Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have criticized top army personnel for “exaggerating fears” about about an imminent Israeli army onslaught on the city of Gaza. Quoting several Israel sources, Haaretz said Netanyahu repeatedly criticized army officers in several meetings.
The newspaper reported that Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir assured ministers that “further military pressure on Hamas will lead to losses among soldiers,” as well as “losses among prisoners and an increased burden on reserves.”
The newspaper added that “the occupation of the city of Rafah resulted in the deaths of prisoners and soldiers but did not lead to their release,” noting that “army leaders expressed concern that Netanyahu was ignoring their professional recommendations during meetings.”
Reports had revealed a growing state of discontent and collapse within the ranks of the army, in light of the ongoing aggression on the Gaza Strip and the approaching second anniversary of its war.
Earlier, Israeli Army Radio confirmed that tensions between Zamir and the top political echelons “reached their peak,” with the latter demanding “strategic clarity” regarding the continuation of the war on the Gaza Strip.
According to the radio’s military correspondent, Doron Kadosh, Zamir warns that “the cabinet hasn’t met for a long time,” and that “the army lacks clarity on how to proceed, and is not receiving clear orders and instructions,” as reported in Jo24.
Israeli warplanes killed four journalists, Monday morning as they targeted the Nasser Medical Hospital in Khan Yunis in the south of the Gaza Strip. The Israeli bombing killed Al Jazeera cameraman Mohammed Salama, photo-journalist Hossam al-Masry, journalist Mariam Abu Daqqa, and journalist Moaz Abu Taha.
The targeting also killed 11 other Palestinians and wounded dozens of others according to the Gaza Ministry of Health.
The bombing directly targeted the fourth floor of the Nasser Hospital, with a second attack on the Yassin building inside the Nasser complex through an Israeli a suicide drone.
The Gaza Civil Defense added one of its personnel was killed and seven others wounded while attempting to rescue the injured and retrieve the bodies of the victims in the bombing of the hospital.
The deadly attack comes amid ongoing Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip since 7 October, amid UN warnings of the complete collapse of the health system.
According to Government Media Office statistics Israel killed 244 Palestinian journalists in Gaza, the latest of whom were the four journalists killed, Monday, in the bombing of Nasser Medical Complex.
The government media office called on “the international community, international organizations, and organizations involved in journalism and media in all countries of the world to condemn the crimes of the occupation, deter it, prosecute it in international courts for its ongoing crimes, and bring the occupation’s criminals to justice.”
It also called for serious and effective pressure to stop the crime of genocide, protect journalists and media professionals in the Gaza Strip, and halt their killing and assassination, according to a statement from the Government Media Office.
With American support, Israel has been committing genocide in Gaza since October 7, 2023, including killing, starvation, destruction, and forced displacement, ignoring all international appeals and orders from the International Court of Justice to halt it.
The Israeli genocide left more than 62,000 Palestinians dead, approximately 158,000 wounded—mostly children and women—more than 9,000 missing, and hundreds of thousands displaced.
The situation in Gaza is beyond a “catastrophe,” with the enclave left without a functioning health system and widespread famine setting in, a senior official of medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said Saturday.
“The situation is really beyond being described as a catastrophe anymore. Catastrophe is a very simple word now, soft word. It’s really worse than calling it a catastrophe,” Mohammed Abu Mughaiseeb, MSF’s deputy medical coordinator in Gaza, told Anadolu in an interview.
Stating that the health sector has been systematically dismantled over 22 months of Israeli bombardment, with most hospitals destroyed or out of service, Mughaiseeb added: “I’m not saying now collapsed health system. No, there is no health system anymore in Gaza.”
He also noted that the remaining field clinics and makeshift wards are overflowing with wounded and critically ill patients.
Hospital occupancy rates have soared to 300%, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, leaving patients on bare floors and halting many surgeries due to shortages. Only 15 of 38 hospitals are partially operational, most heavily damaged by Israeli strikes.
Hunger, medicine shortages
Abu Mughaiseeb said a trickle of recent aid trucks has done little to stem a worsening famine in Gaza.
“There is no food, no medicine, no real humanitarian aid,” he said. “There is no food, no medicine, no humanitarian aid.”
“The children who are dying from starvation, they have underlying disease,” he said.
“They could be treated and they are not supposed to die. I mean if they had food, they will live. If you have the special supplement proteins and milk, they will live,” Mughaiseeb further stated.
A UN-backed food security assessment has already confirmed famine in northern Gaza and expects it to spread further south by the end of September.
‘Death distribution point’
The MSF official also condemned Israeli- and US-backed distribution schemes that replaced UN operations, calling them unsafe.
“It’s not a distribution point, it’s really a death distribution point,” he said, describing how civilians are often attacked near distribution points.
Gaza’s Health Ministry reports more than 2,000 Palestinians have been killed and over 15,000 injured by Israeli army fire while waiting for aid since May.
Reoccupation ‘madness’
On Israel’s plan to reoccupy Gaza City, Abu Mughaiseeb warned it would force nearly two million displaced Palestinians into an unlivable corner of the enclave.
Calling it “a mad plan,” he said: “I mean, there will be a lot of people killed. There will be a lot of blood. Innocent people will die.
“They are speaking about a humanitarian zone. There is no humanitarian zone. I mean, how you can absorb 2 million people, and to build for them tents, and provide them with healthcare and food?”
“I don’t know really, this is really madness.”
Israel’s Defense Minister Israel Katz confirmed Friday that he had approved the military’s operational plan to seize Gaza City – part of a broader government strategy to reoccupy the enclave and disarm Palestinian resistance groups.
Israel has killed over 62,600 Palestinians in a brutal onslaught in Gaza since October 2023. The military campaign has devastated the enclave, which is facing famine.
Last November, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.
Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on the enclave.
More than half a million people in Gaza are trapped in famine, marked by widespread starvation, destitution and preventable deaths, according to a new UN-backed food security report released on Friday.
“Famine is not about food; it is the deliberate collapse of the systems needed for human survival.”
Famine conditions are projected to spread from Gaza Governorate to Deir Al Balah and Khan Younis Governorates in the coming weeks, the IPC estimates.
Israel’s obligations
“As the occupying power, Israel has unequivocal obligations under international law – including the duty of ensuring food and medical supplies of the population,” said the UN chief, reacting to the famine declaration from the IPC, which is endorsed by dozens of governments, UN agencies and NGOs as the key evidence-based measure of food insecurity and malnutrition.
UN agencies operating in Gaza joined the UN chief in calling for an immediate ceasefire to finally allow unimpeded, large-scale humanitarian response and the immediate release of all hostages taken by Hamas and other militants during the 7 October 2023 terror attacks.
Agencies also expressed grave concern over the threat of the intensified military offensive on Gaza City and any further escalation in the conflict, as it would have further devastating consequences for civilians where famine conditions already exist.
“Many people – especially sick and malnourished children, older people and people with disabilities – may be unable to evacuate,” they said in a joint statement.
Famine set to expand
By the end of September, more than 640,000 people will face ‘catastrophic’ levels of food insecurity – classified as IPC Phase 5 – across the Gaza Strip.
An additional 1.14 million people in the enclave will be in phase 4 with a further 396,000 people facing phase 3 ‘crisis’ conditions.
Conditions in North Gaza are estimated to be as severe – or worse – than in Gaza City. However, limited data prevented an IPC classification, highlighting the urgent need for access.
Classifying famine means that the most extreme category is triggered when three critical thresholds – extreme food deprivation, acute malnutrition and starvation-related deaths – have been breached. The latest analysis now affirms on the basis of reasonable evidence that these criteria have been met, UN agencies said.
Briefing journalists on Friday at UN headquarters in Geneva, the UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Tom Fletcher said it was a famine that could have been prevented “if we had been allowed.”
A young severely malnourished girl is helped into her clothes.
Famine in a fertile land
“Yet food stacks up at borders because of systematic obstruction by Israel. It is a famine within a few hundred metres of food, in a fertile land.
It is a famine that we repeatedly warned of – but that the international media has not been allowed in to cover, to bear witness,” he added.
“It is a famine in 2025. A 21st century famine watched over by drones and the most advanced military technology in history. It is a famine openly promoted by some Israeli leaders as a weapon of war.”
On a wider scale, Mr. Fletcher said it was “the world’s famine. It is a famine that asks ‘but what did you do?’ A famine that will and must haunt us all.”
Malnutrition among children in Gaza is accelerating “at a catastrophic pace”, said UN agencies, who note that in July alone, more than 12,000 children were identified as acutely malnourished – the highest monthly figure ever recorded and a six-fold increase since the start of the year.
“It is a war crime to use starvation as a method of warfare, and the resulting deaths may also amount to the war crime of willful killing,” he said.
“Israeli authorities must take immediate steps to end the famine in the Gaza Governorate and prevent further loss of life across the Gaza strip. They must ensure immediate entry of humanitarian assistance in sufficient amounts, and full access to UN and other humanitarian organizations.”
First Middle East famine
Since the last IPC Analysis in May, the number of children expected to be at severe risk of death from malnutrition by the end of June 2026 has tripled from 14,100 to 43,400.
The new assessment reports the most severe deterioration since the IPC began analysing acute food insecurity and acute malnutrition in Gaza Strip, and it marks the first time a famine has been officially confirmed in the Middle East region.
Since July, food and aid supplies entering Gaza increased slightly but remained vastly insufficient, inconsistent and inaccessible compared to the need.
Meanwhile, approximately 98 percent of cropland in the territory is damaged or inaccessible – decimating the agriculture sector and local food production – and nine of ten people have been serially displaced from homes.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday he ordered immediate negotiations to secure the release of all hostages held in Gaza and end the war, even as he approved plans to occupy Gaza City.
The announcement appeared contradictory, coming days after Hamas accepted an Egyptian-Qatari proposal to free roughly half the hostages in exchange for a 60-day ceasefire and talks toward a permanent truce – terms at odds with Israel’s stated goal of occupying Gaza City.
“I came to approve the army’s plans to take control of Gaza City and decide the battle against Hamas,” Netanyahu said in statements carried by Israeli Channel 12 during a visit to the military’s Gaza Division.
“At the same time, I instructed immediate negotiations for the release of all our hostages and to end the war under conditions acceptable to Israel,” according to Anadolu.
Israel estimates Hamas is holding around 50 hostages, including 20 believed to be alive. More than 10,800 Palestinians are imprisoned in Israel, amid rights groups’ accusations of torture and medical neglect.
“We are in a decisive stage, and I deeply appreciate the response of reservists and the regular army for this vital mission,” Netanyahu said, claiming that defeating Hamas and freeing all captives “go hand in hand.”
It was the first time Netanyahu had directly addressed a potential exchange deal since Hamas announced its acceptance of the Egyptian-Qatari proposal.
Israeli media said the plan involves Israeli troop redeployments to areas near the border to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza, along with a 60-day pause in fighting.
During that time, exchanges would proceed in two phases: releasing 10 Israeli hostages alive and 18 bodies in return for Palestinian prisoners, and launching talks on permanent de-escalation from day one.
On Wednesday, Defense Minister Israel Katz approved a military plan dubbed “Gideon’s Chariots 2” to seize Gaza City despite mediation efforts.
The plan envisions forcing roughly 1 million residents southward, surrounding the city and carrying out raids in urban areas. A second phase would target refugee camps in central Gaza, many of which have already suffered heavy destruction.
Israel has killed more than 62,000 Palestinians in Gaza since October 2023. The military campaign has devastated the enclave, and led to food shortages and starvation deaths.
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