Alexander Cornwell
Reuters / September 6, 2025
TEL AVIV – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the military last month to capture Gaza’s largest urban centre, Gaza City, attacking what the government calls the last bastion of Hamas. An Israeli military spokesman said on Thursday that it now controls about 40% of the city, where about one million people lived prior to the war. The military controls about 75% of Gaza.
The Israeli military bombed a high-rise building in the city’s west on Friday that it said was being used by Hamas and that civilians had been warned beforehand. The military did not provide any evidence that militants were using the building.
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The building’s management issued a statement saying that it was being used for Palestinians displaced by the war, denying that it had been used for anything other than civilian purposes.
Footage showed the moment the building was struck, collapsing moments after impact and sending thick clouds of smoke billowing over nearby tent camps sheltering Palestinians.
Across Gaza, 30 Palestinians were killed by the military on Friday, including 20 in Gaza City, Gaza’s health ministry said.
The military has been carrying out heavy strikes on the city for weeks, advancing through outer suburbs, and this week forces were within a few kilometres of the city centre.
Ismail, a father of two from Gaza City’s Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood, described heavy fire and powerful explosions carried out by the Israeli military. He told Reuters that his family feared they would not be able to return if they fled.
“We pray for a ceasefire,” he said by phone.
Alexander Cornwell has over a decade of international reporting experience
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Israel strikes high-rise building and threatens to hit more in Gaza City offensive
Wafaa Shurafa, Julia Frankel & Bassem Mroue
AP / September 5, 2025
The strike came as the Israeli military stepped up operations aimed at seizing control of famine-stricken Gaza City. It was not immediately clear if anyone was wounded or killed in the strike.
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip – Israel struck a high-rise building in Gaza City on Friday after an evacuation warning, as the military stepped up operations aimed at seizing control of the famine-stricken city of some 1 million Palestinians. Strikes elsewhere in Gaza City killed at least 27 people, health officials said.
The military accused Hamas militants of using high-rises in the city for surveillance and planned ambushes, and said it would carry out “precise, targeted strikes” on militant infrastructure in the coming days.
Israel has begun mobilizing tens of thousands of reservists and is repeating evacuation warnings as part of its plan to widen its offensive, which has sparked opposition domestically and condemnation abroad.
Palestinians said Friday’s strike targeted the Mushtaha tower in Rimal, an upscale neighbourhood before the war. Gaza City resident Ahmed al-Boari said people fleeing Israeli operations elsewhere in the city had sought shelter in and around the building. Satellite imagery showed a large number of tents nearby.
It was not immediately clear if anyone was wounded or killed in the strike.
Israel said it struck the building because it was used by Hamas for surveillance. Photos of the building taken before Friday’s strike showed that its roof was already heavily damaged from earlier raids.
Fears grow as Israeli forces advance
Israel has declared Gaza City, in the north of the territory, to be a combat zone. Parts of the city are already considered “red zones” where Palestinians have been ordered to evacuate ahead of expected heavy fighting.
That has left residents on edge, including many who returned after fleeing the city in the initial stages of the war, which has already displaced around 90% of the territory’s population.
The city’s Shifa Hospital said 27 people were killed in Israeli strikes overnight into Friday, including six members of a single family. The Israeli military says it only targets militants and blames Hamas for civilian deaths because the militants operate in densely-populated areas.
The offensive has also sparked widespread protests among Israelis who fear it will endanger hostages still held in Gaza, some of whom are believed to be in Gaza City. There are 48 such hostages, 20 of them believed by Israel to be alive.
The protesters accuse Netanyahu of prolonging the war in order to satisfy his far-right governing partners instead of reaching a ceasefire with Hamas to bring the hostages home.
“The government of Israel is waging a war of attrition against us, against the citizens of Israel as a whole, and against the families of the hostages in particular,” said Lishay Lavi-Miran, the wife of hostage Omri Miran.
Hamas video shows hostages
Hamas released a propaganda video Friday of two hostages in Gaza City. The video shows Guy Gilboa-Dalal in a car, at one point joined by another hostage, Alon Ohel.
Gilboa-Dalal speaks, likely under duress, pleading for an end to the war and the return of hostages. He was last seen in a video more than six months ago with another hostage, Evyatar David, as they watched other hostages being released during a ceasefire.
Hamas-led militants killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted 251 people in their attack on southern Israel that triggered the war on Oct. 7, 2023. Most have since been released in ceasefires or other agreements.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed more than 64,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not say how many were civilians or combatants but says women and children make up around half the dead.
Israel says the war will continue until all the hostages are returned and Hamas is disarmed, and that it will retain open-ended security control of the territory of some 2 million Palestinians. Hamas has said it will only release the remaining hostages in return for Palestinian prisoners, a lasting ceasefire and a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.
Jewish settlers attack Palestinians in the West Bank
Jewish settlers descended on the Palestinian village of Khallet A-Daba in the occupied West Bank overnight, attacking residents with clubs and pepper spray, said Palestinians who arrived at the village in the attack’s aftermath.
Video obtained from Palestinian activist Adeeb Huraini (26) showed an older man with cuts on his head and leg, and a woman whose headscarf was soaked in blood.
Another video shows Basel Adra, a local activist, holding a baby with blood on its head, calling for help and saying there is “a lot of blood.” Adra said nine Palestinians were hospitalized after the attack.
Adra helped direct “No Other Land,” an Oscar-winning documentary about settler violence in the area. The Israeli military demolished much of the village last month.
The military did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Protests against U.S. sanctions on Palestinian civil society
Israeli and Palestinian human rights groups protested new U.S. sanctions aimed at Palestinian civil society, saying in a joint statement that they would inflict “severe harm on key human rights organizations that have worked for decades to protect Palestinians.”
The Trump administration on Thursday announced sanctions on three Palestinian groups — Al-Haq, Al-Mezan, and the Palestinian Center for Human Rights. The new measures would make it harder for them to receive donations from the United States.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the U.S. was targeting the groups over their involvement with the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) efforts to investigate, arrest and prosecute Israelis.
Last year, the ICC issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and his former defense minister, alleging crimes against humanity in Gaza. The United States and Israel have rejected the allegations and the U.S. has sanctioned a number of ICC judges and prosecutors.
“The U.S. is effectively punishing the very act of addressing human rights violations and abuses,” said Ammar Dwaik, head of the Palestinian Independent Commission for Human Rights. “This criminalizes accountability and sets a dangerous precedent worldwide that governments can silence investigators.”
Julia Frankel, based in Jerusalem, has reported from across Israel and the Israeli-occupied West Bank
Bassem Mroue reported from Beirut
