As Palestinians flee Gaza City, “the explosions feel like an earthquake” – War on Gaza Day 693
Compilation of news reports – IAK staff
Israeli forces killed at least 33 Palestinians in Gaza on Friday, including at least 15 aid seekers. In total, Israel has killed at least 2,218 aid seekers since May 27, 2025 (learn about aid seekers here).
The total known number of Palestinians who have died from malnutrition stands at 332, including 124 children.
For detail on Israeli attacks in Gaza on Friday, go here.
NOTE: 280 martyrs have been added to the cumulative statistics of martyrs, whose data has been completed and approved by the Judicial Committee following up on the reports and missing persons file.
BREAKING: Yemen’s Houthis confirm Israeli strike killed group’s prime minister
GAZA NEWS:
(For some basic info on the Palestine-Israel conflict, go here. For more critical context, skim this, this, and this.To read about a remarkable but underreported, 20-month-long peaceful protest in Gaza against Israel, go here.)
1M Palestinians trapped as Israel bombs Gaza by air, land and sea
Israel on Friday declared Gaza City a “dangerous combat zone” and unleashed one of its heaviest bombardments since the war began, striking by air, land and sea while nearly 1 million Palestinians remain trapped inside.
The offensive is part of an Israeli plan, approved earlier this month, to gradually reoccupy Gaza, starting with its largest urban center, home to roughly half the enclave’s population.
Strikes flattened neighborhoods across Gaza City, as families fled westward, swelling overcrowded districts already crippled by shortages of food, medicine and water (continue reading here).
A Palestinian security source reported that conditions in parts of eastern Gaza City are deteriorating rapidly, and that Israeli forces are using explosive-laden vehicles and quadcopter drones that drop bombs and fire on civilians.
Loudspeakers mounted on drones have broadcast evacuation orders, forcing residents to leave under fire, said the source (continue reading here).
FACT: Israel’s plan includes moving Gazans to a concentration camp, then encouraging’ “voluntary emigration” to countries including Ethiopia, Indonesia, and Libya. There is nothing “voluntary” about this scheme for removal of Gazans from their homeland. Israel has destroyed the means of survival for the people of Gaza; now they suggest giving them a “choice” between leaving their homeland to survive, and staying to struggle and die. Forced population transfer is a crime against humanity, and a form of ethnic cleansing.
If world leaders truly want to offer Gazans a good life outside Gaza, the just solution would be to return them to their homes in historic Palestine.
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‘Earthquake-like’: Israeli bombing rocks Gaza City as occupation threat looms
Although they have lived under constant Israeli bombardment for nearly two years, nothing could have prepared the residents of Gaza City for the ferocious attacks of recent weeks. “This time, it’s different,” many of them say.
“We feel that the type of missiles used this time are more powerful and fierce,” said a resident in the north of the city. “The sound of the explosions is more terrifying, and their destructive power is greater. The explosions feel like an earthquake.”
The terrifying incidents involve explosive-laden robots, which have been widely used by Israeli forces during the ongoing invasion of Gaza (continue reading here).
A Ha’aretz journalist reports that during the three-minute drive from a kibbutz in Israel to a house in Gaza City’s Zeitoun neighborhood for an interview with an Israeli military commander, “we didn’t see a single house that was fit for human habitation. Gaza has been flattened. At the entrance to the commander’s house, soldiers had spray-painted, ‘No to a cease-fire’…Zeitoun has already been almost entirely obliterated, above and below ground.”
RELATED: Head of Red Cross warns safe evacuation of Gaza City is ‘impossible’
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Medical supplies for GBS run out as cases rise in Gaza, WHO says
There have been 94 documented cases of Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) in Gaza since June, resulting in 10 deaths, although GBS had rarely been seen in the enclave before Israel’s war on Gaza began nearly two years ago, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
GBS is a rare condition that involves a person’s immune system; severe cases can result in near-total paralysis and breathing problems, the WHO said.
Although GBS is usually treatable, the WHO said its treatment efforts were constrained by a lack of certain medical supplies.
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Palestinian journalists are washing their hands of foreign media
As Israel kills off more and more journalists – with impunity – Increasingly, Palestinian journalists in Gaza are refusing interviews with foreign media. Their families, friends and colleagues now fear their loved ones are putting their lives on the line, while being treated as easily replaceable contributors to news cycles that seem to prioritize headlines over the lives behind them.
Following the killing of Anas al-Sharif earlier this month, Gaza-based journalist Hind Khoudary took to X to announce that she would no longer cooperate with international media outlets. In her post, she said she refused to appear on global channels “just to be part of a segment that will be forgotten by tomorrow.”
Khoudary accused foreign media of treating Palestinian journalists as disposable headlines rather than colleagues worth defending. “We are being hunted and killed in Gaza while you watch in silence,” she wrote. “For two years, your fellow journalists here have been slaughtered. What did you do? Nothing. Or maybe it’s because we are Palestinian journalists – we don’t count as ‘real’ colleagues in your eyes.”
RELATED: Western Media Manufactured Consent for Israel’s Murder of Palestinian Journalists
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ISRAEL USING DRONES TO LITTER GAZA WITH GRENADES: REPORT: The Quds News Network on Friday said Israel is using drones to litter Gaza with grenades, in a bid to force families to flee their homes. It said that these sightings in the enclave align with a recent +972 Magazine investigation in which Israeli soldiers admitted they were ordered to use drones to bomb neighborhoods to “terrorize Palestinians” and force them to leave.
NO SURGE OF AID INTO GAZA ONE WEEK INTO FAMINE: One full week after the declaration of famine in Gaza, “there’s no improvement of the Gaza famine case, no real effort that we could see on the ground,” according to Amjad Shawa, head of the NGO Network. “We were expecting that there would be real interventions, pressure from the international community to lift the blockade.” The amount of aid flowing into Gaza is still sufficient for only about 10 percent of the population’s needs, he said.
ISRAELI ARMY ENDS “TACTICAL PAUSE” IN GAZA CITY, DEEMS IT “DANGEROUS COMBAT ZONE: The Israeli army says its so-called temporary daily “tactical pause” in Gaza, announced last month for humanitarian purposes, no longer applies to Gaza City as of Friday morning. The announcement also declared the Gaza City area “a dangerous combat zone.” The army added that it “will continue to support humanitarian efforts alongside ongoing maneuvering and offensive operations” – although the IDF has been uncooperative all along, to say the least.
OCCUPIED WEST BANK/EAST JERUSALEM HEADLINES:
(For background on the West Bank, read this and this. For information on the significance of Israeli settlers in the West Bank, read this and this.)
Israeli settlers illegally seize land belonging to Doctors Against Genocide co-founder
Israeli settlers seized land in the occupied West Bank belonging to Nidal Jboor, a Palestinian-American doctor and co-founder of Doctors Against Genocide (DAG), “a coalition of healthcare professionals who wanted to unite their voices in uproar against the genocide in Gaza”.
His family land is in Masafer Yatta, an area that was heavily featured in the Oscar-winning documentary, No Other Land.
Since a group of armed settlers arrived last week, members of his family have seen them set up tents, build a couple of structures for living in or housing animals and put their livestock out to graze on the land – all while being protected by the Israeli military (continue reading here).
NOTE: Israel has illegally built around 280 settlements on Palestinian land in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, which are home to more than 700,000 illegal settlers. Israeli settlements and settlers on Palestinian land are a violation of international law, and considered by many Palestinians to be the main barrier to any lasting peace agreement.
Some settler groups, moreover, have a history of violence against Palestinians, often with the assistance of Israeli military forces (a phenomenon that has grown significantly worse since October 7th, 2023.
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Israeli military attacks Deutche Welle journalist in West Bank:
WEST BANK HEADLINES:
ISRAEL NEWS & HEADLINES:
(Get a glimpse inside Israel and the turmoil within its government. Often, our news items and headlines are taken from Israeli media.)
Israeli army fears Qassam Brigades has captured four more soldiers: Reports
Several Israeli media outlets are reporting on Friday that the Israeli army fears four of its soldiers may have been captured by the al-Qassam Brigades, in what is being described as a “major security incident” in the Zeitoun Quarter of Old Gaza, in the north of the enclave.
The four soldiers appear to have vanished, and the Israeli army is conducting a search for them in the area.
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NYT: Israel’s Exhausted Soldiers Complicate Plans for Gaza Assault
Israel is preparing to call up tens of thousands of reserve soldiers for its Gaza City offensive, but military officials say it’s not clear how many of them will return to the fight after nearly two years of grinding war.
Over the past few months, an increasing number of Israeli reserve soldiers have not been showing up for military service. Some cite exhaustion, as well as the need to save strained marriages or foundering careers. Others say they are increasingly disillusioned with the war.
Besides Gaza, Israeli forces are also still fighting on several other fronts: Israeli soldiers now patrol parts of southern Lebanon and Syria, in addition to mounting major incursions into Palestinian cities in the West Bank (continue reading here).
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IDF recovers body of murdered* hostage Ilan Weiss in Gaza
The IDF and Shin Bet have recovered and identified the body of hostage Ilan Weiss, and what appears to be the remains of an additional hostage whose name has not yet been released, in the Gaza Strip, the military confirmed on Friday.
*NOTE: As traumatizing as October 7th was for Israelis, it can not be stressed enough that “many, if not most of the civilians killed that day were killed by the overwhelming firepower the Israeli military deployed” using the Hannibal Directive.
ISRAEL HEADLINES:
State-backed Islamophobia: Israel labels Muslim presence in Europe ‘true face of colonization’
Israel Police Block Jerusalem Fundraiser for Gaza, Claiming It Could ‘Serve Hamas’
Ben-Gvir Pressures Top Israel Police Commanders to Use Force Against Anti-gov’t Protesters, Senior Officers Say
After Seeing Gaza’s Starving Children, My Work as an Israeli Pediatrician Will Never Be the Same
OTHER NEWS:
US denies visas to Palestinian Authority leaders for UN General Assembly
The US has begun denying and revoking visas from members of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and the Palestinian Authority (PA) – including its president, Mahmoud Abbas – in advance of the UN general assembly meeting in September, the state department said on Friday.
Abbas had been planning to travel to New York to deliver an address to the UN general assembly.
“The Trump administration has been clear: it is in our national security interests to hold the PLO and PA accountable for not complying with their commitments, and for undermining the prospects for peace,” the State Department said in a statement, further aligning Donald Trump’s administration with Israel’s rightwing government, which adamantly rejects a Palestinian state.
The State Department accused the Palestinians of “lawfare” by raising grievances against Israel at the international criminal court and international court of justice, and called on the PA to drop “efforts to secure the unilateral recognition of a conjectural Palestinian state” (continue reading here).
RELATED: Spain backs Palestinian leader Abbas after ‘unjust’ denial of U.S. visa, PM Sanchez says
![A general view of the United Nations (UN) General Assembly, in New York [Fatih Aktaş/Anadolu Agency]](https://israelpalestinenews.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/9-1-u-1024x683.jpg)
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What Trump Signals to the World by Banning Palestinian Leaders From the U.S.
The U.S. State Department’s announcement that it is revoking and denying the entry visas for PLO and PA reflects a core worldview of the Trump administration: complete delegitimization of the Palestinian leadership and the setting of almost impossible conditions to renew any diplomatic pathway – a dangerous precedent that could damn the UN’s credibility as an international institution.
The decision is also a slap in the face against all countries that have already recognized Palestinians’ rights and even a Palestinian state: the choice to stand with Ramallah is, in the eyes of Washington, a hostile action.
The real question is whether the international community is willing to accede to the American dictates, or stand up for the principle of equal representation of peoples (continue reading here).
RELATED: The Trump Administration’s Famine Denial
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Facing Voter Pressure, Swing-State Democrat Swears Off AIPAC Cash
Democratic Rep. Deborah Ross of North Carolina has pledged that she will not accept contributions from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) during the 2026 midterm election cycle — after receiving more than $100,000 from the group in past elections.
Ross, a moderate member of the House of Representatives, is the latest lawmaker to swear off the lobby amid sustained pressure and protestfrom voters who oppose Israel’s genocide of Palestinians in Gaza. Her pledge closely follows that of fellow North Carolina Democrat Rep. Valerie Foushee.
In late June, the North Carolina Democratic Party passed a resolution calling for a complete arms embargo on all military aid to Israel until it ends its apartheid rule of Palestinians (continue reading here).
RELATED: How Does AIPAC Shape Washington? We Tracked Every Dollar.
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Majority of Americans disapprove of US-Israel military alliance, new poll shows
A Quinnipiac University survey found 60 percent of voters disapprove of the U.S. sending military aid to Israel, while 32 percent support additional aid — the highest level of opposition and lowest level of support for the U.S. military alliance with Israel in a Quinnipiac poll since the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks against Israel by Hamas.
Democrats and independent voters largely oppose Israel’s military actions in Gaza. In the new poll, 75 percent of Democrats and 66 percent of independents said they were against more spending to provide additional military aid for Israel, while 56 percent of Republicans supported additional spending.
Half of the voters surveyed, including 77 percent of Democrats, said they believe Israel is committing genocide. Sixty-four percent of Republicans said they do not believe Israel is committing genocide (continue reading here).
Lindsey Graham Calls for Sanctions on Norway After Major BDS Move
Senator Lindsey Graham on Thursday threatened to slap tariffs on Norway for its sovereign wealth fund’s decision to divest from an American company reportedly complicit in Israeli human rights abuses in Gaza and the West Bank.
As part of an ongoing ethics review meant to root out investments that contribute to Israeli violations of international law, the Norwegian wealth fund announced this week that it would divest from the construction equipment manufacturer Caterpillar: “There is no doubt that Caterpillar’s products are being used to commit extensive and systematic violations of international humanitarian law.” The Boycott, Divest, and Sanctions (BDS) movement has long pointed this out.
Graham threatened the fund on X Wednesday, writing, “Your BS decision will not go unanswered.” On Thursday, he threatened “tariffs on countries who refuse to do business with great American companies” or to refuse visas to people punishing U.S. companies “for geopolitical differences (continue reading here).
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UK bans Israeli officials from major arms exhibition – Israel calls it “discrimination”
The British government has barred Israeli officials from attending a major London arms fair next month, as tensions between the two allies escalate over Israel’s war on Gaza.
“The Israeli government’s decision to further escalate its military operation in Gaza is wrong,” the British statement said. “There must be a diplomatic solution to end this war now, with an immediate ceasefire, the return of the hostages and a surge in humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza.”
Israel’s defense ministry denounced the move as “a deliberate and regrettable act of discrimination” (continue reading here).
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MORE HEADLINES:
Israel conducts intensive air, ground operations in southern Syria
TAKE ACTION FOR GAZA
Time to end the slaughter in Gaza – New resources!
ICYMI (IN CASE YOU MISSED IT) – A SELECTION OF YESTERDAY’S HEADLINES:
STATISTICS OCTOBER 7, 2023 – AUGUST 29, 2025*:
- At least 64,403 Palestinians killed, 169,067 injured – including:
- at least 63,371 killed in Gaza (~18,500 children)
- at least 1,032 killed in the West Bank (~210 children)
- at least 159,835 injured in Gaza
- at least 9,230 injured in the West Bank
- at least 332 have died from malnutrition in Gaza, including 124 children
According to Palestinian authorities, during the ceasefire Jan. 19 – March 18 2025, Israeli attacks killed at least 170 Gazans, and Israel committed at least 962 ceasefire violations.
At least 2,218 Palestinians have been killed while trying to access aid parcels from the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which started operating on May 26, 2025.
Since the Israeli army resumed its assaults on Gaza on March 18, 2025 it has killed at least 11,178 people. 51 Israeli soldiers (most recent Aug. 23) have been killed during the same time period.
*NOTE: Thousands of those killed in Gaza have yet to be identified, and an estimated 14,000 more are still buried under rubble. Additionally, the numbers of injured and starved are very conservative estimates.
Reported Israeli death toll from October 7, 2023 – August 29, 2025: ~1,629 – including ~1,139 on October 7, 2023 (~36 children), 455 military forces since the ground invasion began in Gaza, 46 military and civilians in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Israel. (72 soldiers have reportedly died due to “operational incidents.”)
By one count, Israeli attacks have killed approximately 240Palestinian journalists and media workers; Palestinians have killed 4 Israeli journalists (other groups have tallied between 197and 313 Palestinian journalists killed – depending on the criteria used).
NOTE: It is unknown at this time how many of the deaths and injuries of Israelis on October 7 were caused by Israeli soldiers.
- Human rights reports on Israel-Palestine (regularly updated)
- The CIA, Mossad, and Epstein: Unraveling the Intelligence Ties of the Maxwell Family
- ‘Starvation Is Everywhere’: Virtual Tours of Gaza Clinics Expose the Scale of the Horror
- The Palestine Chronicle Case: When Truth Becomes the Crime
- More US lawmakers publicly blame Israel for starvation, deaths in Gaza
- Even Former AIPAC Democrats Are Signing On to Block Arms Sales to Israel
- Bootstraps or Bailouts? The Hidden Truth of Israel’s Military Power
- The ‘General of Bloodshed’ in the West Bank Is Israel’s Moral Face
- Why Tony Blair and Jared Kushner were at the White House to discuss Gaza
- Palestine urges global churches to stop Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza
- Save The Children CEO Warns UN: Indecision On Gaza Is Complicity As Children Are Being Starved To Death
- Time to end the slaughter in Gaza – New resources!
- ‘I lost my family, my home, my sight’: Israel blinds thousands in Gaza
- In defiance of voter base, DNC rejects resolution calling for Israel arms embargo
- The New “Free Press” Editorial Defending its Famine Denial Includes Fundamental Errors
- How western media helped turn Israel’s genocide into ‘fake news’
- Gaza: US Forces Can Be Liable for Assisting Israeli War Crimes
- US groups demand release of American-Palestinian teen imprisoned by Israel
- Anatomy of a famine: how Gaza has starved
- Democrats will pay for ignoring base’s qualms about Gaza
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