Israel has heavily bombed Gaza City overnight with unconfirmed reports from the US news site Axios and the Jerusalem Post that the military has now launched its ground offensive to occupy the entire city.
Israeli strikes are also reported in central Gaza, in the direction in which thousands of people are fleeing. Palestinian officials say there are rising numbers of deaths and injuries.
The intensification came ahead of a long-threatened full-scale ground invasion of the city, which is home to hundreds of thousands of people.
It came hours after Secretary of State Marco Rubio assured Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of unwavering US support during a trip to Jerusalem on Monday.
Early on Tuesday morning, Israel’s defence minister, Israel Katz, wrote on X, “Gaza is burning” and threatened that Israel, “will not relent and we will not go back – until the completion of the mission.”
Local journalists in Gaza say there have been almost constant Israeli air strikes and artillery and gunfire in Gaza City. Homes are said to have been destroyed, with people trapped in the rubble. There has been no official confirmation of a new ground incursion from the Israeli military.
The commission concluded that statements by Benjamin Netanyahu and other officials were ‘direct evidence of genocidal intent’. Photograph: Debbie Hill/Reuters
Commission’s 72-page legal analysis cites examples including scale of killings, aid blockages and forced displacement
A UN commission of inquiry concluded on Tuesday that Israel had committed genocide in Gaza and that top Israeli officials including the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, had incited these acts.
It cited examples of the scale of the killings, aid blockages, forced displacement and the destruction of a fertility clinic to back up its genocide finding, adding its voice to rights groups and others that have reached the same conclusion.
“Genocide is occurring in Gaza,” said Navi Pillay, the head of the commission of inquiry on the occupied Palestinian territory and a former international criminal court judge.
“The responsibility for these atrocity crimes lies with Israeli authorities at the highest echelons who have orchestrated a genocidal campaign for almost two years now with the specific intent to destroy the Palestinian group in Gaza.”
Israel has declined to cooperate with the commission. Israel’s diplomatic mission in Geneva accuses the commission of having a political agenda against Israel.
“Israel categorically rejects this distorted and false report and calls for the immediate abolition of this commission of inquiry,” a statement from the foreign ministry said.
The commission’s 72-page legal analysis is the strongest UN finding to date but the body is independent and does not officially speak for the UN. The UN has not yet used the term genocide but is under mounting pressure to do so.
Genocide denier and Current UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is quoted that he supports Zionism without qualification. He also confirms that UK air force support has been essential in Israel’s mass-murdering genocide. Includes URLs https://www.declassifieduk.org/keir-starmers-100-spy-flights-over-gaza-in-support-of-israel/ and https://youtu.be/O74hZCKKdpAKeir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza’s hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.
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Reporters follow Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani’s address at the media centre, during the opening of the 2025 ArabIslamic emergency summit in Doha on September 15, 2025. [Photo by MAHMUD HAMS/AFP via Getty Images]
Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani called Monday for “concrete steps” to confront the Israeli government’s “bloodlust,” urging a united regional stance, Anadolu reports.
Addressing an Arab-Islamic summit in Doha, Tamim said Israel’s strike in the Qatari capital last week that killed five Hamas members and a Qatari officer “proved that freeing hostages is not a priority for the Israeli government.”
He said Israel’s “extremist settlers’ government wants sending aircraft to the region to become routine, as it dreams of making the Arab region its sphere of influence.”
The Qatari leader said Israel is working to divide Syria, “but its plans will not succeed.”
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Palestinians run to safer places after Israeli airstrike at the Shati Refugee Camp, leaving casualties and injuries on September 11, 2025, in Gaza. [Khames Alrefi – Anadolu Agency]
At least 64,718 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s genocidal war on the Gaza Strip since October 2023, as seven more people, including a child, died of starvation in the besieged enclave, the Health Ministry said on Thursday.
A ministry statement said that 72 bodies were brought to hospitals in the last 24 hours, while 356 people were injured, taking the number of injuries to 163,859 in the Israeli onslaught.
“Many victims are still trapped under the rubble and on the roads as rescuers are unable to reach them,” it added.
The ministry also noted that nine Palestinians were killed and over 87 others injured by Israeli army fire while trying to get humanitarian aid in the last 24 hours, bringing the total number of Palestinians killed while seeking aid to 2,465, with over 17,948 others wounded since 27 May.
The ministry said that seven more Palestinians, including a child, died of malnutrition and starvation in the last 24 hours. This brought the famine-linked death toll since October 2023 to 411 people, including 142 children.
According to the ministry, 133 of the deaths, 27 of them children, occurred after the UN-backed hunger monitoring system, Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), formally declared Gaza a famine zone last month.
Since 2 March, the Israeli authorities have completely closed all Gaza border crossings, pushing the territory’s 2.4 million population into famine.
The Israeli army resumed its attacks on the Gaza Strip on 18 March and has since killed 12,170 people and injured 51,818 others, shattering a ceasefire and prisoner exchange agreement that took hold in January.
Last November, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defence 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.
This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Genocide denier and Current UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is quoted that he supports Zionism without qualification. He also confirms that UK air force support has been essential in Israel’s mass-murdering genocide. Includes URLs https://www.declassifieduk.org/keir-starmers-100-spy-flights-over-gaza-in-support-of-israel/ and https://youtu.be/O74hZCKKdpAKeir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza’s hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.Vote Labour for Genocide.
Smoke rises from an explosion, after an Israeli strike, in Doha, Qatar, September 9, 2025. Photo: UGC via AP
QATAR’S Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani is demanding a “collective response” to Israel’s deadly attack on the Qatari capital Doha.
Sheikh Mohammed told US news channel CNN on Wednesday that “there is a response that will happen from the region. This response is currently under consultation and discussion with other partners in the region, adding that “the entire Gulf region is at risk.”
He accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of leading the region into “chaos” and hoped the response from Arab nations would be “something meaningful that deters Israel from continuing this bullying.”
The Qataris plan to host an Arab-Islamic summit on Sunday and Monday, the country’s QNA news agency reported.
Sheikh Mohammed also said that the Israeli strike was aimed at undermining “any chance of peace” in Gaza.
He said: “I think that what [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu did yesterday — he just killed any hope for those [Israeli] hostages.” Twenty captives are believed to be still alive in Gaza.
Even as there was widespread international condemnation of the attack on Doha, the Israeli prime minister threatened further attacks, saying that “Qatar and all nations who harbour terrorists, you either expel them or you bring them to justice. Because if you don’t, we will.”
Genocide denier and Current UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is quoted that he supports Zionism without qualification. He also confirms that UK air force support has been essential in Israel’s mass-murdering genocide. Includes URLs https://www.declassifieduk.org/keir-starmers-100-spy-flights-over-gaza-in-support-of-israel/ and https://youtu.be/O74hZCKKdpAKeir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza’s hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.Vote Labour for Genocide.
![Reporters follow Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani's address at the media centre, during the opening of the 2025 ArabIslamic emergency summit in Doha on September 15, 2025. [Photo by MAHMUD HAMS/AFP via Getty Images]](https://i0.wp.com/www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/GettyImages-2235059760-1-1.jpg?fit=920%2C613&ssl=1)
Smoke rises from an explosion, after an Israeli strike, in Doha, Qatar, September 9, 2025. Photo: UGC via AP