tag

The Israeli occupation forces on Sunday carried out one of the most destructive assaults on Gaza City since the resumption of the war on March 18, flattening entire blocks and inflicting widespread devastation. Mahmoud Basal, spokesperson for the Civil Defense in the Gaza Strip, said more than 50 buildings were completely destroyed, while another 100 were partially damaged, including high-rise towers that housed thousands of residents. He described the day as "one of the most difficult since the war resumed." Basal accused the occupation of deliberately targeting buildings surrounded by displaced persons' tents and shelters, leading to the destruction of more than 200 tents. He called this a "systematic policy" aimed at intensifying forced displacement. Civil Defense teams received multiple distress calls from civilians trapped under the rubble in the Zarqa area of the Tuffah neighborhood, where an entire building was bombed while residents were inside. The renewed bombardment also struck the few remaining mosques in Gaza City. Basal warned that Israel's "inhumane and immoral policy" against civilians risked worsening the humanitarian catastrophe and urged the international community to take urgent action to halt the ongoing massacres. On Sunday evening, Israeli occupation forces demolished the six-story Al-Ruya Tower, one of Gaza City's most prominent residential buildings, leaving behind scenes of devastation.

An Israeli strike flattened a high-rise in Gaza City Saturday — the second in as many days — after the military warned people to flee ahead of a planned offensive against the urban hub. Israel has been warning for weeks of a new assault on the territory's largest city, without issuing a timeline. It has stepped up air strikes and ground operations on the city's outskirts, sparking fears it could worsen already dire conditions. Saturday, Israeli aircraft dropped thousands of leaflets on western neighbourhoods calling on residents to evacuate, witnesses and an AFP journalist said. Nafez Anis, who has been living in a tent with his family in Gaza City, said he had read the leaflet, but was not planning on leaving. "Where should we go?" he told AFP. "We will wait, and when we see Israeli tanks approaching here, we will leave." Gaza civil defence agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP that 55 Palestinians had been killed by Israeli fire during the day, including 18 near an aid distribution centre in the north. Saturday, the military struck a Gaza City high-rise, saying Hamas was using it "to monitor" Israeli troops and adding that it had taken "measures to mitigate harm to civilians". Witnesses identified the building as the Sussi residential tower and said it was destroyed. Hamas condemned the attack and denied using residential or civilian buildings for military purposes. The Israeli military has said it will target structures being used by Hamas, particularly tall buildings. It also issued an evacuation order for another high-rise Saturday, warning of an imminent strike and telling people to leave for the south. A military spokesperson had earlier called on residents to leave for Al-Mawasi, on the Mediterranean coast to the south. Israel first declared Al-Mawasi a safe zone early in the war, but has carried out repeated strikes on it since then, saying they targeted Hamas. Gaza City residents said they believed it made little difference whether they stayed or fled. "Some say we should evacuate, others say we should stay," said Abdel Nasser Mushtaha, 48. "But everywhere in Gaza there are bombings and deaths" he added, pointing, in particular, to the strikes on Al-Mawasi. "It no longer makes any difference to us," said his daughter Samia Mushtaha, 20. "Wherever we go, death pursues us, whether by bombing or hunger." Israel has faced mounting domestic and international pressure to end the nearly two-year war. Thousands demonstrated in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem Saturday evening to call for a ceasefire and hostage release deal. In Tel Aviv, protesters unfurled a massive banner saying: "President Trump, save the hostages now!" Hamas agreed last month to a proposal for a temporary ceasefire and staggered hostage releases, but Israel has demanded the group release all the hostages at once, disarm and relinquish control of Gaza, among other conditions. The UN estimates nearly 1mn people remain in and around Gaza City, where it declared a famine last month. It has warned of a looming "disaster" if the assault proceeds. Israel's offensive has killed at least 64,368 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to figures from the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza that the UN considers reliable.

The death toll of the ongoing Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip since October 7, 2023, has risen to 64,368 martyrs and 162,367 injured. The Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza stated Saturday that 68 martyrs and 362 injured arrived at the sector’s hospitals in the past 24 hours, noting that the number of martyrs and injuries since the occupation breached the ceasefire agreement on March 18 has reached 11,828 martyrs and 50,326 injured.It also noted that hospitals had received 23 martyrs in the past 24 hours among aid victims, along with 143 injured, bringing the total number of martyrs who died seeking sustenance to 2,385 people, and the injured to 17,577.The ministry further reported that hospitals in the sector recorded 6 new deaths due to famine and malnutrition in the past 24 hours, raising the total number of victims of the systematic Israeli starvation of Gaza's residents to 385 deaths, including 135 children.The Israeli occupation continues its genocidal war against Gaza and its people, disregarding international calls to stop the killing machine and open the crossings to allow humanitarian aid, amid an unprecedented catastrophic humanitarian situation.

At least nine Palestinians were martyred and others injured on Saturday in continued Israeli occupation airstrikes on Gaza City and Khan Younis in the Gaza Strip. Local sources reported that eight people were martyred when Israeli strikes targeted a house in Sheikh Radwan neighborhood in northern Gaza City, while a child was martyred and others injured in an attack on a vehicle in Al-Mawasi area of Khan Younis in the south.Medical sources indicated that the total death toll from Israeli strikes since early today has risen to 21, including 13 in Gaza City. Israeli occupation forces continued their assault on Gaza by land, sea, and air since October 7, 2023, resulting in the deaths of 64,300 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and 162,005 others injured.The toll remains incomplete, as thousands of victims remain trapped under rubble or on the streets, with rescue crews unable to reach them amid an unprecedented humanitarian disaster.

The Israeli military destroyed a high-rise in Gaza City Friday, shortly after announcing it would target tall buildings identified as being used by Hamas ahead of its planned seizure of the urban hub.Despite mounting pressure at home and abroad to halt its nearly two-year offensive in Gaza, Israel has been calling up reservists, intensifying its bombardments and closing in on Gaza City ever since announcing its intention to capture the Palestinian territory's largest city.AFP footage showed the Mushtaha Tower in the city's Al-Rimal neighbourhood collapsing after a massive explosion at its base, sending a thick cloud of smoke and dust billowing into the sky.AFP photographs of the aftermath showed Palestinians inspecting the rubble and debris of the collapsed building.Gaza civil defence agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal accused Israel of carrying out "a policy of forced displacement against civilians" in its targeting of high-rise buildings.The agency said Israeli strikes in and around Gaza City killed at least 19 people, among at least 32 Palestinians killed across the territory Friday.A member of Hamas's political bureau, Izzat al-Rishq, said Israeli claims the group was operating in the high-rises were "nothing but flimsy pretexts and blatant lies."The UN estimates that nearly 1mn people live in Gaza City and its surroundings, an area where it last month declared a famine.

The Council of the League of Arab States condemned the targeting of workers, facilities, and equipment of international organizations operating in relief and humanitarian fields, including attacks on UNRWA buildings, holding the Israeli occupation forces fully responsible for these crimes, which reflect their approach in dealing with UN personnel and those working in global relief, humanitarian, and medical sectors. Regarding the Syrian state, the Council of the League of Arab States affirmed its support for the just demand and right of the Syrian Arab Republic to regain the entirety of the occupied Syrian Arab Golan up to the Jun. 4, 1967 line, on the basis of the peace process grounded in UN Security Council Resolutions 242 (1967), 338 (1974), and 497 (1981), the principle of land for peace, and building on what was achieved within the framework of the 1991 Madrid Peace Conference. The Council also reiterated that the continued occupation of the Syrian Arab Golan since 1967 constitutes an ongoing threat to peace and security in the region and the world, and reaffirmed adherence to international legitimacy, particularly successive UN General Assembly resolutions on the Occupied Syrian Golan, all of which affirm the applicability of the 1949 Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War to the occupied Syrian Arab Golan. It considered Israel's imposition, being the occupying power, of its laws, jurisdiction, and administration on the Golan null and void, with no legal effect whatsoever. The participants condemned Israel's incursion, as the occupying power, into Syrian territory within the buffer zone with the Syrian Arab Republic and across a chain of adjacent sites on Mount Hermon, as well as additional areas in Quneitra and Rural Damascus Governorates and in Daraa Governorate, which amounts to further occupation of Syrian lands in violation of the 1974 Disengagement Agreement between Syria and Israel, and a clear breach of the UN Charter and Security Council Resolutions 242 (1967), 338 (1973), and 497 (1981). The Council affirmed that the 1974 Disengagement Agreement between the Syrian Arab Republic and Israel, the occupying power, remains in force pursuant to Security Council Resolution 350 (1974) and under the rules of international law, and as a result the agreement should be left unaffected by Syria's political changes. It stressed the importance of the continued role of the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF), the need to expose Israeli violations, and the obligation of the parties to fully comply with all provisions of the agreement until Israel's complete withdrawal from the occupied Syrian Arab Golan. It called on the United Nations to carry out its tasks under this agreement and to act immediately to halt Israeli breaches of its terms. The Council condemned Israeli practices in the occupied Syrian Arab Golan, including the seizure and confiscation of agricultural lands; the plunder of natural resources, including subsoil wealth such as oil exploration and extraction for the benefit of Israel's economy, and the depletion of water resources by drilling wells, building dams, drawing lake waters, and diverting them for settlers' benefit, thereby depriving Syrian farmers of key water sources for irrigating crops and watering livestock. It affirmed that these resources are the exclusive property of the people of the occupied Syrian Arab Golan, as established by charters, agreements, and international legitimacy resolutions. The Council affirmed the Arab position of full solidarity with the Syrian Arab Republic and the Lebanese Republic, and standing with them in the face of Israel's ongoing aggressions and threats, considering any attack on them an attack on the Arab nation. It called on the administration of President Donald Trump to rescind the decision taken on March 25, 2019, recognizing Israel's sovereignty, as the occupying power, over the occupied Syrian Arab Golan, deeming it null and void in form and substance and a serious violation of the UN Charter, which does not recognize the acquisition of others' land by force, and of unanimous Security Council resolutions, foremost among them 242 (1967), 338 (1974), and 497 (1981), all of which clearly indicate non-recognition of Israel's annexation of the occupied Syrian Arab Golan, and which view it as a violation of the principles of international law that undermines efforts to achieve the comprehensive peace sought by the region's states and peoples.Regarding the Lebanese state, the Council of the League of Arab States affirmed support for the Lebanese government's decision to confine arms exclusively to the Lebanese Army and security forces, and nowhere else, across all Lebanese territory before the end of the current year 2025, and to withdraw weapons from all Lebanese and non-Lebanese armed groups and hand them over to the Lebanese Army, based on the Taif Agreement and the relevant international resolutions. This is also in implementation of what was stated in the inaugural address of the President of the Lebanese Republic, Joseph Aoun, and the government's ministerial statement, and it welcomed the start of the process of handing over Palestinian weapons in the Palestinian camps in Lebanon to the Lebanese authorities pursuant to the agreement concluded with the President of the Republic. The Council emphasized its support for the Lebanese state in imposing its sovereignty and control over the entirety of Lebanese territory and in consolidating lasting stability and security for the Lebanese people, and rejected any external interference in Lebanon's sovereign decisions concerning the exclusivity of arms with the Lebanese state.The Council affirmed Arab support for the financial, judicial, economic, and administrative reform path launched by the Lebanese government, welcomed the series of reform laws approved by the Lebanese Parliament as part of necessary reforms; and welcomed the establishment of many new regulatory authorities for key sectors to activate the work of government institutions and all sectors, propelling the country toward recovery and restoring the confidence of the international community. It affirmed support for Lebanon's constitutional institutions in exercising their powers in a manner that strengthens national unity, and a commitment to provide support to Lebanon to confront the economic, financial, and monetary challenges it is facing and their potentially grave repercussions on stability and social security, helping it regain its vitality and meet the Lebanese people's aspirations for a more secure, prosperous, and stable future.The Council strongly condemned Israel's ongoing aggression against Lebanon and its targeting of civilians, its continued and escalating violations of Lebanon's sovereignty and the inviolability of its territory, its occupation of Lebanese land, and its breach of its obligations under the declaration to cease hostilities that entered into force on Nov. 27, 2024. It supported Lebanon's position calling for the full and comprehensive implementation, without fragmentation or selectivity, of Security Council Resolution 1701, and a return to compliance with the provisions of the General Armistice Agreement between Lebanon and Israel signed under UN supervision on Mar. 23, 1949. It also supported the Lebanese state's political and diplomatic efforts with the international community to pressure Israel to withdraw immediately, fully, and unconditionally from all Lebanese territories it occupies.Regarding maritime navigation, the Council of the League of Arab States affirmed the principle of freedom of navigation in international waters in accordance with established rules of international law and the Law of the Sea conventions. It called for ensuring the security and safety of maritime navigation in the Arabian Gulf, the Sea of Oman, and the Red Sea, and for safeguarding energy supply routes.The Council condemned all actions targeting the security and safety of navigation, offshore facilities, energy supplies, oil pipelines, and petroleum installations in the Arabian Gulf and other waterways, describing them as actions that threaten the security of Arab states, undermine Arab national security, and harm international peace and security.It affirmed the necessity of confronting existing threats to freedom of international commercial navigation and maritime transport within the framework of established international laws and rules—particularly those arising from the actions of non-state entities and terrorist movements—as they pose an unacceptable threat to global trade and to international peace and security. It emphasized the importance of all states' solidarity in preserving the security and freedom of lawful maritime navigation on the high seas and in vital straits.The Council condemned the attacks targeting oil tankers and commercial ships in the Arabian Gulf and the Sea of Oman, including the May 12, 2019, attack on two Saudi oil tankers, a Norwegian oil tanker, and a UAE cargo ship within the territorial waters of the United Arab Emirates; the Jun. 13, 2019 attack on two oil tankers in the Sea of Oman, one flying the Panamanian flag and the other the Marshall Islands flag, the Jul. 29, 2021 attack on the Mercer Street tanker; the Aug. 4, 2021 attempted hijacking of the Asphalt Princess; and the Apr. 13, 2024 seizure of the container ship MSC Aries, considering them criminal acts that threaten the security and safety of international maritime navigation and commercial shipping.The Council warned that the continued threats by the Houthi militias to maritime security in the Red Sea and the Bab al-Mandeb Strait require a response by the international community in accordance with relevant rules of international law. It affirmed its condemnation of the May 14, 2019, attack by the terrorist Houthi militias using explosive-laden drones on two oil pumping stations in the cities of Al Dawadmi and Afif in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, which targeted global oil supplies.The Council also condemned the detention by the Iranian authorities of ships in the Strait of Hormuz and the Arabian Gulf, in clear violation of international law, and called on Iran to refrain from such hostile acts, to adhere to international law, and to respect freedom of maritime navigation.The Council further condemned and denounced the actions of the naval forces of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in redeploying military forces on the three occupied Emirati islands of Greater Tunb, Lesser Tunb, and Abu Musa on May 12, 2025; in conducting combat exercises on the three occupied Emirati islands of Greater Tunb, Lesser Tunb, and Abu Musa on Sep. 6, 2024; and in launching naval maneuvers and carrying out combat drills from the occupied Abu Musa Island of the United Arab Emirates on Jun. 20, 2024; as well as deploying missile-equipped vessels in the Arabian Gulf. It considered these steps an escalation that increases the risk of threats to the security of navigation, energy supply routes, and international trade, and that contradicts regional efforts toward de-escalation and rebuilding relations in ways that enhance channels of communication, dialogue, and commitment to joint action for the stability and prosperity of the region.The Council condemned the terrorist and subversive attack on Sep. 14, 2019 against Saudi Aramco's oil facilities in Abqaiq and Khurais in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia using drones and cruise missiles, deeming it a dangerous escalation aimed at destabilizing the Kingdom and the region and threatening global energy supplies and the world economy.Regarding the situation in Sudan, the Council of the League of Arab States affirmed solidarity with the Republic of the Sudan and the brotherly Sudanese people in their efforts to safeguard their capabilities, protect their territory and vital infrastructure, maintain sovereignty, independence, and territorial integrity, reject interference in their affairs, and bolster efforts to preserve national institutions and prevent their collapse by forming an independent civilian government. It rejected any steps or entities that would threaten Sudan's safety and territorial unity and exacerbate the humanitarian situation.The Council recalled the need for the immediate implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 2736 and relevant UN resolutions, and expressed deep concern over the growing phenomenon of mercenarism and the spread of mercenaries fighting in Sudan, emphasizing that this phenomenon poses a threat to Sudan's security and stability and to Arab national security. It stressed that Sudan's security is an integral part of Arab national security and affirmed the importance of the League of Arab States' role in defending the unity, safety, and stability of all member states.The Council called on member states and relevant Arab organizations to provide urgent humanitarian support to Sudan and its people; to rehabilitate damaged facilities; and to increase regional and international responsiveness in ways that strengthen Sudan's resilience against any threats to its unity and help it overcome the catastrophic effects afflicting the Sudanese people. It praised the efforts of the Secretary-General of the League in intensifying coordination between Sudan and all organs and institutions of joint Arab action, and requested that the Secretary-General continue his role with all relevant parties to ensure Sudan's ability to overcome the current situation, based on relevant Arab and international resolutions.The Council also called for a ceasefire in accordance with the Jeddah Declaration, and to consider the possibility of calling for the resumption of the Jeddah (3) track to reach sustainable, peaceful solutions. It called on the Arab Contact Group, comprising the foreign ministers of the Arab Republic of Egypt and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Secretary-General, to continue their good offices and efforts to reach solutions that meet the Sudanese aspirations for stability and development, affirming that the Sudanese people are the decision-maker regarding their country's future.Regarding Somalia, the Council of the League of Arab States affirms support for the security, stability, unity, and sovereignty of Somalia and the integrity of its territory; support for the Somali government in its efforts to preserve Somali sovereignty by land, sea, and air; affirmation of the right of the Federal Republic of Somalia to lawful defense of its territory as stipulated in Article 51 of the UN Charter and relevant articles of the Charter of the League of Arab States; support for any measures it decides to take to confront attempts to aggress against it within the framework of international legitimacy; and affirmation of the firm Arab position of absolute rejection of any acts that undermine or violate the sovereignty of the Somali state.Regarding the water security of the Arab Republic of Egypt and the Republic of the Sudan, the Council of the League of Arab States affirmed that the water security of both countries is an integral part of Arab national security, and rejected any act or measure that infringes upon their rights to the Nile waters.The Council also expressed deep concern over the continued unilateral measures to fill and operate the Ethiopian dam, measures that contravene applicable rules of international law, especially the Declaration of Principles concluded between Egypt, Sudan, and Ethiopia in Khartoum on Mar. 23, 2015.The Council likewise expressed grave concern over Ethiopian intransigence that led to the end of all negotiation tracks concerning the Ethiopian dam without reaching a fair, balanced, and legally binding agreement on the rules for filling and operating the dam that achieves the shared interests of the three countries and preserves the water rights of Egypt and Sudan, due to Ethiopia's hardline positions that disregard the water interests of the downstream states, Egypt and Sudan, and the rules of international law. It stressed rejection of Ethiopia organizing a ceremony to inaugurate the dam and rejection of participation in it, considering it an attempt to confer legitimacy on a dam built by Ethiopia without adherence to international law.

Fourteen Palestinians were martyred and dozens injured as Israeli occupation forces intensified airstrikes on residential apartments and displacement tents across Gaza City, medical sources reported.Three Palestinians were martyred, and seven others injured when Israeli warplanes bombed a residential apartment in the Daraj neighborhood.In the Rammal neighborhood, Israeli forces shelled a tent sheltering displaced Palestinians, killing three and wounding several others, while another air raid on a residential apartment left one person martyred and others injured.Five more Palestinians were martyred and several injured in Israeli airstrikes on homes in Tal Al Hawa and Sabra neighborhoods, south of Gaza City. In a separate attack, an Israeli drone targeted a displacement tent west of the city, killing two Palestinians and injuring several others.The intensified bombardment comes as part of the second phase of an operation announced by the Israeli occupation army to occupy Gaza City.

Israel controls 40% of Gaza City, a military spokesperson said Thursday, as its bombardment forced more Palestinians from their homes there, while thousands of residents defied Israeli orders to leave, remaining behind in the ruins in the path of Israel's latest advance.Gaza health authorities said Israeli fire across the enclave had killed at least 53 people Thursday, mostly in Gaza City, where Israeli forces have advanced through the outer suburbs and are now a few kilometres (miles) from the city centre."We continue to damage Hamas' infrastructure. Today we hold 40% of the territory of Gaza City," Israeli military spokesperson Brigadier General Effie Defrin told a news conference, naming the Zeitoun and Sheikh Radwan neighbourhoods. "The operation will continue to expand and intensify in the coming days.""We will continue everywhere," he said, adding that the mission will only end when Israel's remaining hostages are returned and Hamas' rule ends.Defrin confirmed that army Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir told cabinet ministers that without a day-after plan, they would have to impose military rule in Gaza. Far-right members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government have been pushing for Israel to impose military rule in Gaza and establish settlements there, which Netanyahu has so far ruled out.Israel launched the offensive in Gaza City on August 10. The campaign has prompted international criticism because of the humanitarian crisis in the area and has provoked unusual levels of concern within Israel, including accounts of tension over strategy between some military commanders and political leaders."This time, I am not leaving my house. I want to die here. It doesn't matter if we move out or stay. Tens of thousands of those who left their homes were killed by Israel too, so why bother?" Um Nader, a mother of five from Gaza City, told Reuters via text message.Residents said Israel bombarded Gaza City's Zeitoun, Sabra, Tuffah, and Shejaia districts from ground and air. Tanks pushed into the eastern part of the Sheikh Radwan district northwest of the city centre, destroying houses and causing fires in tent encampments.In a heavy bombardment in the Tuffah neighbourhood, medics said five houses were damaged by Israeli strikes that killed eight people and wounded dozens more."The Israeli occupation targeted a gathering of civilians and several homes in the Mashahra area of the Tuffah neighbourhood a fire belt that completely destroyed four buildings," said Mahmoud Bassal, spokesperson of the territory's civil emergency service."Even if the Israeli occupation issues warnings, there are no places that can accommodate the civilians; there are no alternate places for the people to go to."Displacement could further endanger the most vulnerable, including many children suffering from malnutrition, said Amjad al-Shawa, head of the Palestinian NGOs Network, an umbrella group of Palestinian NGOs that coordinates with the UN and international humanitarian agencies."This is going to be the most dangerous displacement since the war started," said Shawa. "People's refusal to leave despite the bombardment and the killing is a sign that they have lost faith."Palestinian and UN officials say nowhere is safe in Gaza, including areas Israel designates humanitarian zones.Health officials in Gaza say 370 people, including 131 children, have died of malnutrition and starvation caused by acute food shortages, mostly in recent weeks. Israel says it is taking measures to improve humanitarian conditions in Gaza, including increasing aid into the enclave.Prospects for a ceasefire and a deal to release the remaining 48 hostages, 20 of whom are thought to still be alive, appear dim.Two Democratic US senators Chris Van Hollen and Jeff Merkley told reporters after a week-long trip to assess the situation in Gaza and the West Bank: "Based on our conversations and our observations, we came away with the inexplicable conclusion that the Netanyahu government is engaged in a campaign of ethnic cleansing in Gaza and slow-motion ethnic cleansing in the West Bank."

The death toll of the ongoing Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip since October 7, 2023, has risen to 64,231 martyrs and 161,583 injured. The Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza stated Thursday that 84 martyrs and 338 injured arrived at the sector's hospitals in the past 24 hours, noting that the number of martyrs and injuries since the occupation breached the ceasefire agreement on March 18 has reached 11,699 martyrs and 49,542 injured.It also noted that hospitals received in the past 24 hours 17 martyrs among aid victims, along with 174 injured, bringing the total number of martyrs who died seeking sustenance to 2,356 people, and the injured to 17,244.The ministry further reported that hospitals in the sector recorded 3 new deaths due to famine and malnutrition in the past 24 hours, raising the total number of victims of the systematic Israeli starvation of Gaza's residents to 370 deaths, including 131 children.The Israeli occupation continues its genocidal war against Gaza and its people, disregarding international calls to stop the killing machine and open the crossings to allow humanitarian aid, amid an unprecedented catastrophic humanitarian situation.

A gut-wrenching new film about a five-year-old girl killed by Israeli forces in Gaza last year was given a 23-minute standing ovation after its premiere at the star-studded Venice Film Festival Wednesday."The Voice of Hind Rajab", a docu-drama about real events from January 2024, left much of the audience and many journalists sobbing as it screened for the first time.Franco-Tunisian director Kaouther Ben Hania and her cast, all dressed in black, were also in tears as they soaked in applause, cheers and shouts of "Free Palestine! at the 1,032-seat main festival cinema."We see that the narrative all around world is that those dying in Gaza are collateral damage, in the media," Ben Hania told journalists ahead of the premiere."And I think this is so dehumanising, and that's why cinema, art and every kind of expression is very important to give those people a voice and face." Her film tells the story of Hind Rajab Hamada who was fleeing the Israeli military in Gaza City with six relatives last year when their car came under fire.The sole survivor, her desperate calls with the Red Crescent rescue service -- which were recorded and released -- brief caused international outrage."The Voice of Hind Rajab" has plenty of famous names attached as executive producers -- from actors Joaquin Phoenix, who attended the premiere, and Brad Pitt to Oscar-winning directors Jonathan Glazer ("The Zone of Interest") and Mexico's Alfonso Cuaron ("Roma")."I'm very happy, and I never in my life thought that can be possible," Ben Hania said of her A-list backers.Its premiere came on the same day as a senior Israeli military official said one million Palestinians could be displaced by a new offensive around Gaza City."The Voice of Hind Rajab" makes chilling use of the real phone recordings of Hind Rajab, but tells the story through a dramatised Red Crescent team which is trying to coordinate her rescue."It is dramatisation, but very close to what they experienced," Ben Hania added.Hind Rajab was eventually found dead along with two ambulance staff who went to rescue her."Please come to me, please come. I'm scared," she can be heard sobbing repeatedly in the film while bullets fly in the background.She is described as six years old, but a death certificate viewed by AFP in Gaza showed her age as five.Deadline magazine said the film "could be the lightning rod that supporters of the Gazan cause are waiting for", while Vogue tipped it for Venice's top prize on Saturday.A critic in Variety magazine said the "shattering" audio footage "carries a brutal emotional wallop" but the mix of drama and documentary footage was "questionable."The Gaza conflict has been a major talking point at the 2025 Venice Film Festival, where thousands of protesters marched to the entrance of the event on Saturday.An open letter calling on festival organisers to denounce the Israeli government has been signed by around 2,000 cinema insiders, according to the organisers.Hind Rajab's mother, Wissam Hamada, said she hoped the film would help end the war."The whole world has left us to die, to go hungry, to live in fear and to be forcibly displaced without doing anything," Hamada told AFP by phone from Gaza City where she lives with her five-year-old son.Israel's bombardment has killed at least 63,633 Palestinians, mostly civilians, according to figures from the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza that the United Nations deems reliable.Contacted by AFP, the Israeli military said the circumstances of Hind Rajab's death were "still being reviewed", without giving further details.It has never announced a formal investigation into the case.The war in Gaza has regularly caused tension in the cinema world since Israel launched its offensive in October 2023 in retaliation for a storming of Israel by Palestinian Hamas group fighters.Hundreds of actors and directors signed an open letter during the Cannes film festival in May saying they were "ashamed" of their industry's "passivity" about the war.Cannes began under the shadow of the killing of Palestinian photojournalist Fatima Hassouna, the subject of the documentary which was picked for a sidebar section of the festival.A day after Hassouna was told the film had been selected, an Israeli air strike on her home in northern Gaza killed her and 10 relatives.

The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) urged the international community on Wednesday to take immediate and deterrent measures to halt the inflammatory calls and dangerous practices of the Israeli occupation forces aimed at deepening settlement activity and annexing the occupied West Bank.In a statement, Secretary General of the GCC Jasem Mohamed Albudaiwi said that these inflammatory calls, made by a minister in the government of the Israeli occupation forces, confirm the occupation's continuous and systematic approach of destabilising security and stability in the region, reflecting its insistence on undermining peace opportunities and its blatant defiance of international conventions, as well as its continued violation of all laws and norms.He affirmed the GCC's support for the brotherly Palestinian people in confronting these aggressive statements and practices, and in backing the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people, first and foremost the establishment of their independent state on the June 4, 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital.​

Israeli reservists began responding to call-up orders Tuesday, swelling the military's ranks ahead of a planned offensive to capture Gaza City after nearly two years of devastating war. Despite mounting pressure at home and abroad to end its campaign, Israel has recently been stepping up operations as it lays the groundwork for seizing the Palestinian territory's largest urban centre.Gaza's civil defence agency said Israeli forces killed at least 82 people Tuesday across the Strip, which has been in the grips of a major humanitarian crisis for months. Gaza's civil defence agency said 10 people were killed in an Israeli air strike on a residential building in the southwest of Gaza City.AFP footage from the aftermath of the strike in the Tel al-Hawa neighbourhood showed Palestinians carrying a dead girl from the rubble of the top floor. "We were sleeping safely in our homes and suddenly we woke up to the sound of bombing and destruction and found most of our neighbours murdered and injured," said Sanaa al-Dreimli. In Tel Aviv Tuesday, a group of reservists refusing to serve in the war who called themselves "Soldiers for the Hostages" held a public event urging their fellow reservists and active-duty soldiers not to report for service.Israeli media has reported that around 40,000 reservists were being mobilised in the first wave. The UN estimates that nearly a million people live in and around Gaza City, where a famine has been declared. Army chief Eyal Zamir told reservists reporting for duty Tuesday they were being deployed to "enhance the strikes of our operation".The military has intensified its bombardment of Gaza City, and has been operating on its outskirts in recent days. "We are already entering places we have never entered before," Zamir said. Weary Palestinians in Gaza City told AFP they felt helpless and desperate ahead of the looming offensive. "There is no place for us to go, and no means to get there.We are exhausted physically and mentally from displacement and from the war," 60-year-old Amal Abdel-Aal, who lives in a tent in the city's west, told AFP by telephone. In a post on X Tuesday, a military spokesman warned Gazans of the upcoming "expansion of combat operations towards Gaza City". "We wish to remind you that in Al-Mawasi enhanced services will be provided, with an emphasis on access to medical care, water and food," Avichay Adraee said, referring to an area in the south that Israel has designated a humanitarian zone but which has been hit by repeated strikes.In mid-August, the UN human rights office said Palestinians in Al-Mawasi had "little or no access to essential services and supplies". Khalil al-Madhoun, 37, who lives in a partially destroyed apartment in western Gaza City said he had travelled twice to the south looking for somewhere to pitch a tent but found no space. "The centre and the south are completely overcrowded," he told AFP by telephone. Most of Gaza's population of more than two million people has been displaced at least once during the war.