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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told residents of Gaza City on Monday to evacuate, as the military ramped up its deadly assault on the Palestinian territory's largest urban centre. Israel has been intensifying its bombardment of the city in preparation for an operation to conquer it, despite repeated entreaties from Western nations and aid agencies to stop. Gaza's civil defence agency meanwhile said at least 39 people had been killed by Israel, including 25 in Gaza City, Monday. The premier's warning came hours after one of the deadliest attacks on civilians in Jerusalem since the start of the war, in which two Palestinian gunmen opened fire on a bus, killing six people, according to Foreign Minister Gideon Saar. The two gunmen were killed by a security officer and an armed civilian, police said. Israel's defence minister, Israel Katz, had told Hamas earlier Monday to lay down its arms or face annihilation. On Monday, Israeli forces targeted a fourth high-rise building - the Al-Ruya tower- in Gaza City in as many days. Israel has faced mounting international pressure to halt its campaign in Gaza, with United Nations rights chief Volker Turk saying he was "horrified by the open use of genocidal rhetoric... by senior Israeli officials". US news outlet Axios reported that White House envoy Steve Witkoff sent a new proposal for a Gaza hostage and ceasefire deal to Hamas last week. Palestinian fighters killed four Israeli soldiers Monday after lobbing an explosive device into their tank, the Israeli military said. A Reuters report said Spain on Monday banned ships and aircraft carrying weapons to Israel from calling at Spanish ports or entering its airspace due to Israel's military offensive in Gaza, measures the Israeli foreign minister denounced as antisemitic. Spain, which recognised a Palestinian state in May 2024 and has been a vocal critic of Israel's actions in the Gaza Strip, responded to Gideon Saar's comments by summoning its ambassador in Tel Aviv back for consultations. On top of the ban on ships and aircraft delivering weapons or military-grade jet fuel to Israel, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez's government said it would not allow anyone who has participated directly in "genocide" in Gaza to enter Spain. Israel has strongly denied that its actions in Gaza amount to genocide, and it is fighting a case at the International Court of Justice in the Hague that accuses it of genocide.

The UN rights chief accused Israeli officials on Monday of using overt "genocidal rhetoric" about Gaza and called for decisive international action to "end the carnage".In a speech to the UN Human Rights Council that was criticised by Israel, Volker Turk said the occupied Palestinian territory was already "a graveyard".He accused Israel of inflicting "indescribable suffering and wholesale destruction"."I am horrified by the open use of genocidal rhetoric and the disgraceful dehumanisation of Palestinians by senior Israeli officials."The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights did not provide examples, but his spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani told AFP that "shocking and dehumanising language" has been used by a number of high-level officials, stressing that "this is not a case of one senior official mouthing off".A number of countries have sanctioned far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who has urged "total extermination" in Gaza, and National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, who has called for opening the "gates of hell on Gaza (to) encourage Gazans to emigrate".Shamdasani also pointed to Israeli Environmental Protection Minister Idit Silman's assertion in March that the "only solution for the Gaza Strip is to empty it of Gazans".And Heritage Minister Amichay Eliyahu said during a radio interview in July that "the government is racing to have Gaza erased".Turk stressed that nearly two years after the war erupted following Hamas's deadly attack on Israel, "the region is crying out for peace".The Israeli army bombed a Gaza City residential tower block on Sunday -- the third in as many days -- and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced the military was "deepening" its assault on the Gaza Strip's key urban centre.The UN estimates nearly one million people remain in and around Gaza City, where it officially declared a famine last month."Further militarisation, occupation, annexation and oppression will only feed more violence, retribution and terror," Turk warned.He insisted Israel had "a legal obligation to take the steps ordered by the International Court of Justice to prevent acts of genocide, punish incitement to genocide and ensure enough aid reaches Palestinians in Gaza".The UN rights chief said the international community was "failing the people of Gaza."Where are the decisive steps to prevent genocide," he asked.

There is a "narrow window" to prevent famine from spreading further in Gaza, a top UN official said Sunday, calling on Israel to allow unimpeded aid delivery in the territory, where it is fighting Palestinian resistance group Hamas.According to a global hunger monitor, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians are already experiencing or at risk of famine in areas including Gaza City, the enclave's largest urban centre, where Israel has launched a new offensive against Hamas."There is a narrow window - until the end of September - to prevent famine from spreading to Deir al Balah (in central Gaza) and Khan Younis (southern Gaza). That window is now closing fast," said United Nations aid chief Tom Fletcher.COGAT, the Israeli defence agency that deals with humanitarian issues, said Sunday that over the past week aid from more than 1,900 trucks, most supplying food, was distributed in Gaza.Israel last month launched an assault on the outskirts of Gaza City and its forces are now just a few kilometres from the city centre, where it issued warnings over the weekend to civilians to evacuate high rise buildings it says are being used by Hamas, before bombing them.Overnight, strikes killed 14 people across the city, local health officials said, including a strike on a school in southern Gaza City sheltering displaced Palestinians.At least 50 Palestinians were killed across the Gaza Strip since early Sunday, as Israeli airstrikes and ground attacks continue to target various areas of the besieged enclave.Senior Hamas official Basem Naim said the group would not disarm but would release all hostages if Israel ended the war and withdrew all its forces from Gaza, reiterating Hamas' long-standing position.Israel's army said it bombed a Gaza City residential tower after issuing evacuation orders, just hours after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced the military was "deepening" its assault on the Gaza Strip's key urban centre.Israel has not publicly announced the start of a major offensive to seize the city, which Netanyahu's cabinet approved last month, but the military has intensified bombings and operations in the area for weeks, in a bid to step up pressure on Hamas.Hamas has denied using residential buildings for military purposes.The high-rise was the third such residential tower to be struck in as many days.The strike on Al-Roya Tower left one person dead, the Al-Quds hospital said in a statement."We are deepening the manoeuvre on the outskirts of Gaza City and within Gaza City itself," Netanyuahu said at the start of Sunday's cabinet meeting.On Friday and Saturday, the air force had levelled two other residential high-rises under the same claim that Hamas had used them as observation points.Netanyahu said that around 100,000 residents had already left Gaza City.Trump issues 'last warning' to HamasUS President Donald Trump Sunday issued what he called his "last warning" to Hamas, urging the Palestinian resistance group to accept a deal to release hostages from Gaza. "The Israelis have accepted my Terms. It is time for Hamas to accept as well," Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform. "I have warned Hamas about the consequences of not accepting. This is my last warning, there will not be another one!"Israel's N12 News reported on Saturday that Trump has put forth a new ceasefire proposal to Hamas.Under the deal, Hamas would free all the remaining 48 hostages on the first day of the truce in exchange for thousands of Palestinian prisoners jailed in Israel and negotiate an end to the war during a ceasefire in the enclave, according to N12.

The State of Qatar condemned the statements made by the Israeli occupation's prime minister regarding his desire to displace Palestinians, describing them as a continuation of the occupation's policy of violating the rights of the Palestinian people, showing contempt for international laws and agreements, and reflecting its malicious attempts to undermine prospects for peace, particularly the two-state solution.The Ministry of Foreign Affairs affirmed in a statement Friday that the policy of collective punishment practiced by the occupation against Palestinians, including the ongoing brutal genocidal war on the Gaza Strip, its crimes in the West Bank, its violations of religious sanctities, its settlement expansion and Judaization plans for Jerusalem, and its restrictions on the entry of humanitarian aid to civilians, will not succeed in forcing the Palestinian people to leave their land or in stripping them of their legitimate rights.The Ministry stressed the urgent need for the international community to stand firmly against the occupation's extremist and provocative policies, in order to prevent the cycle of violence in the region from continuing and spreading globally.The Ministry also reiterated that the only guarantee for achieving lasting peace in the Middle East is reaching a just and comprehensive solution to the Palestinian issue, in line with the Arab Peace Initiative and the two-state solution. This would ensure the establishment of an independent and viable State of Palestine along the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital, and the enjoyment by the Palestinian people of their inalienable rights.

A senior European Union official said Thursday that Israel's operations in Gaza constitute genocide, the first member of the bloc's commission to make that charge."The genocide in Gaza exposes Europe's failure to act and speak with one voice, even as protests spread across European cities and 14 UN Security Council members call for an immediate ceasefire," Teresa Ribera said at the opening ceremony of the academic year at the Sciences Po university in Paris.Israel's mission to the EU did not immediately respond to a request for comment.Ribera is the European Commission's Executive Vice President, second only in seniority to President Ursula von der Leyen. The Spanish socialist, whose portfolio includes climate and anti-trust issues, is not responsible for EU foreign policy.The comments were stronger than a statement she gave last month when she said the displacement and killing in Gaza looked "very much like" genocide.The European Commission has accused Israel of violating human rights in Gaza, but stopped short of accusing it of genocide.South Africa has brought a case at the International Court of Justice in the Hague accusing Israel of genocide.On Monday, the president of the world's largest academic association of genocide scholars announced that the association had passed a resolution affirming that the legal criteria have been met to determine that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.Israel's Foreign Ministry called that statement disgraceful.More than 64,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel's air and ground war in Gaza since then, according to Gaza health officials, who said most of those killed have been women and children.

Resolution backed by 86 percent of scholars who votedIsrael rejects accusations of genocide in GazaResolution calls for Israel to cease acts deemed genocidalThe world's biggest academic association of genocide scholars has passed a resolution saying the legal criteria have been met to establish Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, its president said on Monday. Eighty-six percent of those who voted among the 500-member International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS) backed the resolution declaring Israel's "policies and actions in Gaza" had met the legal definition set out in Article II of the 1948 UN convention on genocide.Israel's Foreign Ministry called the statement disgraceful and "entirely based on Hamas' campaign of lies". Israel has in the past strongly denied that its actions in Gaza amount to genocide and says they are justified as self defence. It is fighting a case at the International Court of Justice in the Hague that accuses it of genocide.Israel launched its assault on the Gaza Strip in October 2023, after fighters from Hamas attacked Israeli communities, killing 1,200 people and capturing more than 250 hostages.Since then, Israel's military action has killed 63,000 people, damaged or destroyed most buildings in the territory and forced nearly all its residents to flee their homes at least once. A global hunger monitor relied on by the United Nations says parts of the territory are now suffering a man-made famine.The three-page resolution calls on Israel to "immediately cease all acts that constitute genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity against Palestinians in Gaza, including deliberate attacks against and killing of civilians including children; starvation; deprivation of humanitarian aid, water, fuel, and other items essential to the survival of the population; sexual and reproductive violence; and forced displacement of the population."It also states that the Hamas attack on Israel which precipitated the war constituted international crimes."This is a definitive statement from experts in the field of genocide studies that what is going on on the ground in Gaza is genocide," the association's president, Melanie O'Brien, a professor of international law at the University of Western Australia who specialises in genocide, told Reuters."There is no justification for the commission of war crimes, crimes against humanity or genocide, not even self defence," she added.The 1948 UN Genocide Convention, adopted in the wake of the mass murder of Jews by Nazi Germany, defines genocide as crimes committed "with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such". It requires all countries to act to prevent and stop genocide.Since the genocide scholars' association was founded in 1994, it has passed nine resolutions recognising historic or ongoing episodes as genocides.The IAGS publishes a journal and holds regular international conferences of scholars studying genocide, and is considered the largest academic group in the field. Another group, the International Network of Genocide Scholars, also holds conferences and publishes a journal but does not issue similar resolutions.Ismail Al-Thawabta, head of the Hamas-run Gaza government media office, welcomed the resolution's "prestigious scholarly stance", which he said "places a legal and moral obligation on the international community to take urgent action to stop the crime, protect civilians, and hold the leaders of the occupation accountable".Sergey Vasiliev, a professor of international law at the Open University in the Netherlands who is not a member of the association, told Reuters the resolution showed that "this legal assessment has become mainstream within academia, particularly in the field of genocide studies".Several international rights groups and some Israeli NGOs have already accused Israel of committing genocide. Last week hundreds of UN staff at the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk wrote to ask him to explicitly describe the Gaza war as an unfolding genocide, according to a letter reviewed by Reuters.