(October 27, 2025)
„We are in control of our security, and we have also made it clear regarding international forces that Israel will determine which forces are unacceptable to us, and this is how we operate and will continue to operate,“ Netanyahu said.
„This is, of course, acceptable to the United States as well, as its most senior representatives have expressed in recent days,“ he told a session of his cabinet.
(April 27, 2025)
It‘s not the world order that has failed the Palestinians. It‘s the world.
Israel intends to personally determine the composition of international forces that may be deployed in the Gaza Strip to ensure a ceasefire under US President Donald Trump’s plan, Reuters reports.
„We are in control of our security, and we have also made it clear regarding international forces that Israel will determine which forces are unacceptable to us, and this is how we operate and will continue to operate,“ Netanyahu told his cabinet at the start of the government meeting.
„This is, of course, acceptable to the United States as well, as its most senior representatives have expressed in recent days. Israel is an independent state. We will defend ourselves with our own forces, and we will continue to control our destiny,“ he added.
Yet now is a time of reckoning. After two years of relentless violence, a fragile and uncertain cease-fire has settled over Gaza, bringing joyous scenes of Israeli captives reuniting with their families and of Palestinian prisoners returning home after years of detention. But that must be set against the apocalyptic reality survivors face: a moonscape of total devastation and unfathomable loss. Today there is a chance, if we want it, to begin to discover the true cost of this war. We might find that it’s even worse than we thought.
Hadash-Ta’al chairman Ayman Odeh calls on fellow opposition factions to join together to topple Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government “as soon as possible.”
Addressing reporters ahead of his party’s weekly faction meeting in the Knesset, Odeh says that the government has three aims during the current parliamentary session, “harming the West Bank…promoting the judicial coup…and preventing the Arab population from running in the next elections.”
(August 5, 2025)
According to satellite imagery analysis, UNOSAT identified 102,067 destroyed structures, 17,421 severely damaged structures, 41,895 moderately damaged structures, and 31,429 possibly damaged structures for a total of 192,812 structures. These correspond to around 78% of the total structures in the Gaza Strip and a total of 282,904 estimated damaged housing units.
(October 7, 2025)
As of Oct. 2, roughly 60 per cent of buildings in the Gaza Strip have been destroyed or damaged since Oct. 12, 2023, according to an analysis of satellite imagery by researchers at Oregon State University.
The figure marks a significant increase from nearly 13 per cent in November 2023, a month after Israel launched its offensive in Gaza.
[Jehad Alshrafi/AP Photo]
Displaced Palestinians with their belongings pass by destroyed buildings as they return to their homes in the Zeitoun neighbourhood of Gaza City [Jehad Alshrafi/AP Photo]
This is one of the most emotional moments in my whole life. I remember this area so vividly, many of the buildings here; I know the shops by their names … The road itself here that once was vibrant, active with life, has turned into just a vast field of rubble. It’s unrecognisable.
And, the Gaza Strip covers an area of 365 km², way less than half the size of London, which covers an area of 1,572 km². And, the population in Gaza are trapped in the midst of widespread destruction, with nowhere to go. The Gaza government ministry has reported:
Israel’s war on Gaza has killed a total of 67,183 Palestinians and injured 169,841 others since 7 October 2023.
More than 169,000 people suffered permanent physical injuries, with thousands of cases of amputation and paralysis. Thousands of families have been completely wiped out of the civil registry, and tens of thousands have been displaced.
Die dortigen Behörden veröffentlichten am Freitag eine vorläufige Bilanz von zwei Jahren Krieg und Völkermord. Hervorzuheben ist nicht allein die Zahl der Toten, die auf 80.000 geschätzt wird, die Mehrzahl Frauen und Kinder. Mehr noch soll Israels Militär seit dem 7. Oktober 2023 200.000 Tonnen Sprengstoff abgeworfen haben. Zum Vergleich: Im Zweiten Weltkrieg wurden insgesamt 60.000 Tonnen eingesetzt.
(video)
קווי דמיון ביןמדיניות הקרקעות והדיור המשפיעה על פלסטינים בישראל לביןזוהחלהעל פלסטינים בגדה המערבית
הכבושה מצביעים עלקיומה של מדיניות רחבה יותר ביחס לאוכלוסייה הפלסטינית בכללותה, שנועדה להבטיח רוב יהודי
בכלל האזוריםהמצוייםתחת שליטהישראלית, תוך צמצום האפשרות להגדרה עצמית גיאוגרפית עבור העם הפלסטיני.
בדוח זוהו ששה שרים ישראליים כמי שנושאים ככל הנראה בעיקר האחריותלביצוע פשעים בינלאומיים הנוגעים לקרקעות
ודיור, כמו גם לפשעים אחרים שזוהו על-ידי הוועדה בדוחותיה הקודמים:
•שר הביטחון לשעבריואב גלנטושר הביטחון הנוכחיישראל כץנושאים באחריותלפעולותיהם של כוחות הביטחון
הישראליים בעזה;
•שר האוצרבצלאל סמוטריץ‘ושרת ההתיישבות והמשימות הלאומיותאורית סטרוקנושאים במשותף באחריות
להנעת הקמתן והרחבתן של התנחלויותבגדה המערבית הכבושה, לרבות מזרח ירושלים;
•השר לביטחון לאומיאיתמר בן-גבירנושא באחריות למעשיהתעללותשלרשויות הכליאה הישראליות בעצירים
פלסטיניים, אשר זוהו על-ידי הוועדה בדיווחה הקודםלעצרתהכללית;
•ראש הממשלהבנימין נתניהונושא באחריות הסופית להתנהלותה של ישראל בשטח הפלסטיני הכבוש בכללותו,
ובאחריות ישירהלאור הוראותיו לביצוע מעשיםהמהווים פשעי מלחמה, פשעים נגד האנושות, ופשע השמדת עם;
•ראש הממשלהנתניהוושר הביטחון לשעברגלנטנושאים גם באחריותלפשע ההסתה לביצוע השמדת עם
82. Successive Governments of Israel have implemented laws and policies to diminish Palestinian space in Israel, including confining Palestinian localities and hindering Palestinians with Israeli citizenship from moving and integrating into Jewish localities. In addition, informal barriers resulting from wider, primarily socioeconomic, inequalities between the two populations have grown and become entrenched over decades, further preventing integration.
83. Some policies and laws are explicitly discriminatory. Others have a discriminatory impact, resulting in segregation. This is evident from the “admissions committees” policy and law, as well as statements of Israeli officials’ supporting the development of exclusively non-Jewish localities to deter and prevent Palestinians with Israeli citizenship from moving into mixed cities.
84. Such discrimination in laws and policies is a violation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. Specifically, Israel has violated article 11 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which obliges States to ensure adequate standards of living and housing and the continuous improvement of living conditions.
85. Land and housing policies impacting Palestinians in Israel are part of a broader policy towards the Palestinian population as a whole, aimed at striving towards a Jewish majority in all areas under Israeli control, reducing the possibility of geographical self-determination for the Palestinian people.
Individual criminal responsibility
86. The Commission has identified several Israeli ministers as likely bearing the most responsibility for the international crimes noted in the present report. The Ministers of Defence since October 2023, Yoav Gallant (until 7 November 2024) and subsequently Israel Katz, are responsible for actions of Israeli security forces in Gaza which amount to international crimes. The Minister of Finance, Bezalel Smotrich, and the Minister of Settlements and National Projects, Orit Strock, are jointly responsible for driving settlement construction and expansion in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. The Minister of National Security, Itamar Ben-Gvir, is responsible for the actions of police and prison authorities noted by the Commission in its previous report to the General Assembly. The Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, is ultimately responsibility for the conduct of Israel in the whole of the Occupied Palestinian Territory. All six bear direct individual responsibility for establishing policies and taking actions noted in the present report that have killed and injured Palestinians, deliberately inflicted on Palestinians in Gaza conditions of life calculated to bring about the group’s physical destruction in whole or in part and deepened the unlawful presence of Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, including through security operations and channelling funds for settlements, farm outposts and settlement expansion.
The Commission also found that since October 2023, Israeli policies have demonstrated clear intent to forcibly transfer Palestinians, expand Jewish settlements, and annex the entire West Bank.
„Increasing violent attacks by settlers have resulted in the forcible displacement of communities and subsequent Judaization of areas of the West Bank,“ the report stated.
It also highlights military operations in Jenin, Tulkarem, and Nur Shams refugee camps, which resulted in destruction of homes and infrastructure and displacement of residents – actions the Commission deems unjustified militarily and tantamount to collective punishment.
Operation Gideon’s Chariots II, as the new offensive is known, is a calculated campaign of territorial reconfiguration coordinated with the United States.
Ahead of the United Nations General Assembly summit that begins on Monday, Israel is preparing to bring the north fully under its control.
According to the Israeli officers, behind the scenes there is a belief that, if the Gaza City operation goes according to plan, Netanyahu plans to declare victory at the UN on 26 September.
Israeli forces aim to push Palestinians out of Gaza City through genocide, ethnic cleansing, and creating conditions that make life impossible. Nowhere is safe, and the vastly insufficient quantities of aid are delivered through routes that are extremely dangerous for civilians. The destruction of critical infrastructure is ongoing and deliberate.
MSF calls for the immediate end to the use of evacuation orders as a means of forcible displacement, a lasting ceasefire, and the entry of humanitarian aid at scale. We also call on Israel’s allies like the US to stop arms transfers to Israel immediately and ramp up the pressure to halt the offensive.
Without urgent, radical intervention, Gaza faces total annihilation.
Between August 9 and August 17, the Israeli military also demolished parts of Al-Tuffah neighborhood in eastern Gaza City, where thousands of displaced Palestinians have been sheltering.
Just north of Gaza City in Jabalya, the Israeli military has also leveled more than 750 buildings, according to CNN’s analysis.
A half-dozen satellite images taken between August 9 and September 5 also show that a vast majority of the destruction has been caused not by airstrikes or combat, but by the Israeli military slowly carrying out block by block demolitions with excavators and bulldozers.
The level of destruction happening in Gaza City suggests Israel’s goal is not to occupy it but to destroy it completely, says this Palestinian analyst.
(September 8, 2025)
Far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has called for the PA to be wiped from the map, and the villages of those behind the attack in occupied East Jerusalem to be reduced to ruins in retribution, Al Jazeera reports.
Israeli forces deploy explosive robots at ‚unprecedented pace‘, obliterating homes and displacing families
Israel strikes another tower in Gaza City, one day after leveling a separate high-rise. The attack comes as the Israeli military continues operations in the Palestinian territory.
Palestinians run as the Mushtaha Tower collapses in Gaza City [Mahmoud Issa/Reuters]
A powerful Israeli strike hit the Mushtaha building in Gaza City, causing widespread destruction and panic among residents. Witnesses reported a sudden explosion that reduced large parts of the structure to rubble, with smoke and dust billowing across the area. Emergency teams rushed to the scene to assess casualties, while footage of the moment of impact quickly spread online. The strike comes amid escalating hostilities, adding to fears of further civilian suffering in the densely populated city.
(…)
Aug 28, 2025
On Thursday, the Israeli military bombarded the Al-Zeitoun neighborhood in Gaza City, Gaza.
A resident of al-Saftawi neighbourhood, also in the north of the city, Matar and his wife were startled awake by what he described as a “frightening sound of movement“.
“We thought it was the sound of asbestos sheets being moved from place to place by a crane or a tuk-tuk. We couldn’t sleep out of fear.”
At around 4:45am, the couple realised the sound had come from a remotely controlled Israeli military robot.
The robots, which carry explosives, have been widely used by Israeli forces during the ongoing invasion of Gaza, often targeting civilian homes.
The “robots” described by Ismail are likely the Israeli army’s outdated M113 APC models, which have been retrofitted with explosives and remotely detonated near buildings throughout the war. Ismail told Mondoweiss that neither he nor his family had time to take anything from their home due to fears that the APC near them would be detonated.
“Before now, the army used to blow up one or two buildings with the robots. Now they destroy dozens of buildings at once. Robots and warplanes are working together to destroy every place in Gaza City,” he described.
Mr. Guterres was speaking ahead of a Security Council meeting on the situation in Haiti but stopped to brief reporters on the “unfolding tragedy that is Gaza”, where “yet more unconscionable Israeli strikes” have occurred.
Incidents include the two airstrikes on Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis earlier this week which killed civilians, including medical personnel and journalists, “all with the world watching”.
The Secretary-General said “these attacks are part of an endless catalogue of horrors” and called for accountability.
“Gaza is piled with rubble, piled with bodies, and piled with examples of what may be serious violations of international law,” he said.
“Hostages taken by Hamas and other groups must be released and the atrocious treatment they have been forced to endure must stop. Civilians must be protected.”
Mr. Guterres stressed that “the levels of death and destruction in Gaza are without parallel in recent times”.
Moreover, “famine is no longer a looming possibility – it is a present-day catastrophe.”
People are dying from hunger, yet Gaza’s food, water and healthcare systems have been systematically dismantled.
“These are the facts on the ground. And they are the result of deliberate decisions that defy basic humanity,” he said. “Israel, as the occupying power, has clear obligations.”
He said Israel must ensure the provision of food, water, medicine, and other essentials. This is in addition to agreeing to and facilitating far greater humanitarian access to Gaza as well as protecting civilians and civilian infrastructure.
Mr. Guterres said the International Court of Justice (ICJ) has given binding provisional measures which must be implemented in full and immediately.
They include the obligation to take all steps to ensure unfettered humanitarian and medical assistance to Palestinians throughout the Gaza Strip without delay and in full cooperation with the United Nations.
Meanwhile, the UN and partners are doing all they can, he said. This is often at great personal risk, as tragically 366 UN personnel have been killed.
“Day after day, our efforts are being blocked, delayed, and denied,” he said. “This is unacceptable.”
Mr. Guterres also addressed the situation in the West Bank, describing it as “profoundly alarming”.
He said Israeli military operations, settler violence, demolitions, and discriminatory policies are driving displacement and deepening vulnerability.
Furthermore, the relentless expansion of settlements is fracturing communities and cutting off access to vital resources.
The Israeli authorities recently approved of a plan for the construction of thousands of settlements in the E1 area. He said this would effectively separate the northern and southern West Bank, representing “an existential threat to the two-state solution” between Israelis and Palestinians.
“I repeat: the Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank including East Jerusalem have been established – and are being maintained — in violation of international law,” he stressed.
“Israel must cease such actions and comply with its obligations.”
The Secretary-General concluded his remarks by emphasizing that there is no military solution to the conflict.
“I appeal once again for an immediate and permanent ceasefire, unfettered humanitarian access across Gaza, and the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages,” he said.
“Starvation of the civilian population must never be used as a method of warfare. Civilians must be protected. Humanitarian access must be unimpeded,” he added, ending with a plea for “No more excuses. No more obstacles. No more lies.”
The Israeli army has warned that implementing the government‘s orders to demolish all of Gaza City, both above and below ground, similar to operations carried out in Beit Hanoun and Rafah, could take many months, potentially more than a year.
(August 29, 2025)
Recent attacks have been particularly devastating in the Az Zaytoun neighbourhood, where airstrikes, artillery shelling and gunfire are continuous and intense, causing a high number of civilian casualties and the large-scale destruction of residential buildings and public facilities, the UN human rights office, OHCHR, in the Occupied Palestinian Territory said in a statement.
Since 8 August, the office has recorded 54 attacks on residential buildings and entire blocks in Gaza City, killing 87 Palestinians, including at least 25 children and entire families.
It also recorded attacks on shelters for internally displaced people, including tents and schools, killing at least 14.
These casualty figures “indicate that the systematic destruction of Gaza City is already underway,” the statement said.
However, OHCHR stressed that these devastating figures are only a portion of the actual toll due to underreporting in such dire circumstances.