesday that it expects its Gaza City offensive to take “several months” to complete, marking the first timeline it has given for its plan to take control of the enclave’s largest population center.
UN secretary general Antonio Guterres said Israel is determined to “go up to the end” in its Gaza military campaign and is not open to a serious negotiation for a ceasefire.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israel needs to create an “independent weapons industry” that can “withstand international constraints”.
Netanyahu also said that Trump invited him again to the White House for a meeting that will follow his speech at the UN General Assembly later this month.
The president of Ireland, Michael D Higgins, spoke about the UN Commission of Inquiry’s report that accuses Israel of committing genocide in Gaza, describing it as a “very important document” that should spark international action.
Spain’s King Felipe VI denounced the “unspeakable suffering” of hundreds of thousands of Gazans under Israeli bombardment, in a rare political intervention during a trip to Egypt.
Spain’s King Felipe VI denounced the “unspeakable suffering” of hundreds of thousands of Gazans under Israeli bombardment, in a rare political intervention on Tuesday.
“The latest episode in this conflict... has degenerated into an unbearable humanitarian crisis, the unspeakable suffering of hundreds of thousands of innocent people and the total devastation of Gaza,” he said during a visit to Egypt.
Netanyahu also said in a news briefing today that US president Trump had invited him again to the White House for a meeting that will follow his speech at the UN General Assembly later this month.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday that if there was one lesson learned from Hamas’ October 7 2023 on Israel, it was that Israel needs to create an “independent weapons industry” that can “withstand international constraints”.
Michael D Higgins, president of Ireland, spoke about the UN Commission of Inquiry’s report that accuses Israel of committing genocide in Gaza, describing it as a “very important document” that should spark international action.
“I believe myself that the kind of actions that are necessary now are the exclusion of those who are practicing genocide, and those who are supporting genocide with armaments,” he told reporters.
“We must look at their exclusion from the United Nations itself, and we should have no hesitation any longer in relation to ending trade with people who are inflicting this at our fellow human beings,” he added.
Ireland officially recognized Palestinian statehood last year. The country has also formally backed South Africa’s case at the International Court of Justice accusing Israel of genocide.
Israel’s military said Tuesday evening that it expects its Gaza City offensive to take “several months” to complete, marking the first timeline it has given for its plan to take control of the enclave’s largest population center, reports CNN.
“We will act until the war objectives are achieved. We are not limited by time,” Israel Defense Forces spokesperson BG Effie Defrin told reporters.
“We estimate it will take several months to secure the city and its centers of gravity, and additional months to clear the city fully due to deep and entrenched infrastructure,” Defrin said.
On Monday, an Israeli official estimated that 320,000 Palestinians have fled the city so far.
Israel is determined to “go up to the end” in its Gaza military campaign and is not open to serious peace talks, UN secretary general Antonio Guterres said on Tuesday.
“Israel is determined to go up to the end and (is) not open to a serious negotiation for a ceasefire, with dramatic consequences from Israel’s point of view,” he said.
Summary
United Nations secretary-general Antonio Guterres on Tuesday said what is happening in Gaza is horrendous and that the war in the Palestinian territory is “morally, politically and legally intolerable”. Guterres also said he would be willing to meet with Israeli prime minster Benjamin Netanyahu and US president Donald Trump at the UN next week.
The UN human rights chief Volker Türk has been reacting to Israel’s ground offensive in Gaza City, which has already been devasted by famine and relentless bombardments. Türk says it is “absolutely clear that this carnage must stop” as he condemned the expanded assault as “totally and utterly unacceptable”.
In an update to X, the Palestinian foreign ministry wrote that the “failure” of international diplomacy to end the war is “suspicious and unjustified” and said Israel’s plans to occupy Gaza City involves the “deliberate targeting of civilians” and is turning the territory’s largest city into “a mass graveyard”.
An Israeli military official, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with military guidelines, said that the “main phase” of the Gaza City operation had begun, with troops moving in from the city’s outskirts toward its centre. Airstrikes have pounded Gaza City for some time in the lead-up to the operation, knocking down towers in the city, AP reports.
Some Israeli military commanders have expressed concern about the expanded assault on Gaza City, warning that it could endanger the remaining hostages held by Hamas, and may be a “death trap” for troops. Chief of staff Eyal Zamir, at a meeting Benjamin Netanyahu convened on Sunday evening with security chiefs, urged the prime minister to pursue a ceasefire deal, three Israeli officials told AFP.
The European Union urged Israel on Tuesday to halt its ground invasion of northern Gaza as the 27-nation bloc seems poised to increase pressure on the country. “Military intervention will lead to more destruction, more death and more displacements,” said Anouar El Anouni, a spokesperson for the European Commission.
European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said on Tuesday that Israel’s ground offensive in Gaza will worsen the situation in the enclave. “Israel’s ground offensive in Gaza will make an already desperate situation even worse,” Kallas wrote on social media platform X.
At least 64,964 Palestinian people have been killed and 165,312 others injured in Israeli attacks on Gaza since 7 October 2023, the Gaza health ministry said in a statement on Tuesday. At least 59 Palestinian people were killed and 386 others injured in the last 24 hours alone, the ministry, whose figures the UN generally find reliable, said.
In a post on X, the US secretary of state Marco Rubio said himself, Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, and Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, the Qatari prime minister, who is also the foreign minister, “reaffirmed the enduring US Qatar security partnership” and the two countries’ commitment to a more stable region.
UN officials have told the Guardian that they have recorded 142,387 people crossing from the north of Gaza to the south between 14 August and 14 September, with about half coming in the last four days of that period.
Luxembourg said it will join a number of countries in recognising the state of Palestine at a UN summit in New York next week, adding to international pressure on Israel after similar moves by Australia, Britain, Canada and France.
Syria, Jordan and the United States agreed Tuesday on a roadmap to restore security in a southern Syrian region that saw deadly sectarian clashes in July, including plans to guard main roads and prosecute those who incited violence.
UN chief calls actions in Gaza 'horrendous'
United Nations secretary-general Antonio Guterres on Tuesday said what is happening in Gaza is horrendous and that the war in the Palestinian territory is “morally, politically and legally intolerable”.
Guterres also said he would be willing to meet with Israeli prime minster Benjamin Netanyahu and US president Donald Trump at the UN next week.
European Union foreign policy chief says ground offensive will worsen situation in Gaza
European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said on Tuesday that Israel’s ground offensive in Gaza will worsen the situation in the enclave.
“Israel’s ground offensive in Gaza will make an already desperate situation even worse,” Kallas wrote on social media platform X.
“It will mean more death, more destruction & more displacement,” she said, noting that the European Commission will present measures on Wednesday to pressure the Israeli government to change course.
Updated
The new 72-page legal analysis from the United Nations’ commission of inquiry on the occupied Palestinian territories and Israel is the strongest finding by part of the UN on Gaza to date.
It accuses Israel of committing genocide in Gaza, saying that that its offensive there has been waged “with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group”.
Created four years ago by the UN’s Human Rights Council and staffed by three independent experts, the commission does not officially speak for the UN, which has not yet used the term “genocide” itself but is under increasing pressure to do so.
Israel’s ambassador to the UN in Geneva, Daniel Meron, called the report “scandalous” and “fake”, saying it had been authored by “Hamas proxies”. He told journalists: “Israel categorically rejects the libellous rant published today by this commission of inquiry.”
Read our explainer here:
Displaced Palestinians move southward after Israeli forces ordered residents of Gaza City to evacuate to the south.
The Israeli military has confirmed a strike on what it described as a Houthi military infrastructure site at the Hudaydah Port in Yemen.
In a statement shared on X, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said:
STRUCK: A Houthi military infrastructure site at the Hudaydah Port in Yemen.
The port is used for the transfer of weapons supplied by the Iranian regime, in order to execute attacks against Israel and its allies.
The IDF continues to strike military targets in Yemen in response to the repeated attacks by the Houthi terrorist regime against Israel and its civilians.
Syria, Jordan and the United States agreed Tuesday on a roadmap to restore security in a southern Syrian region that saw deadly sectarian clashes in July, including plans to guard main roads and prosecute those who incited violence.
The days of fighting between members of the country’s Druze minority sect and members of local Bedouin tribes in the Sweida region left hundreds of people dead. Mistrust remains, and some Druze have been demanding self determination, AP reports.
Syrian foreign minister Asaad al-Shibani told reporters at a news conference in Damascus that the agreement among the three countries includes moves to prosecute those who were involved in inciting the deadly clashes.
It also includes allowing aid to flow into Sweida, restoring services, deploying security forces on main roads in the tense region and working to reveal the fate of missing people and begin a process of internal reconciliation, he said.
The bombardment of Gaza City has been growing louder and more deadly for weeks, but in the early hours of Tuesday it felt like an earthquake that would never stop.
“Even when the bombings are not right next to us, we can clearly hear them, and the ground shakes beneath us with the intensity of the explosions,” said Fatima al-Zahra Sahweil, 40.
Sahweil, a media researcher, said the dead and wounded from the night’s barrage had been taken to al-Shifa medical complex, where she heard the situation was “catastrophic”.
She had lost track of the latest news, however, as she tried to make the near-impossible decision of what to do to best protect her four children.
The Rashid coast road, the Israeli-designated “escape” route to the south, was jammed with the exhausted and desperate. Anyway, the cost of a ride was too high.
“On top of that, I don’t own a tent to give us shelter, and they are too expensive to buy. I would not be able to take all of the belongings and supplies I have already bought several times before,” Sahweil said. “Then there is the suffering we would face in searching for water and the lack of empty spaces to stay in. So if I leave, I would simply be going into the unknown.”
Like more than 90% of people in Gaza, the family has been displaced by the war. An overwhelming majority have been forced to move numerous times. Sahweil and her family have already been displaced 19 times.
Now, with the launch of a ground offensive, the Israeli army is calling on the estimated 1 million people sheltering in Gaza City to move south once more. But the Sahweils, and many others have been to the south before and are aware it is no haven from violence.
As part of what has been seen in Israel as a US green light for the ground offensive in Gaza City, Donald Trump used his social media platform, Truth Social, on Monday night to spread an unconfirmed report that Hamas had brought some of the estimated 20 surviving Israeli hostages up to street level to act as human shields.
Speaking to reporters on Tuesday as he left the White House for a state visit to Britain, the US president doubled down on his comments, saying that Hamas militants will be in “big trouble” if they use hostages as human shields.
Death toll from Israeli attacks on Gaza reaches 64,964, says health ministry
At least 64,964 Palestinian people have been killed and 165,312 others injured in Israeli attacks on Gaza since 7 October 2023, the Gaza health ministry said in a statement on Tuesday.
At least 59 Palestinian people were killed and 386 others injured in the last 24 hours alone, the ministry, whose figures the UN generally find reliable, said.
The health ministry added in its Telegram post:
A number of victims are still under the rubble and on the streets, as ambulance and civil defense teams have been unable to reach them so far …
Three deaths have been recorded due to famine and malnutrition, including a child, raising the number to 428, including 146 children. Since the IPC famine declaration in Gaza (in August), 150 deaths have been recorded, including 31 children.
In a post on X, the US secretary of state Marco Rubio said himself, Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, and Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, the Qatari prime minister, who is also the foreign minister, “reaffirmed the enduring US Qatar security partnership” and the two countries’ commitment to a more stable region.
Rubio said he thanked Qatar for its “ongoing mediation efforts to broker a peace deal between Israel and Hamas and to bring the hostages home”.
See post at 10.15 for some context around the trip and why the US is careful to balance its relationship between Qatar and Israel.
Updated
An Israeli military official, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with military guidelines, said that the “main phase” of the Gaza City operation had begun, with troops moving in from the city’s outskirts toward its centre.
Airstrikes have pounded Gaza City for some time in the lead-up to the operation, knocking down towers in the city, AP reports.
The official said the Israeli military believes there are approximately 2,000 to 3,000 Hamas militants left in Gaza City, as well as tunnels used by the militant group.
Hamas’ military capabilities have been vastly diminished over nearly two years of war, and nowadays it mainly carries out guerrilla-style attacks, with small groups of fighters planting explosives or attacking military outposts before melting away.
The European Union urged Israel on Tuesday to halt its ground invasion of northern Gaza as the 27-nation bloc seems poised to increase pressure on the country.
“Military intervention will lead to more destruction, more death and more displacements,” said Anouar El Anouni, a spokesperson for the European Commission.
“This will also aggravate the already catastrophic humanitarian situation and also and dangerous the lives of hostages.”
On Wednesday, the EU’s top diplomat Kaja Kallas will present to national representatives proposals to ratchet up pressure on Israel over its military campaign in Gaza, AP reported.
Last week, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said she will seek approval from EU nations for new sanctions against far-right Israeli extremists and a partial suspension of a trade agreement with Israel.
She also said she will freeze millions of euros given by the EU’s executive branch to Israel, which would not require the approval of all member countries.
Israeli military says it will strike Yemen's Red Sea port of Hodeidah
The Israeli military said it had issued an evacuation order on Tuesday for Yemen’s port of Hodeidah, which is the main entry point for food and other humanitarian aid for millions of Yemenis, and will attack the area in the coming hours.
Since Israel’s war in Gaza began in October 2023, the Iran-aligned Houthis have attacked vessels in the Red Sea in what they describe as acts of solidarity with the Palestinians.
They have also frequently fired missiles towards Israel, most of which have been intercepted. Israel has responded with airstrikes on Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen, including the vital Hodeidah port.
In May, the Trump administration announced a deal with the Houthis to end the airstrikes in return for an end to attacks on shipping. The rebels, however, said the agreement did not include halting attacks on targets it believed were aligned with Israel.
At least 35 people were killed in Israeli airstrikes on Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen last Wednesday, according to the health ministry. The Israeli military said it struck military targets in the capital Sana’a and the al-Jawf province during the attack.
Updated
Here are some of the latest images from the newswires coming out of Gaza:
Updated
UN rights chief says 'evidence mounting' of Israel committing genocide in Gaza
The UN human rights chief Volker Türk has been reacting to Israel’s ground offensive in Gaza City, which has already been devasted by famine and relentless bombardments.
Türk says it is “absolutely clear that this carnage must stop” as he condemned the expanded assault as “totally and utterly unacceptable”.
“We see the piling up of war crime after war crime after war crime, of crime against humanity, and potentially even more,” Volker Turk told AFP and Reuters, adding: “It’s for the court to decide whether it’s genocide or not, and we see the evidence mounting.”
Türk has been under pressure from employees at the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), the agency he leads, to go further and declare Israel’s war on Gaza a genocide.
Critics say his failure to do so undermines the credibility of the UN and the human rights system itself.
The Guardian’s political correspondent Eleni Courea has done an explainer with a section looking at what recognising Palestine would look like. Here is an extract:
Recognition is a symbolic step but one that would infuriate the Israeli government, which argues that it would encourage Hamas and reward terrorism.
It is in effect a formal, political acknowledgment of Palestinian self-determination – without the need to engage in thorny practicalities such as the location of its borders or capital city.
It also allows the establishment of full diplomatic relations that would result in a Palestinian ambassador (rather than a head of mission) being stationed in London and a British ambassador in Palestine. Advocates say it is a way of kickstarting a political process towards an eventual two-state solution.
Out of the 193 UN member states, nearly 150 already recognise Palestine as a state. These include China, India and Russia, as well as a majority of European countries such as Cyprus, Ireland, Norway, Spain and Sweden.
Luxembourg to recognise Palestinian state - reports
Luxembourg said it will join a number of countries in recognising the state of Palestine at a UN summit in New York next week, adding to international pressure on Israel after similar moves by Australia, Britain, Canada and France.
“A movement is now emerging in Europe and around the world to demonstrate that the two-state solution is still relevant,” the country’s prime minister, Luc Frieden, was quoted by Al Jazeera as having told reporters.
“That is why the Luxembourg government intends to join those who recognise the State of Palestine at next week’s conference on the two-state solution.”
The Israeli government says that recognition rewards Hamas’ terrorism. The State of Palestine is currently recognised by 147 of the UN’s 193 member states.
Israel has become increasingly isolated on the international stage as it faces credible accusations of genocide, ethnic cleansing, war crimes and the collective punishment of the civilian population of Gaza.
The UN special rapporteur for the occupied territories, Francesca Albanese, told the Guardian last month that the renewed push for Palestinian statehood, although welcomed, should not “distract the attention from where it should be: the genocide”.
Updated
Israel is turning Gaza City into a 'mass graveyard', Palestinian foreign ministry says
In another update to X, the Palestinian foreign ministry wrote that the “failure” of international diplomacy to end the war is “suspicious and unjustified” and said Israel’s plans to occupy Gaza City involves the “deliberate targeting of civilians” and is turning the territory’s largest city into “a mass graveyard”.
The post reads:
The ministry views with utmost gravity the boasting of the occupation government’s officials about initiating the invasion of Gaza City, endangering the lives of hundreds of thousands of Palestinian civilians with death and displacement.
It considers this a deliberate targeting of civilians, turning Gaza City into a mass graveyard and an uninhabitable land, as is the case with the broader area of the sector, and pushing nearly a million Palestinians into displacement and movement within a tight circle of death.
The ministry demands exceptional international intervention to stop this major crime and to maximize political and diplomatic solutions that ensure an immediate cessation of the war and aggression, the protection of civilians, the prevention of their displacement from the sector, the immediate release of hostages and prisoners, and the sustainable delivery of aid in line with the implementation of the New York Declaration.
The Palestinian foreign ministry has just demanded “urgent international intervention” after Israel’s installation of “additional iron gates” at the “remaining entrances” to Palestinian towns, villages and camps in the occupied West Bank.
In an update on X, the foreign ministry, part of the Palestinian Authority, which is based in the occupied West Bank, wrote:
The latest of these was the installation of an iron gate at the entrance to the towns of Al-Eizariya and Ar-Ram, among others, bringing the number of gates that sever the West Bank to nearly a thousand.
These gates violate the unity of the occupied Palestinian territories and the geographical integrity of the State of Palestine, blatantly infringing on the rights of Palestinian citizens to freedom of movement, access to their livelihoods, healthcare and educational facilities, fulfillment of their needs, and visits to their relatives.
The ministry considers the occupation’s checkpoints, iron gates, and military towers as an extension of settlement activity and outposts, falling within the framework of dividing the occupied West Bank into fragmented, disconnected parts and turning Palestinian communities into veritable closed prisons, where entry or exit is prohibited without permission from the occupation.
The ministry warns the international community and all countries of the repercussions of installing these gates, viewing them as a prelude to imposing further colonial and settlement control over the West Bank. They are part of the crime of gradual, both overt and covert, annexation of the West Bank, in flagrant violation of international law.
Updated
In an update on X, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) wrote:
IDF troops have begun expanding ground operations in Gaza City as part of Operation Gideon’s Chariots II In the past day, IDF activity in Gaza City has began according to the operational plan, and is expected to expand in line with the current situational assessment.
Its aim is to achieve the war’s objectives in Gaza and to enhance the achievements made during combat.
Some Israeli military commanders have expressed concern about the expanded assault on Gaza City, warning that it could endanger the remaining hostages held by Hamas, and may be a “death trap” for troops.
Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir, at a meeting Benjamin Netanyahu convened on Sunday evening with security chiefs, urged the prime minister to pursue a ceasefire deal, three Israeli officials told AFP.
About 1,200 people were killed and 251 hostages took in the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel in October 2023. Israeli authorities say 20 of the remaining 48 hostages in Gaza are alive.
Updated
In response to the genocide conclusion, Amnesty International UK’s crisis response manager, Kristyan Benedict, has also urged the British government to take much stronger action against Israel.
Benedict said:
We welcome the UN commission’s findings that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza – a significant and necessary moment. Now the UK government must change its position and take action without delay.
Its continued reluctance to officially acknowledge even the risk of the ongoing genocide in Gaza is increasingly untenable and stands in stark contrast to overwhelming legal evidence and the mounting consensus among international genocide scholars and human rights organisations.
Amnesty International UK is calling for the UK government to immediately take the following actions to help stop what is increasingly being recognised as a genocide being committed by Israel against Palestinian people in Gaza:
End all UK arms exports to Israel
Support the international criminal court and enforce its arrest warrants
Implement international court of justice rulings in full
Ban all trade with Israeli settlements
Adopt targeted sanctions against those Israeli officials most implicated in international crimes
Demand an end to Israel’s occupation in Palestinian territories
UK will remain complicit in genocide in Gaza unless it halts all arms exports to Israel, charity warns British PM
We have some reaction to the United Nations commission of inquiry saying earlier today that Israel has been committing genocide against Palestinian people in Gaza (you can read more details contained within the report here).
Hannah Bond, co-CEO of ActionAid UK, said:
Today’s damning verdict by the UN commission of inquiry is unequivocal: Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. Our message to the prime minister is just as clear: unless you halt all arms exports to the Israeli government immediately, the UK remains complicit.
Our government has dithered for long enough. If this won’t spur it into action, what will? For the sake of Palestinians in Gaza and our collective humanity, we cannot let today’s finding fall on deaf ears, and as the Israeli army ramps up its operation to raze Gaza City to the ground, there is no more time to waste.
The UK must take decisive action now to bring about an immediate and permanent ceasefire, and it must ensure that there is full accountability for all war crimes, crimes against humanity and atrocities that have taken place throughout this long and devastating war.
Updated
Jason Burke is our international security correspondent
UN officials have told the Guardian that they have recorded 142,387 people crossing from the north of Gaza to the south between 14 August and 14 September, with about half coming in the last four days of that period.
This contrasts with Israeli officials who yesterday told reporters that about 320,000 people had moved from northern Gaza to areas designated by the Israeli military in the centre and the south of Gaza.
Rosalie Bollen, from Unicef, said more than 800,000 people remained in Gaza City including 450,000 children.
Some – the elderly, very sick, very young, injured or handicapped – simply cannot move while many are reluctant to move to areas that they believe are unsafe, overcrowded and have little in the way of any services.
Unicef’s staff in Gaza City described a “very difficult night” with an “ever increasing pace of bombardment” but said Israeli tanks remained on the outskirts and had not advanced yet.
Updated
My colleague William Christou explains in this analysis piece why the Israeli attack in Doha has shattered Qatar’s faith in US protection from such action. Here is an extract:
Qatar has been useful. It has facilitated peace talks between Israel and Hamas, did the same with the Taliban and the US during the war in Afghanistan, and hosts the Al Udeid air base, the largest American military base in the Middle East.
For decades the arrangement has held. The US supplied arms, parked its aircraft carrier in the Gulf and provided political cover internationally. The support has helped spare Gulf nations from the unrest that has consumed much of the Middle East, despite the rivalry with Iran.
That changed when the US failed to stop the strike on Qatar this week, despite Israel being one of its closest allies. Donald Trump said he tried to give warning, but Qatar said it was only notified after the strike.
Doha strongly condemned the strike, with al-Thani calling it “state terror” in an interview with CNN.
Updated
Rubio arrives in Qatar to try to limit the damage to US relations in the Gulf caused by Israeli strike on Doha
The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, is visiting Qatar today to lobby the Gulf state to continue its mediation between Israel and Hamas after the Israeli attack on Doha targeting the Hamas leadership last week seriously strained relations between the US and Qatar.
Hamas said six people were killed in the attack but that its leaders survived. Despite pressure to rebuke Israel, Rubio offered the US’s unwavering support to Benjamin Netanyahu when he met the Israeli prime minister in Jerusalem yesterday.
He told reporters as he left Israel: “We think we have a very short window of time in which a deal can happen. We don’t have months anymore, and we probably have days and maybe a few weeks to go.”
Rubio said a diplomatic solution in which Hamas demilitarises remained the US preference, although he added: “Sometimes when you’re dealing with a group of savages like Hamas, that’s not possible, but we hope it can happen.”
Now visiting Doha just as Israel launched its ground offensive into Gaza City, Rubio was pessimistic about a ceasefire deal but said Qatar was in a unique position to help.
Updated
Here are some of the latest images being sent to us over the newswires from Gaza City:
Israel military official says troops have advanced towards the centre of Gaza City
The military spokesperson pointed out that the IDF has been on the outskirts of Gaza City for several weeks, but the overnight operations involved a significant advance towards the centre.
“Last night we began deepening our operations deeper into Gaza City. It’s a gradual thing. It is not a black or white thing. But yesterday was a big step forward in deployment and also in operations on the ground,” the spokesperson said.
Key event
My colleague Julian Borger has some lines from an IDF spokesperson about the launch of the ground offensive in Gaza City.
The spokesperson told journalists today:
Last night, we transitioned into the main phase of the plan for Gaza City. Following the directive of the political echelon, IDF Southern Command Forces have expanded ground activity into Hamas’ main stronghold in Gaza, which is Gaza City.
This phase is defined by a coordinated and gradual manoeuvre combining precise intelligence, air and ground forces targeting Hamas’s central stronghold and aimed at dismantling its grip in this area…
We are expecting to see on the battlefield somewhere between 2,000 and 3,000 terrorists in Gaza City. Some of them, we understand, have been there since the beginning of the war and are preparing to engage with our forces above ground and underground.
Israel will gradually increase the number of its troops in Gaza City as it estimates 40% of the residents have already fled towards the south of the territory, an Israeli military official said in a briefing this morning.
Palestinian people in Gaza City have been told by the IDF to move to al-Mawasi in southern Gaza, which is often struck by Israeli airstrikes despite being a so-called “safe zone”.
Updated
Israel launches ground offensive in Gaza City, officials say
Israel has launched a ground offensive in Gaza City, officials have said, after weeks of intense bombardments across the territory’s largest urban centre saw entire apartment blocks reduced to rubble and forced many Palestinian people to flee despite there being nowhere safe to go.
Hundreds of thousands of residents remain in Gaza City, however, where a famine – caused by Israeli restrictions on aid – has already been declared.
Two officials said the ground invasion was in its early stages, according to the New York Times. Israel is justifying its assault by saying Gaza City is one of the last remaining Hamas strongholds.
Updated
Journalists are currently questioning the three-member expert panel of the UN commission of inquiry, which is chaired by Navi Pillay, a South African former UN human rights chief, following its conclusion that Israel has committed genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. You can watch the stream live here:
Updated
Netanyahu says Israel has 'launched a significant operation in Gaza'
Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has said that Israeli forces have “launched a significant operation in Gaza”. The comments were made during today’s session of his corruption trial.
Updated
Israel’s foreign ministry has rejected the genocide findings of a United Nations commission of inquiry, denouncing the report as “distorted and false”.
A spokesperson accused the three experts on the commission of effectively being “Hamas proxies” and relying “entirely on Hamas falsehoods, laundered and repeated by others” that had “already been thoroughly debunked”.
Netanyahu condemned for saying Muslim immigration in Europe is contributing to Israel's increasing isolation on world stage
Julian Borger is the Guardian’s senior international correspondent
Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, is being widely criticised in Israel this morning for remarks admitting Israel’s increasing isolation but blaming it on Muslim immigration in Europe, as well as social media influence backed by Qatar and China.
In a speech which led to a dip on the Tel Aviv stock market on Monday, Netanyahu warned that the country would have to become a “super Sparta” with “some signs of an autarky”, conjuring up the prospect of a militarised, self-reliant future, with less trade with the rest of the world.
A United Nations commission of inquiry concluded on Tuesday that Israel has committed genocide in Gaza and that top Israeli officials including prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu had incited these acts. More than 64,000 Palestinians, the overwhelmingly majority civilians, have been killed so far.
Netanyahu’s government has denied the genocide charge which is also being weighed by the International Court of Justice. Netanyahu has escalated the conflict further by ordering an offensive on Gaza City. After a night of intense bombardment, there were reports of a ground attack on Tuesday.
Netanyahu, however, blamed foreigners for Israel’s increasing diplomatic isolation, which he referred to as “a siege that is organised by a few states”.
“One is China, and the other is Qatar. And they are organising an attack on Israel, legitimacy, in the social media of the western world and the United States,” Netanyahu said.
“The second thing is something that they can do uniquely in western Europe. Western Europe has large Islamist minorities. They’re vocal. Many of them are politically motivated. They align with Hamas, they align with Iran,” the prime minister said.
“They pressure the governments of western Europe, many of whom are kindly disposed to Israel, but they see that they are being overtaken, really, by campaigns of violent protest and constant intimidation.”
His remarks seemed to be a reference to UK, France and Belgium who are set to recognise Palestine at the UN general assembly and have been increasingly critical of Israel over the Gaza war.
Netanyahu’s rhetoric about isolation was denounced in the Israeli press on Tuesday as a potentially self-fulfilling prophecy. Writing in the Ma’ariv newspaper, the veteran commentator, Ben Caspit, said: “Even in Netanyahu’s terms, a man who has already said all of the most reckless things imaginable, this statement was exceptional in its recklessness, absurdity and madness.”
“The man has completely lost his checks, balances and connection to reality,” Caspit wrote.
Key event
The IDF Arabic-language spokesperson, Col Avichay Adraee, has issued this warning on social media to Gaza City residents.
The IDF has begun dismantling Hamas terrorist infrastructure in Gaza City.
Gaza City is a dangerous combat zone. Remaining in the city endangers you.
For your safety, evacuate as quickly as possible to the published safe areas, by vehicle or on foot, via the Al-Rashid corridor, south of Wadi Gaza.
Join the over 40% of the city’s residents who have already evacuated to protect their own safety and that of their loved ones.
Updated
The UN investigators cited examples of the scale of the Israeli killings, aid blockages, forced displacement and the destruction of a fertility clinic to back up its genocide finding.
The 1948 UN Genocide Convention defines genocide as crimes committed “with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group, as such”. To count as genocide, at least one of five acts must have occurred.
The UN commission found that Israel had committed four of them: killing; causing serious bodily or mental harm; deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about the destruction of the Palestinians in whole or in part; and imposing measures intended to prevent births.
It cited as evidence interviews with victims, witnesses, doctors, verified open-source documents and satellite imagery analysis compiled since the war began two years ago.
Israel is fighting allegations at the world’s top court, the international court of justice, of committing genocide in Gaza. Israel has denied the claims.
UN investigators say Israel committing genocide in Gaza
UN investigators have determined that Israel has committed “genocide” in Gaza since October 2023, with the “intent to destroy the Palestinians” in the territory.
“We came to the conclusion that genocide is occurring in Gaza and is continuing to occur, and the responsibility lies with the State of Israel,” Navi Pillay, head of the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the rights situation in the occupied Palestinian territories, told AFP.
The report concluded that Israel’s prime minister, as well as its president, Isaac Herzog, and the former defence minister Yoav Gallant, had “incited the commission of genocide” and that Israeli authorities had “failed to take action against them to punish this incitement”.
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Wafa, the Palestinian news agency, has been told by medical sources that at least 38 Palestinian people, including women and children, have been killed by Israeli forces since dawn today.
As well as facing relentless bombardments, Gaza City, the biggest built-up area of the territory, is being gripped by a famine caused by Israel’s restrictions on aid.
The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), a globally recognised organisation that classifies the severity of food insecurity and malnutrition, declared last month that an “entirely man-made” famine was taking place in Gaza City and its surrounding area.
“If a ceasefire is not implemented to allow humanitarian aid to reach everyone in the Gaza Strip, and if essential food supplies and basic health, nutrition and [sanitation and water] services are not restored immediately, avoidable deaths will increase exponentially,” the IPC report said.
The UN and other organisations face massive logistical obstacles including widespread looting, ongoing Israeli bombardments, Israel’s administrative restrictions and bureaucracy and damaged infrastructure within Gaza.
Charities have warned tha Palestinian residents in Gaza City face an impossible choice: either stay and risk being killed by Israeli forces (or die from starvation) or flee and risk death while travelling on road to overcrowded displacement areas in the south which have also been targets of Israeli attacks.
Most people in Gaza City have already been displaced several times over the course of the war and may be too weak, old, or sick to flee this time around.
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Israeli tanks in Gaza City – reports
The Israeli public broadcaster, Kan, is citing Palestinian reports as saying there are Israeli tanks on the streets of Gaza City.
CNN is reporting that Israel has begun a ground incursion into the city, citing two Israeli officials.
It quoted one of the officials as saying the incursion would be “phased and gradual” at the beginning.
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Here are some of the latest images coming in from Gaza City as the Israeli military intensifies its bombardment and there are reports thousands of Palestinians are fleeing.
US nearing defence deal with Doha, Rubio says, as he asks Qatar to stay on as mediator in war
US secretary of state Marco Rubio said as he headed to Qatar on Tuesday that he would ask it to stay on as a mediator in Israel’s war on Gaza, a week after Israeli airstrikes against Hamas leaders in Doha.
Rubio expressed pessimism about a ceasefire deal as he flew out from Tel Aviv amid the IDF’s intensified bombardment of Gaza but told reporters that Qatar uniquely could help, Agence France-Presse reports.
“We’re going to ask Qatar to continue to do what they’ve done, and we appreciate very much, and that is, play a constructive role in trying to bring this to an end,” Rubio told reporters at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion airport.
“Obviously they have to decide if they want to do that after last week or not, but we want them to know that if there’s any country in the world that could help end this through a negotiation, it’s Qatar.”
Rubio said the US would work with Qatar to finalise a defence agreement soon despite the Israeli military action last week.
“If any country in the world can help mediate it, Qatar is the one. They’re the ones that can do it,” Rubio said while departing Tel Aviv for Doha.
“We have a close partnership with the Qataris. In fact, we have an enhanced defence cooperation agreement, which we’ve been working on, we’re on the verge of finalising,” Rubio said, without elaborating.
President Donald Trump told reporters in Washington that prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu “won’t be hitting” Qatar again.
Rubio made no such comments in Israel. Speaking next to Netanyahu, Rubio was reticent on praising Qatar, saying only that it was important to look forward after the strike.
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The United Nations rapporteur on human rights in the occupied territories, Francesca Albanese, has said the aim of the Gaza City offensive is to make it uninhabitable.
“This is the last piece of Gaza that needs to be rendered unliveable,” she said on Monday.
But the Israeli mission to the UN rejected her remarks, blaming Hamas for the destruction, Julian Borger has reported, while Benjamin Netanyahu defended Israel’s tactics. “We’re not bringing down those towers [in Gaza City] to intimidate people,” the Israeli prime minister said. “Those towers are serving as Hamas strongholds.”
The Israeli military’s chief of staff, Lt Gen Eyal Zamir, is widely reported to have deep misgivings about the Gaza City offensive, arguing it would not destroy Hamas and would be costly in the lives of Israeli soldiers and hostages.
You can read Borger’s report here:
Before today’s Israeli military actions, the Israel Defense Forces have been destroying blocks of flats across Gaza City and ordering its inhabitants to evacuate, drawing international condemnation, as Julian Borger has reported.
Tens of thousands of Palestinians have fled Gaza City for the south, but most of the estimated million people sheltering in the urban sprawl have opted to stay, either because they are unable to move or because they have nowhere to go.
Humanitarian agencies have said there is nowhere left in Gaza that is safe or suitable for displaced people, the report continues.
The UN relief agency, Unrwa, said 10 of its buildings had been hit by Israeli strikes in the past four days, including seven schools and two clinics.
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Palestinian residents have reported heavy strikes across Gaza City.
One overnight strike hit a house in the western side of Gaza City, killing at least five Palestinians including two children, according to the Shifa hospital, which the received the bodies.
Another strike hit at least three houses in the south-western side of the city, the Associated Press reports residents as saying. Medics were searching the rubble for survivors.
“It was a heavy night,” said Radwan Hayder, a Gaza City resident sheltering near the Shifa hospital.
The Israeli military has not responded to questions for hours over whether the expanded offensive has begun.
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As just reported, Marco Rubio warned Hamas today that it only has days to accept a ceasefire deal amid Israel’s bombardment of Gaza City.
“Our number one choice is that this ends through a negotiated settlement where Hamas says, ‘We’re going to demilitarise, we’re no longer going to pose a threat,’” the US secretary of state told reporters as he flew out of Israel to go to Qatar.
“Sometimes when you’re dealing with a group of savages like Hamas, that’s not possible, but we hope it can happen,” Rubio said.
Agence France-Presse also reports that Rubio met with Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem on Monday and gave his support to the Israeli prime minister’s new offensive in Gaza City and its stated goal of eradicating Hamas.
Witnesses later told AFP the city was under heavy bombardment.
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Opening summary
After a night of reports of intense bombardment of Gaza City, Israel’s defence minister, Israel Katz, appears to have declared a new phase in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) offensive against the already devastated urban sprawl where hundreds of thousands of people are sheltering.
“Gaza is burning,” Katz said on Tuesday morning. He added “the IDF is striking terror infrastructure with an iron fist”.
“IDF soldiers are fighting heroically to create the conditions for the release of the hostages and the defeat of Hamas,” Katz said. “We will not relent or turn back until the mission is complete.”
The escalation in the Israeli bombardment of Gaza City came immediately in the wake of a visit by the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, who declared the Trump administration’s “unwavering support” for Israel.
As he left the country, heading for Qatar on Tuesday morning, Rubio told journalists: “The Israelis have begun to take operations there. So we think we have a very short window of time in which a deal can happen. We don’t have months anymore, and we probably have days and maybe a few weeks to go.”
A Hamas statement issued in the early hours of Tuesday said the Trump administration “bears direct responsibility” for the conflict’s escalation through its “blatant bias” and it warned the offensive would “threaten the lives of the captured Israeli soldiers”.
There are still 48 hostages in Gaza, abducted by Hamas and allied militants in their attack on 7 October 2023, who have not been returned. Only 20 are thought to be still alive.
Hostage families have called for a protest later on Tuesday morning outside the Jerusalem residence of the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, to demonstrate against the offensive, and police have closed off the street.
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