Israel bombards Gaza City after launching new offensive in defiance of global outrage Andrew JonesAugust 21, 2025 at 7:29 PM Israel launched strikes on Gaza City overnight as it moved forward with a new offensive in the Palestinian enclave despite international condemnation and mounting domestic pro...
- - Israel bombards Gaza City after launching new offensive in defiance of global outrage
Andrew JonesAugust 21, 2025 at 7:29 PM
Israel launched strikes on Gaza City overnight as it moved forward with a new offensive in the Palestinian enclave despite international condemnation and mounting domestic protests.
Explosions rocked neighborhoods in the city on Thursday, after Israel said its military had entered the first stages of a planned assault that includes calling up 60,000 reservists. The operation has sent civilians fleeing once again, intensifying fears about the starvation crisis unfolding in the territory.
Israel also carried out strikes on Khan Younis, in southern Gaza, and Deir al-Balah in the center of the territory on Thursday. Video from Deir al-Balah showed people running away from a large plume of smoke.
The expanded campaign also throws into question ceasefire talks, after Hamas said it had accepted a new proposal. Israel's defiance of global pressure has led to growing tensions with its allies, and it enters the Gaza City campaign while clashing publicly with major Western powers.
Smoke rises following an Israeli strike, in Gaza City, August 21, 2025. (Dawoud Abu Alkas / Reuters)
Palestinians rush to escape the area after Israeli strikes on tents where displaced Palestinians live in Deir al-Balah. (Anadolu / Getty Images)
Effie Defrin, a spokesperson for the Israeli military, said Wednesday that Israel would "intensify the strikes on Hamas in Gaza City, the political and military stronghold of the terror organization." Defrin said the military would issue evacuation orders to minimize civilian casualties.
For Palestinians who have faced repeated displacement, there is a sense of weariness.
In Gaza City, Riad Ashkantana said there were "no safe spaces" in the enclave.
"Last time, I was displaced to the south, but this time there's no possibility for me to move, because our displacement is death — let's face it with honor next to our homes," he told the Reuters news agency. "There is no safety anyway. Israel is letting us go south, but there's no safe spaces."
A view of a destroyed camp that houses displaced Palestinians in Deir al-Balah. (Ali Jadallah / Anadolu via Getty Images)
Hospitals in Gaza City are already "operating at nearly 300% over capacity with a constant influx of complex trauma injuries," the World Health Organization said. Israel's evacuation orders, "combined with massively escalating violence, have forced people into ever smaller areas, piling unbearable pressure onto hospitals," it said in a post on X.
The United Nations body for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, said that nearly one in three children in Gaza City is now malnourished.
And the Palestinian health ministry in Gaza said Thursday that that two people had died due to malnutrition in the past 24 hours, bringing the total to 271 since Israel launched its assault on the besieged enclave.
Israel has repeatedly denied that widespread starvation is taking place.
Hamas said earlier this week that it had accepted a ceasefire proposal from Arab mediators, but Israel has yet to say whether it will accept the deal.
An Israeli tank moves on an area near the Israeli-Gaza border, as seen from southern Israel, on Monday. (Maya Levin / AP)
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been publicly making the case for pressing ahead with military action.
In a 40-minute sit down with the Triggernometry podcast, Netanyahu rejected allegations from human rights groups that Israel was carrying out a genocide in Gaza, telling the podcast those claims were a fraud. "If we wanted to commit genocide, we would have done it in one afternoon. We have the capacity, but we don't do that," he said.
Netanyahu said that he was aware Israel had "work to do" to win over people across the West, citing young people in particular.
"We Jews have been fighting and losing the propaganda war for about 2,500 years. What's different now is that we're winning the ground war," he said.
In recent days his diplomatic approach has involved a war of words with the leaders of Australia and France over their decisions to recognize a Palestinian state.
A child is seen among devastation after Israeli strikes on a camp sheltering displaced Palestinians in Deir al-Balah. (Ali Jadallah / Anadolu via Getty Images)
In an interview with Sky News Australia on Thursday, Netanyahu said Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese's "record is forever tarnished by the weakness that he showed in the face of these Hamas terrorist monsters." Earlier in the week he labeled Albanese a "weak politician" who had "betrayed" Israel, sparking backlash.
Meanwhile, French President Emmanuel Macron's office issued a statement earlier this week pushing back against claims that its decision to recognize a Palestinian state had fueled a rise in antisemitism, saying they were "erroneous, abject, and will not go unanswered."
The diplomatic spats stand in stark contrast to President Donald Trump's continued backing for the U.S. ally.
In his podcast interview, Netanyahu highlighted that American support. "I think we've been very fortunate to have a leader in the United States who doesn't act like the European leaders," he said.
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