From a festival celebrating the International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples in El Salvador to solemn commemorations marking the 80th anniversary of the atomic bombing in Japan and the ongoing Israel-induced starvation and malnutrition crisis in Gaza, here is a look at the week in photos.
‘This is a death cabinet.’ Thousands of Israelis have marched in Tel Aviv to demand an end to the war on Gaza and the return of captives, a day after Israel’s security cabinet announced plans to occupy Gaza City.
Published On 10 Aug 202510 Aug 2025
Uruguay striker Darwin Nunez completes $62m move from Premier League champions Liverpool to Saudi Arabia’s Al Hilal.
The Saudi Arabian soccer league has secured its latest marquee signing after Darwin Nunez completed the move from Liverpool to Al Hilal on Saturday.
The Uruguay international cost a reported 46.3 million pounds ($62m) and has signed a three-year contract.
Al Hilal, Saudi Arabia’s most successful team, has been searching for another star signing after releasing Brazil great Neymar in January.
Manchester United captain Bruno Fernandes rejected a move before the Club World Cup in June, and there was also reported interest in former Napoli striker Victor Osimhen.
Nunez leaves Liverpool after a mixed time in the Premier League, where he produced some spectacular moments but could not establish himself as the Merseyside club’s first-choice centre forward. He scored 40 goals in 143 games and won the Premier League title last season.
But he made only one league start from the turn of the year and scored just seven goals in 47 total appearances last term.
In a summer when Liverpool has reinforced its attack with the signings of Hugo Ekitike and Florian Wirtz, along with interest in Newcastle striker Alexander Isak, Nunez’s position had been in doubt.
He follows a slew of players who have left Europe’s top leagues for Saudi Arabia since Cristiano Ronaldo’s move to Al Nassr in 2022.
Karim Benzema, Sadio Mane and Riyad Mahrez are some of the high-profile names to make the switch as Saudi Arabia has mounted an ambitious recruitment drive to establish itself as a major player in global soccer.
Al Hilal, which produced one of the biggest upsets at the Club World Cup by eliminating Manchester City, already has a host of marquee players, including Kalidou Koulibaly, Sergej Milinkovic-Savic, Joao Cancelo and Aleksandar Mitrovic.
It is also coached by two-time Champions League runner-up Simone Inzaghi.
It has won a record 19 Saudi league titles as well as four Asian championships, but was beaten to the title by Al-Ittihad last season.
Former Palestinian international player Suleiman Al-Obeid was killed by an Israeli attack on aid seekers in Gaza on Wednesday.
Liverpool forward Mohamed Salah has criticised the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA)’s tribute to the late Suleiman Al-Obeid, known as the “Palestinian Pele,” after European football’s governing body failed to reference the circumstances surrounding his death this week.
The Palestine Football Association said that Al-Obeid, 41, was killed by an Israeli attack on civilians waiting for humanitarian aid in the southern Gaza Strip on Wednesday.
In a brief post on the social media platform X, UEFA called the former national team member “a talent who gave hope to countless children, even in the darkest of times”.
Salah responded: “Can you tell us how he died, where, and why?”
Can you tell us how he died, where, and why? https://t.co/W7HCyVVtBE
— Mohamed Salah (@MoSalah) August 9, 2025
UEFA was not immediately available to comment when contacted by the Reuters news agency.
One of the Premier League’s biggest stars, the 33-year-old Egyptian, Salah, has previously advocated for humanitarian aid to be allowed into Gaza during the nearly two-year-long war.
The United Nations says that more than 1,000 people have been killed near aid distribution sites and aid convoys in Gaza since the launch of the GHF, a United States- and Israel-backed aid distribution system, in late May.
Varsen Aghabekian Shahin says international community must take concrete steps to end Israeli impunity for abuses.
The international community must “shoulder its responsibility” and take action against Israel’s genocide in Gaza, the Palestinian foreign affairs minister has told Al Jazeera before an emergency United Nations Security Council session.
In an interview on Saturday, Varsen Aghabekian Shahin said the 15-member council must uphold international law when it convenes at UN headquarters in New York on Sunday to discuss the situation in the Gaza Strip.
The meeting was organised in response to Israel’s newly announced plan to seize Gaza City, which has drawn widespread condemnation from world leaders.
“I expect that the international community stands for international law and international humanitarian law,” Aghabekian Shahin told Al Jazeera.
“What has been going in Palestine for the last 22 months is nothing but a genocide, and it’s part and parcel of Israel’s expansionist ideology that wants to take over the entirety of the occupied State of Palestine.”
The Israeli security cabinet approved plans this week to seize Gaza City, forcibly displacing nearly one million Palestinians to concentration zones in the south of the bombarded coastal enclave.
Palestinians have rejected the Israeli push to force them out of the city while human rights groups and the UN have warned that the plan will worsen an already dire humanitarian crisis in Gaza and lead to further mass casualties.
Israel has pledged to push ahead with its plans despite the growing criticism, saying that it wants to “free Gaza from Hamas”.
The country’s top global ally, the United States, has not commented directly on the plan to seize Gaza City. But US President Donald Trump suggested earlier this week that he would not block an Israeli push to take over all of Gaza.
Aghabekian Shahin told Al Jazeera that if Trump – whose administration continues to provide unwavering diplomatic and military support to Israel – wants to reach a solution, Palestinian rights must be taken into account.
“There will be no peace in Israel-Palestine, or the region for that matter, or even the world at large, if the rights of the Palestinians are not respected,” she said, noting that this means a Palestinian state must be established.
The minister also slammed recent remarks from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about the future governance of Gaza.
In a social media post on Friday, Netanyahu said he wants “a peaceful civilian administration” to be established in the enclave, “one that is not the Palestinian Authority, not Hamas, and not any other terrorist organization”.
But Aghabekian Shahin said it’s up to Palestinians to decide who should govern them.
“The one that has the legal and the political authority on Gaza today is the PLO,” she said, referring to the Palestine Liberation Organization.
“If Gaza wants to come back to the core, which is the entirety of the Palestinian land, then it has to become under the control and governance of the Palestinian Authority, the PLO.”
Aghabekian Shahin also condemned the international community for failing to act as Palestinians in the occupied West Bank have faced a surge in Israeli military and settler attacks in the shadow of the country’s war on Gaza.
“It is the inaction that has emboldened the Israelis, including the settlers, to do whatever they are doing for the last six decades, since day one of the 1967 occupation,” she said.
“The times are very dangerous now, and it’s important that the international community shoulders its responsibility. The impunity with which Israel was happily moving should stop.”
Iran has said it will block a corridor planned in the Caucasus under a United States-brokered peace accord between Azerbaijan and Armenia, which has been hailed by other countries in the region as beneficial for achieving lasting peace.
Ali Akbar Velayati, a top adviser to Iran’s supreme leader, said on Saturday that Tehran would block the initiative “with or without Russia”, with which Iran has a strategic alliance alongside Armenia.
US President Donald Trump “thinks the Caucasus is a piece of real estate he can lease for 99 years”, Velayati told state-affiliated Tasnim News, referring to the transport corridor included in the peace deal.
“This passage will not become a gateway for Trump’s mercenaries — it will become their graveyard,” he added, describing the plan as “political treachery” aimed at undermining Armenia’s territorial integrity.
The terms of the accord, which was unveiled at a signing ceremony at the White House on Friday, include exclusive US development rights to a route through Armenia that would link Azerbaijan to Nakhchivan, an Azerbaijani enclave that borders Baku’s ally Turkiye.
The corridor, which would pass close to the border with Iran, would be named the Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity, or TRIPP, and operate under Armenian law.
Velayati argued that it would open the way for NATO to position itself “like a viper” between Iran and Russia.
Separately, Iran’s foreign ministry issued a statement expressing concern about the negative consequences of any foreign intervention in the vicinity of its borders.
While it welcomed the peace deal between Armenia and Azerbaijan, the ministry said any project near Iran’s borders should be developed “with respect for national sovereignty and territorial integrity, and without foreign interference”.
For its part, Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs cautiously welcomed the deal, saying on Saturday that Moscow supported efforts to promote stability and prosperity in the region, including the Washington meeting.
Similarly to Iran, however, it warned against outside intervention, arguing that lasting solutions should be developed by countries in the region.
“The involvement of non-regional players should strengthen the peace agenda, not create new divisions,” the ministry said, adding that it hoped to avoid the “unfortunate experience” of Western-led conflict resolution in the Middle East.
Meanwhile, Turkiye on Saturday said it hoped the planned transit corridor would boost exports of energy and other resources through the South Caucasus.
A NATO member, Turkiye has strongly backed Azerbaijan in its conflicts with Armenia, but has pledged to restore ties with Yerevan after it signs a final peace deal with Baku.
The Turkish presidency said President Recep Tayyip Erdogan discussed the peace agreement with Ilham Aliyev, his counterpart from Azerbaijan, and offered Ankara’s support in achieving lasting peace in the region.
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan also addressed the planned corridor during a visit to Egypt, saying it could “link Europe with the depths of Asia via Turkiye” and would be “a very beneficial development”.
Armenia and Azerbaijan have fought a series of wars since the late 1980s when Nagorno-Karabakh, a region in Azerbaijan that had a mostly ethnic Armenian population at the time, broke away from Azerbaijan with support from Armenia.
Armenia last year agreed to return several villages to Azerbaijan in what Baku described as a “long-awaited historic event”.
Ahmad Shahidov, of the Azerbaijan Institute for Democracy and Human Rights, told Al Jazeera that he expected a final peace declaration between Armenia and Azerbaijan to be signed in the coming weeks.
Shahidov said Friday’s US-brokered deal constituted a “roadmap” for the final agreement, which appears imminent given there are no unresolved territorial disputes between the two neighbours.
As Israel’s war on Gaza rages, chances of normalising ties with its neighbours are fading.
Nearly every state in the Middle East has condemned Israel’s war on Gaza.
Saudi Arabia says normalising relations with Israel hinges on a Palestinian state.
Jordan, Egypt and some Gulf nations have diplomatic ties with Israel, but have criticised it publicly.
In Europe, a growing number of countries are recognising Palestine and the EU is reviewing economic relations with Israel.
But are words enough to make Israel stop killing and starving Palestinians?
And what would it take for countries to cut ties with Israel?
Presenter: James Bays
Guests:
Daniel Levy – President of the US/Middle East Project and a former Israeli negotiator
James Moran – Former European Union ambassador to Egypt and Jordan
Jawad Anani – Former deputy prime minister and former foreign minister of Jordan
For more than 21 months, much of the international media danced around the truth about Israel’s war on Gaza. The old newsroom cliche – “if it bleeds, it leads” – seemed to apply, for Western media newsrooms, more to Ukraine than Gaza. When Palestinian civilians were bombed in their homes, when entire families were buried under rubble, coverage came slowly, cautiously and often buried in “both sides” framing.
But when the images of starving Palestinian children began to emerge – haunting faces, skeletal limbs, vacant stares – something shifted. The photographs were too visceral, too undeniable. Western audiences were confronted with what the siege of Gaza truly means. And for once, the media’s gatekeepers could not entirely look away.
The world’s attention, however, alerted Israel, and a new “hasbara” operation was deployed. Hasbara means “explaining”, but in practice, it’s about erasing. With Tel Aviv’s guidance, pro-Israel media operatives set out to “debunk” the evidence of famine. The method was fully Orwellian: Don’t just contest the facts. Contest the eyes that see them.
We were told there is no starvation in Gaza. Never mind that Israeli ministers had publicly vowed to block food, fuel and medicine. Never mind that trucks were stopped for months, sometimes vandalised by Israeli settlers in broad daylight.
Israeli officials, speaking in polished English to Western media, assured the public this was all a Hamas fabrication, as though Hamas had somehow managed to trick aid agencies, foreign doctors and every journalist in Gaza into staging hunger.
The propaganda machine thought it had struck gold with one photograph. A New York Times image showed a skeletal boy, Mohammad Zakariya Ayyoub al-Matouq. Israeli intelligence sources whispered to friendly outlets: He’s not starving. He has a medical condition. As if that somehow makes his horrific condition acceptable.
The Times went ahead and added an editor’s note to “correct” the record.
That’s how hasbara works – not by persuading people but by exhausting them. By turning every fact into a dispute, every image into a row. By pushing editors to “balance” a photograph of an emaciated child with a government news release denying he is hungry.
Imagine a weather report where one source says, “It’s raining,” and another insists, “No, it’s sunny,” while everyone stands outside, soaked from the downpour. Gaza is that drenched truth, and yet much of the Western news media still feels obliged to quote the weatherman in Tel Aviv.
Every honest report is met with a barrage of emails, phone calls and social media smears, all designed to create just enough doubt to make editors pull back.
But the claim “He’s not starving. He’s just sick” is not an exoneration. It’s an admission.
A child with a pre-existing medical condition who is brought to the point of looking like a skeleton means he has been deprived not only of the nutrition he needs, but of the medical care. This is forced starvation and medicide side by side.
Palestinian journalists inside Gaza, the only ones reporting since Israel banned all foreign media and killed more than 200 Palestinian journalists, are starving alongside the people they report on. In a rare joint statement, the BBC, AFP and Associated Press warned that their own staff members face “the same dire circumstances as those they are covering”.
At the height of the outrage over these photos last week, Israel allowed in a trickle of aid – some airdrops and 30 to 50 trucks a day when the United Nations says 500 to 600 are needed. Some trucks never arrived, blocked by Jewish extremists.
Meanwhile, a parallel mechanism for aid distribution has been funnelled through Israeli-approved American contractors, which purposefully create dangerous and chaotic conditions that lead to daily killings of aid seekers. Crowds of starving Palestinians gather, only to be shot at by Israeli soldiers.
And still, the denials persist. The official line is that this is not starvation. It’s something else – undefined but definitely not a war crime.
The world has seen famine before – in Ethiopia, in Somalia, in Yemen, in South Sudan. The photographs from Gaza belong in the same category. The difference is that here, a powerful state causing the starvation is actively trying to convince us that our own eyes are lying to us.
The goal is not to convince the public that there is no hunger but to plant enough doubt to paralyse outrage. If the facts can be made murky, the pressure on Israel diminishes. This is why every newsroom that avoids the word “starvation” becomes an unwitting accomplice.
Starvation in Gaza is not collateral damage. It is an instrument of war, measurable in calories denied, trucks blocked and fields destroyed.
Israel’s strategy depends on controlling the lens as well as the border. It goes as far as prohibiting journalists allowed on airplanes airdropping food from filming the devastation below.
For a brief moment, the publication of those photos of starving Palestinians broke through the wall of propaganda, prompting minimal concessions. But the siege continues, the hunger deepens and the mass killing expands. Now the Israeli government has decided to launch another ground offensive to occupy Gaza City, and with it, the genocide will only get worse.
History will record the famine in Gaza. It will remember the prices of flour and sugar, the names of children and the aid trucks turned back. And it will remember how the world allowed itself to be told, in the middle of a downpour, that the sky was clear.
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.
Critics say ban on activist group stifles freedom of speech and assembly and aims to curb pro-Palestine demonstrations.
Police in London say they have arrested at least 200 people at a protest in support of the group Palestine Action, which was classified as a “terror organisation” by the British government last month.
The Metropolitan Police said on Saturday that 200 demonstrators had been arrested at Parliament Square “for showing support for a proscribed organisation”.
“It will take time, but we will arrest anyone expressing support for Palestine Action,” the police force said in an earlier post on X.
The arrests are the latest at a series of protests denouncing the government’s ban on Palestine Action, a move critics say infringes on freedom of speech and the right to protest, as well as aims to stifle demonstrations against Israel’s war on the Gaza Strip.
Under the Terrorism Act 2000, membership in or support for the group is now a criminal offence punishable by up to 14 years in prison.
Reporting from Parliament Square on Saturday, Al Jazeera’s Sonia Gallego said the threat of arrest or punishment “hasn’t deterred any supporters” of Palestine Action from expressing their backing for the group.
“Something as simple as wearing a t-shirt saying, ‘I support Palestine Action’, or even having that written on a sheet of paper” could lead to an arrest, Gallego said.
In advance of Saturday’s protest, more than 200 people had been detained in a wave of demonstrations across the United Kingdom denouncing the ban since it came into force in July.
More than 350 academics from around the world signed onto an open letter this week applauding a “growing campaign of collective defiance” against the decision by Home Secretary Yvette Cooper to proscribe Palestine Action.
The signatories “deplore the repressive consequences that this ban has already had, and are especially concerned about the likely impact of Cooper’s ban on universities across the UK and beyond”, the letter read.
Israeli historian and University of Exeter professor Ilan Pappe, Goldsmiths professor Eyal Weizman, and political thinkers Michael Hardt and Jaqueline Rose were among those who signed the letter.
Meanwhile, a separate march organised by the Palestine Coalition group was also held in London on Saturday.
The Metropolitan Police said one person had been arrested at that march from Russell Square to Whitehall for displaying a banner in support of Palestine Action.
Amnesty International UK has condemned the arrest of peaceful protesters solely for holding signs, saying such action constitutes “a violation of the UK’s international obligations to protect the rights of freedom of expression and peaceful assembly”.
BREAKING: Quakers are now being arrested at Parliament Square for holding signs which say “I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action”
There are still hundreds here who are collectively opposing genocide and the unjust ban of the direct action group. pic.twitter.com/YcfrV8vZ4l
— Defend our Juries (@DefendourJuries) August 9, 2025
Palestine Action has increasingly targeted Israel-linked companies in the UK, often spraying red paint, blocking entrances or damaging equipment.
The group accuses the UK’s government of complicity in what it says are Israeli war crimes in Gaza, where Israel’s bombardment and blockade have killed tens of thousands of Palestinians since October 2023.
The British government issued the ban after Palestine Action broke into a military airbase in June and damaged two Airbus Voyager aircraft, used for air-to-air refuelling.
Manaal Siddiqui, a spokesperson for Palestine Action, told Al Jazeera that the aircraft “can be used to refuel and have been used to refuel Israeli fighter jets”.
According to the group, planes from the Brize Norton base also fly to a British Air Force base in Cyprus to then be dispatched to collect intelligence shared with the Israeli government.
Government source says recent Kurdish-led conference ‘dealt blow’ to talks on implementing a March integration deal.
Syria’s new government will not take part in planned meetings with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in Paris, Syria’s state news agency has reported, as tensions mount between the two sides.
SANA’s report on Saturday cast doubt over an integration deal signed this year by the armed group and Syria’s interim government, which took over after the overthrow of longtime President Bashar al-Assad in December.
Quoting an unnamed government source, the news agency said the government wants future negotiations to be held in the Syrian capital, Damascus, “as it is the legitimate and national address for dialogue among Syrians”.
The SDF was the main force allied with the United States in Syria during fighting that defeated ISIL (ISIS) in 2019. In March, the SDF signed a deal with the new government to join Syria’s state institutions.
The deal aims to stitch back together a country fractured by 14 years of war, paving the way for Kurdish-led forces that hold a quarter of Syria and regional Kurdish governing bodies to integrate with Damascus.
However, the agreement did not specify how the SDF will be merged with Syria’s armed forces. The group has previously said its forces must join as a bloc while the government wants them to join as individuals.
Saturday’s report comes a day after the Kurdish administration held a conference involving several Syrian minority communities, the first such event since al-Assad’s removal from power.
The conference’s final statement called for “a democratic constitution that … establishes a decentralised state” and guarantees the participation of all components of Syrian society.
Damascus has previously rejected calls for decentralisation.
In its report on Saturday, SANA said the government “stresses that the SDF conference dealt a blow to the ongoing negotiation efforts” towards implementing the March agreement.
“Accordingly, the government will not participate in any meetings scheduled in Paris, nor will it sit at the negotiating table with any side seeking to revive the era of the deposed regime under any name or cover,” the report said.
Participants in the Kurdish-organised conference also criticised the government over sectarian clashes in Syria’s southern province of Suwayda and the coastal region.
“The current constitutional declaration does not meet the aspirations of the Syrian people. … It should be reviewed to ensure a wider participatory process and a fair representation in the transitional period,” the conference’s final statement read.
The dispute is the latest in a recent conflict between the Syrian administration and the SDF after clashes between the group and government forces this month.
The SDF on Saturday accused government-backed factions of attacking areas in northeastern Syria more than 22 times.
It said it had exercised restraint during such “aggressions” but the continuation of attacks “threatens mutual trust and undermines understandings”.
Deadly explosion at weapons depot comes as army has been dismantling Hezbollah infrastructure in southern Lebanon.
At least six Lebanese soldiers have been killed in an explosion as they were inspecting a weapons depot in southern Lebanon, the military has announced.
In a statement on Saturday, the Lebanese army said the unit was dismantling the contents of the depot in the Wadi Zibqin area, in the Tyre region, when the explosion occurred. It said other soldiers were injured but did not specify how many.
“An investigation is underway to determine the cause of the incident,” the statement said.
The Lebanese army has been working with the United Nations peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon (UNIFIL) to dismantle Hezbollah military infrastructure as part of a ceasefire deal with Israel that came into force in November.
The deadly explosion comes as the Lebanese government this week approved United States-backed plans to disarm Hezbollah – a move the Lebanese group has rejected, saying such demands serve Israeli interests.
It also comes just days after Andrea Tenenti, a spokesperson for UN peacekeepers in Lebanon, said troops had “discovered a vast network of fortified tunnels” in the same area.
UN spokesperson Farhan Haq had told reporters that peacekeepers and Lebanese troops found “three bunkers, artillery, rocket launchers, hundreds of explosive shells and rockets, anti-tank mines and about 250 ready-to-use improvised explosive devices”.
🧵 Lebanese army soldiers work alongside @UNIFIL_ peacekeepers every day to restore security and stability to south Lebanon. pic.twitter.com/8s5EkNAdSh
— Diodato Abagnara (@DiodatoAbagnara) August 9, 2025
Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said in a social media post on Saturday that “Lebanon mourns” the soldiers who were killed “while fulfilling their national duty”.
Diodato Abagnara, head of the UNIFIL mission, also expressed condolences to the troops and their families.
“Several dedicated Lebanese soldiers were killed and others injured, simply doing their job to restore stability and avoid a return to open conflict,” Abagnara wrote on X.
“Sincere wishes for a full and fast recovery for the injured. Peacekeepers will continue to support the Lebanese Armed Forces and their work to restore stability, however we can.”
Israeli attacks have killed at least 39 people, including 21 seeking humanitarian aid and 11 who starved to death, over 24 hours in Gaza, Palestinian health authorities say.
Gaza’s Ministry of Health said on Saturday that the total number of malnutrition deaths has reached 212, including 98 children, since Israel launched its war on Gaza in October 2023.
Most of the deaths have occurred in recent weeks as Israel continues to impose severe restrictions on aid supplies entering Gaza after partially lifting a total blockade in late May.
Mohammed Abu Salmiya, the director of al-Shifa Hospital in northern Gaza, told Al Jazeera that famine continues to pose a serious risk “especially among children and the elderly”.
“Malnutrition among children leads to decreased immunity and may lead to death,” he said.
On Friday, the World Food Programme (WFP) called on Israel to allow the delivery of at least 100 aid trucks per day to Gaza, noting that only 60 of its aid truck drivers have been vetted and approved by the Israeli military to date.
The 100 trucks per day the organisation called for is a fraction of the 600 per day other United Nations agencies and Gaza authorities have said are needed to meet the basic needs of Gaza residents.
“Since July 27, 266 WFP trucks arriving at crossing points were turned back, 31 percent of which had initially been approved,” the agency’s latest report said.
“Convoy movements are frequently hampered by last-minute changes by Israeli authorities, and heavy insecurity due to military activities along convoy routes.”
In its latest statement on Saturday, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, noted that it has not been allowed to bring any humanitarian aid into Gaza, including food and medicine, for more than five months, depriving hungry and ailing Palestinians of what they need to survive.
UNRWA has been calling on Israel to lift its siege on Gaza, saying the ongoing airdrops of humanitarian aid from several countries “are very expensive and ineffective” at reaching those urgently in need.
The warnings come as Israeli forces continued to escalate their attacks across the territory. Six people were killed by Israeli soldiers while waiting for aid near the Netzarim Corridor in central Gaza, medical sources told Al Jazeera.
Two other Palestinians were also killed and transported to the Nasser Medical Complex from a GHF aid distribution site in the southern part of the territory.
One woman was killed and another person was wounded in an Israeli air strike targeting an apartment in Khan Younis in the south.
According to the Gaza Health Ministry’s latest count, at least 39 people have been killed in 24 hours.
Israel’s war on Gaza has killed at least 61,369 Palestinians in Gaza and wounded 152,850. An estimated 1,139 people were killed in Israel during Hamas-led attacks on October 7, 2023, and more than 200 were taken captive.
As the death toll continues to soar, international condemnation of Israel’s conduct in the war is growing, with several countries raising alarm over Israel’s plans to seize Gaza City in an operation that could forcibly displace hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to concentration zones in southern Gaza.
A rare emergency UN Security Council meeting has been scheduled on Sunday to address the plan approved by Israel’s security cabinet this week.
In Gaza City, residents were defiant, promising not to leave in the event of a new Israeli ground offensive.
Umm Imran told Al Jazeera that there was nowhere safe in Gaza.
“They say go south, go to al-Mawasi, but there is nowhere safe any more – north, south, east or west. No one and nowhere is safe. We will stay here.”
Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud, reporting from Deir el-Balah in central Gaza, said residents were unable to sleep on Friday night after the announcement by Israel.
“People are wondering what’s going to happen to them, what’s going to be left of Gaza if Israel moves on with its approved plan to occupy the entire Gaza Strip, starting with Gaza City,” he said.
The Israeli plan has also been condemned by the foreign ministers of Australia, Germany, Italy, New Zealand and the United Kingdom.
In a joint statement on Saturday, the diplomats warned that Israel’s plan will “aggravate the catastrophic humanitarian situation, endanger the lives of the hostages, and further risk the mass displacement of civilians”.
“Any attempts at annexation or of settlement extension violate international law.”
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan also urged Muslim nations to work in unison to oppose Israel’s plan.
Speaking at a joint news conference in El Alamein with his Egyptian counterpart after meeting Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, Fidan said members of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation had been called to an emergency meeting to tackle the crisis.
Protesters from the Israeli activist group, Brothers and Sisters in Arms, etched an anti-war message in the sand near a US embassy building in Tel Aviv. It demanded President Donald Trump intervene to stop the war in Gaza.
Published On 8 Aug 20258 Aug 2025
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ office said Israel’s decision to take control of Gaza City is a dangerous escalation that will lead to more “forced displacement, killings, and massive destruction.”
Published On 8 Aug 20258 Aug 2025
Beitar Jerusalem fans sparked chaos in Riga, hurling pyrotechnics and setting off flares during their loss to Riga FC, yet faced no repercussions.
Al Jazeera’s Nils Adler explores why Israeli clubs like Beitar continue to play in Europe despite fans chanting genocidal slogans and glorifying Palestinian hate.
Published On 8 Aug 20258 Aug 2025
Palestinians in Gaza City are facing the prospect of further displacement with a mixture of fear and defiance after Israel announced plans for a military takeover of the largest city in the enclave, where nearly a million people are currently sheltering.
The city was thrown into chaos on Friday after Israel’s security cabinet approved plans for the takeover, which would involve the forcible removal of Palestinians already displaced multiple times into concentration zones in the south.
“I swear to God that I have faced death like 100 times, so for me, it’s better to die here,” said Ahmed Hirz, who has been displaced along with his family at least eight times since Israel’s war began.
“I will never leave here,” he told Al Jazeera. “We have gone through suffering and starvation and torture and miserable conditions, and our final decision is to die here.”
That sentiment was shared by others who spoke to Al Jazeera. Rajab Khader said he would refuse to move to southern Gaza, to “stay in the streets with dogs and other animals”.
“We must stay in Gaza [City] with our families and loved ones. The Israelis will find nothing except our bodies and our souls,” he said.
Maghzouza Saada, who was previously displaced from northeastern Beit Hanoon, expressed her outrage over being forced to move again, when nowhere in the Strip could be considered safe.
“The south is not safe. Gaza City is not safe, the north is not safe. Where should we go?” she asked. “Do we throw ourselves in the sea?”
Reporting from Gaza City, Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud said residents had been in a “state of panic” since the early hours of Friday over Israel’s plans to ethnically cleanse the area.
He said that some had started to pack up whatever is left of their belongings. “Not because they know where they are going, but because they don’t want to be caught at the [last] moment. They want to be ready for the time the Israeli military is forcing them out,” said Mahmoud.
“The fear, the concern, the desperation are all on the rise. The Israeli military promises an evacuation zone where people, in fact, end up being killed in these areas,” he added.
Amjad Shawa, director of the Palestinian NGO Network, said residents were tired of being forcibly and repeatedly displaced. This time, he said, the prospect of evacuation posed even greater dangers, with hospitals, water facilities and other infrastructure destroyed.
“Now, there is nothing to give to the people, and it’s risky,” he said.
“We have to move elders who cannot walk, and we have patients and injured people who cannot move. We cannot leave them behind, and we cannot give them services.”
As news of Israel’s controversial escalation sunk in, the military continued its attacks on the vulnerable population, killing at least 36 people since dawn – including at least 21 who were seeking aid – according to medical sources.
Among the day’s attacks, an Israeli drone targeted Gaza’s southern municipality of Bani Suheila, east of Khan Younis city, killing two Palestinians, according to a source from Nasser Hospital who spoke to Al Jazeera.
Al Jazeera Arabic reported that one aid seeker was shot dead by Israeli forces in northern Gaza. And at least two people were killed at an aid distribution site run by the controversial United States and Israel-backed GHF, which is slated for expansion under Israel’s new offensive.
Reporting from Jordan’s capital, Amman, Al Jazeera’s Hoda Abdel-Hamid said that the notorious foundation, which currently runs four aid sites where over 1,300 Palestinians have been killed while trying to get food, mainly by Israeli forces, would be operating 12 more hubs in the enclave.
Abdel-Hamid said that Israel had not given an “exact timeline” for taking control of Gaza City, but that a ground offensive was in the offing, with “troop movement along Israel’s southern border with Gaza”. Forcibly removing up to 900,000 Palestinians from the city could, she said, take weeks.
In the longer term, military experts have said Israel’s plans – which would see it assume security control over the enclave, establishing an alternative civil administration that is neither Hamas nor the Palestinian Authority – could take years.
Amid mounting global condemnation from the United Nations, the European Union and a number of countries, it was unclear what Israel’s chief military backer, the US, made of the plans.
US Vice President JD Vance declined to comment on whether his administration had been given prior notification about Israel’s Gaza City plans, but continued to withhold support for a Palestinian state and underlined that “Hamas can’t attack innocent people”.
Experts say Israel would not be able to move forward with its plan to take total military control of Gaza without billions of dollars in backing from Washington. And few have forgotten President Donald Trump’s stated desire to “clean up” Gaza and turn the enclave into the “Riviera of the Middle East”.
On Friday, Hamas called Israel’s plans for Gaza City a “war crime”, saying that the decision explained why the country had suddenly withdrawn from the last round of ceasefire negotiations.
In a separate statement on Telegram, it said Palestinians would “resist any occupation or aggressive force”, slamming the US for providing cover for Israel, and accusing the international community of complicity in crimes against the Palestinian people.
The UN Security Council will hold an emergency session on Saturday to discuss Israel’s escalation.
Move would forcibly displace hundreds of thousands of Palestinians.
The Israeli government says it’s going to seize control of Gaza City, install a different administration and try to eliminate Hamas.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier said Israel planned to take over the entire Strip.
The Israeli military already controls about 80 percent of Gaza. The more-than-two-million people living there have been bombed, starved, repeatedly displaced and forced into temporary shelters.
So, why did Israel make this announcement now?
Is the prime minister trying to appease the right-wing members of his cabinet?
Or is he trying to detract international condemnation of the man-made hunger crisis?
Presenter: Adrian Finighan
Guests:
Dr Khamis Elessi – Neurorehabilitation and pain medicine consultant
Yossi Mekelberg – Senior consulting fellow at the MENA Programme of Chatham House
Phyllis Bennis – Fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies and author of Understanding Palestine and Israel
Video shows a large explosion targeting an apartment building near the al Shifa Medical Complex, west of Gaza City, only hours after the Israeli security cabinet approved a proposal to completely occupy the city.
Published On 8 Aug 20258 Aug 2025
“By occupying Gaza now and continuing the war, [Israel gives] up on saving the hostages.”
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Berlin says it will halt shipments of military equipment that could be used in Gaza after the Israeli security cabinet approved a plan to expand the war.
Germany has suspended all military exports to Israel that could be used in Gaza after Israel’s security cabinet approved a plan to take over Gaza City, an escalation in the 22-month war.
Chancellor Friedrich Merz announced the decision on Friday, shortly after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office confirmed the security cabinet voted in favour of a plan to seize the largest city in the besieged Palestinian territory.
A day earlier, Netanyahu had declared that Israeli forces were aiming to take full military control of the entire Gaza Strip despite mounting international condemnation over Israel’s war, which has killed tens of thousands of people and caused a starvation crisis.
“Under these circumstances, the German government will not authorise any exports of military equipment that could be used in the Gaza Strip until further notice,” Merz said.
While continuing to back what he called Israel’s “right to defend itself” and the release of captives held by Hamas, Merz stressed that Germany could no longer ignore the worsening toll on civilians.
“The even harsher military action by the Israeli army in the Gaza Strip, approved by the Israeli cabinet last night, makes it increasingly difficult for the German government to see how these goals will be achieved,” he said.
The timing of another major ground operation remains unclear since it will likely hinge on mobilising thousands of soldiers and forcibly removing civilians, almost certainly exacerbating the humanitarian catastrophe.
Gaza health authorities said 197 people, including 96 children, have died of malnutrition during the war in Gaza as Israel continues to impose severe restrictions on supplies of humanitarian aid. A United Nations-backed assessment has warned that famine is unfolding in the enclave.
Merz urged Israel to allow full and sustained access for humanitarian groups, including the UN and NGOs, to help civilians.
“With the planned offensive, the Israeli government bears even greater responsibility than before for providing for their needs,” Merz added.
He also warned Israel against any steps towards annexing the occupied West Bank.
In July, the Israeli parliament approved a symbolic measure calling for the annexation of the West Bank.
From October 2023 to May this year, Germany issued arms export licences to Israel worth 485 million euros ($564m), making it one of Israel’s key military suppliers, according to figures from the German parliament.
Netanyahu’s office said the Israeli army “will prepare to take control of Gaza City while providing humanitarian aid to the civilian population outside the combat zones”.