Netanyahu says Israel could bomb Gaza ‘like the Allies bombed Dresden’

The Israeli leader was asked during an interview with right-wing US network Newsmax why the Israeli military does not “wipe Hamas and the Gaza Strip” off the map.

“We can bomb them like the Allies [in World War II] bombed Dresden, we could starve them if we followed the vilifications, these false lies that are delivered against Israel, and nobody would be alive already,” he responded.

“But they’re not, because we actually follow the simple rule, we try to move the population, separate the population, and only go after the terrorists,” Netanyahu said.

Since October 2023, the Israeli military has destroyed more than 89 percent of buildings in Rafah, southern Gaza, and 84 percent of buildings across northern Gaza, according to mapping published in July by Israel’s Hebrew University.

At least 61,722 people have been killed in that time, while 154,525 have been wounded.

The bombing of Dresden took 20,000 to 25,000 civilians lives, Gaza's under counted death toll is already over 60,000. Approximately 50% or more of the residential buildings were either destroyed or severely damaged, 70% of all civilian infrastructure in Gaza has already been destroyed.

The bombing of Dresden is also widely considered as an allied war crime.

Israel has already done much worse to Gaza than the allied war crime did to Dresden...


Israeli occupation of Gaza expected to be as ‘temporary’ as 58 years of West Bank occupation

Lorenzo Kamel, a professor of international history at Italy’s University of Turin, who specialises in Middle East and North African history, says that “temporary control of Gaza is looming, but this temporary control of Gaza reminds very much of the temporary control of the West Bank”.

“Back in 1967, the Israelis and the world were told that the Israeli government was occupying it temporarily, and somehow, for the past 58 years, they pretended that it is temporary,” he told Al Jazeera from the German city of Munich.

“The main lesson of what we are witnessing is that it took four centuries for the Irish people to gain their independence; also Jews themselves have a long-established tradition of resisting the oppression, and nobody should expect anything less from the Palestinians,” Kamel said.

“Anyone who claims otherwise are anti-Palestinianists, and we should treat them as we, decent people, treat anti-Semites,” he concluded.

Netanyahu ‘really intends to reoccupy Gaza’

Al Jazeera’s senior political analyst Marwan Bishara says Israel’s plans to occupy Gaza City are a serious cause for concern.

“It’s a terrible escalation really,” said Bishara, speaking from the French capital Paris.

He said there had been speculation in recent days that the tough talk from Israel about occupying Gaza “could all just be tactical, meant to pressure Hamas, Qatar, Egypt and the United States to come up with an exchange deal that is favourable to Israel”.

“But now, it’s appearing more and more like there is a plan being set in place towards the occupation of Gaza,” he said. “[Netanyahu] really intends to reoccupy Gaza … send the military in and just take it on again.”

The Israeli military has said its chief of staff, Eyal Zamir, has signed off on the “main framework for the [Israeli military’s] operational plan” in Gaza, a week after Israel’s security cabinet approved plans to seize Gaza City.

At Gaza’s cemeteries, grief turns to questions and questions to rage

Following Israel’s overnight strikes in northern Gaza, the bodies of Palestinians killed in the attacks were carried through the streets for burial this morning.

Mohammed Abu Daf told Al Jazeera that those killed in one attack included “five children, three women and the rest were youths, many of the injured are in critical condition; it’s enough, enough for what the people of Gaza are going through”.

“My cousin’s house was targeted while they were sleeping at three in the morning, sleeping in peace. Where do people go? All of Gaza is targeted,” Abu Daf said.

At overwhelmed medical facilities, the wounded filled the floors before beds could be found, as doctors must make the impossible choice of who they save first.

Issam Abu Ajwa, a general surgery specialist at al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza City, said: “After the bombing of a house in the Zeitoun neighbourhood, we received 12 bodies and a number of injuries, including children and women.”

Protesters in Greece demonstrate against arrival of Israeli cruise ship

Protesters in Greece have held a demonstration near Athens to protest the arrival of an Israeli cruise ship at the port.

Footage on social media shows hundreds of people marching at Piraeus port, which serves the Greek capital, to protest the arrival of the Crown Iris cruise ship. Many waved Palestinian flags.

The ship has encountered similar demonstrations as it has docked at other Greek ports in recent weeks, from protesters opposed to Israel’s actions in Gaza.

Πορεία προς το λιμεναρχείο για να καταγγελθεί η αστυνομοκρατία στην σημερινή διαδήλωση #Παλαιστινη #FreePalestine pic.twitter.com/A6Prd8RpdH

— Π.Α.ΜΕ (@PAMEhellas) August 14, 2025

Israeli journalist says Gaza media ban, killings aim to ‘silence’ reporters

Israeli journalists held a vigil in Tel Aviv condemning Israel’s killing of an Al Jazeera news crew in Gaza on Wednesday, accusing the military of systematically targeting media workers to suppress reporting.

Oren Ziv, an Israeli journalist with +972 Magazine, explained that while most of Israeli society and mainstream media celebrated the killings of the Al Jazeera journalists, a small group was protesting to show solidarity with those working under impossible conditions in Gaza.

He said Israel is deliberately silencing Gaza’s last remaining journalists in advance of its planned assault on Gaza City, as it had also blocked international media access for nearly two years.

‘It was not God’s will that determined the fate of journalist Anas al-Sharif’: Gideon Levy

Prominent Israeli journalist Gideon Levy, writing in Haaretz and reflecting on the final words of slain Al Jazeera correspondent Anas al-Sharif, rejected the notion that his death was “God’s will” – something al-Sharif had mentioned in his final message.

“It was not God’s will that determined the fate of journalist Anas al-Sharif, Levy wrote in Haaretz. “It was not the will of God, but rather a criminal Israeli military drone that targeted al-Sharif, Al Jazeera’s most prominent correspondent in the war.”

He continued: “Not God’s will but rather Israel’s will to execute him on the grounds that he had led a ‘Hamas cell,’ without presenting a shred of evidence to support this.”

In his will, al-Sharif wrote: “If these words reach you, know that Israel has succeeded in killing me and silencing my voice… I never once hesitated to convey the truth as it is, without distortion or falsification.”

The blunt criticism appearing in an Israeli news outlet is notable amid Israel’s ongoing efforts to restrict press freedom, silence critical journalists, and maintain its ban on international reporters entering the Strip.

Protesters at London vigil for slain journalists demand action from UK government

Al Jazeera’s Jonah Hull has been at a vigil in central London, paying tribute to the journalists killed in a targeted Israeli attack on Sunday, including four Al Jazeera staff and two freelancers.

The demonstration, one of a wave of protests around the world held in solidarity with the murdered journalists, was held outside Downing Street. Participants at the vigil each held the name of a media worker killed in Gaza since the war began, reading their name into a microphone.

“Speakers have aimed their message very much at the British government just across the road… talking about its complicity in what is happening in Gaza,” said Hull.

He said the protesters had asked UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer to take steps to end the targeting of journalists in Gaza, to pressure Israel to allow international journalists into the territory, and ensure a full investigation into Israel’s killing of journalists, preferably at the International Criminal Court.

‘Stop killing our colleagues’: Swedish journalists’ union rallies against Israeli attacks on Palestinian journalists

The Swedish Union of Journalists (SJF) has held a demonstration in Stockholm in solidarity with Palestinian journalists, after four Al Jazeera journalists and two freelancers were killed by Israel in the besieged enclave in a deliberate targeted assassination on Sunday.

Nearly 270 Palestinian journalists and media workers have been killed by Israel since the war began.

In a post on social media, SJF wrote the attacks on Palestinian journalists are “unacceptable and must come to an end”, adding “the message is simple – stop killing our colleagues”.

Jeremy Scahill on Anas al-Sharif’s Assassination, Western Complicity, and Israel's Colonialism

Gaza’s civil defence says 1,000 aid trucks needed daily

Basal Mahmoud, Gaza’s civil defence spokesperson, has told our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic that the aid currently entering the enclave is “not sufficient at all”.

He said at least 1,000 trucks of various supplies are needed each day, adding that only about 100 trucks enter daily, most of them going to traders rather than meeting market needs.

Dr Munir al-Bursh, director of Gaza’s Health Ministry, said Israel is starving to death “all sorts of people”, including children and women.

He warned that 40,000 children under one were suffering from malnutrition, 250,000 children under five face life-threatening food shortages, and 1.2 million children under 18 are living in severe food insecurity.

“We are facing overwhelming, frightening figures,” al-Bursh told Al Jazeera Arabic.

UNRWA chief says agency’s warehouses in Egypt, Jordan can fill 6,000 aid trucks

Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), says the organisation has been banned from delivering aid to Gaza for more than five months.

He said UNRWA warehouses in Egypt and Jordan are “full with food, medicine and hygiene supplies”, enough to fill 6,000 trucks. Lazzarini said the agency joins other NGOs in calling for a ceasefire and for aid to be allowed in, managed by the UN system, including UNRWA.

Like these NGOs, @UNRWA has also been banned from bringing in aid to #Gaza for over 5 months now.

Our warehouses in Egypt and Jordan are full with food, medicine and hygiene supplies to fill 6,000 trucks.

We join the NGOs to call for a #ceasefire in #Gaza and for aid to be… https://t.co/Gfm9MODN8g

— Philippe Lazzarini (@UNLazzarini) August 14, 2025

Gaza health workers overwhelmed as conditions worsen, NGO warns

Raafat al-Majdalawi, executive director of the AWDA NGO, says every aspect of life in Gaza – especially its healthcare sector – is rapidly deteriorating from bad to worse.

Speaking to Al Jazeera Arabic, al-Majdalawi said medical personnel are being stretched thin, working with an overwhelming number of casualties, including wounded aid seekers, with minimal resources and no medicine.

On top of this, he said, they are working “without essential machines and fuel needed to generate power”. “Medical providers work long hours, and for days at a time, and still … have to search for clean water and food to feed their families,” al-Majdalawi said.

Israeli attacks destroy septic system at Nasser Hospital, flooding it with sewage

The management of the Khan Younis medical complex says that raw sewage is obstructing the work of staff.

Severe damage to the sewage lines, resulting from ongoing Israeli attacks, has caused the waste to flood directly into the hospital and its surrounding complex, the management said.

Iyad Barhoum, the hospital’s administrative director, said that the Israeli army is preventing technical crews from reaching these lines for repair, exacerbating the crisis and negatively affecting the health services provided to patients.

Gaza’s healthcare system ‘strangled’ by siege and war, MSF says

Doctors Without Borders, known by its French initials MSF, says Gaza’s health system has been “strangled” by nearly two years of war and blockade, leaving it barely functional. Half of the enclave’s hospitals are out of service, while the remaining facilities face critical shortages of medicines, surgical tools and basic supplies.

The group says the ongoing, near-total siege in place since March has also left medical staff undernourished, with many working long hours despite the lack of resources. Patient numbers have surged to their highest since October 2023, with some emergency rooms forced to turn people away or close early due to overcrowding.

It warns that people with otherwise treatable injuries are dying, and called for an immediate ceasefire and full, unhindered access for humanitarian aid to prevent further avoidable deaths.

E1 ‘most dangerous’ settlement in occupied West Bank, says activist

Israel’s revived plans to illegally build more than 3,000 housing units in the E1 area east of Jerusalem will be the “most dangerous” settlement in the occupied West Bank, according to a Palestinian activist.

Jamal Juma’, coordinator of the Stop the Wall grassroots campaign, told Al Jazeera that the development – newly revived after being frozen for years due to pressure from US administrations – would allow Israel to completely encircle Jerusalem, bisecting land that would be used for a future Palestinian state.

“With this block of settlements, they are totally blocking Jerusalem and encircling it from all sides,” he told Al Jazeera.

He said the Bedouin communities who lived to the east of Jerusalem would find themselves cut off.

“All these villages will become totally ghettoised, separated totally from their lands and blocked in that built-up area,” he said.

US responds to Israeli finance minister’s settlement expansion plan

Asked about Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich’s claim that Netanyahu and Trump back his plans to approve more than 3,000 new homes in the E1 settlement project in the occupied West Bank, a spokesperson for the US State Department said Washington is focused on ending the war in Gaza and ensuring Hamas will never govern that territory again.

“A stable West Bank keeps Israel secure and is in line with this administration’s goal to achieve peace in the region,” the spokesperson said, while referring to the Israeli government for further information.

_{Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich (left) helps hold a map that shows the long-frozen E1 settlement scheme, on the day of a news conference near the Israeli settlement of Ma’ale Adumim, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, August 14}

Germany ‘strongly rejects’ E1 settlement plan

Germany is the latest country to denounce the Israeli government’s plan to expand the E1 settlement project in the occupied West Bank. In a statement, Germany’s Foreign Ministry said it “strongly rejects” the plan announced by Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich.

And?

Palestinian group urges UN to act against Israeli abuse of prisoners

The Palestinian Prisoners’ Media Office has accused international organisations of being “completely incapable and ineffective” in stopping Israeli crimes against Palestinian detainees, despite receiving “conclusive evidence” of the violations.

The group said UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’s recent warning about documented sexual violence by Israeli forces against detainees, especially prisoners from Gaza, should be followed by serious efforts to prosecute those responsible.

It called on UN agencies to restore their “effective and positive role” based on humanitarian principles, and urged rights organisations to gather testimonies from freed prisoners and take legal steps against Israel at the International Criminal Court.

Ben-Gvir goes to jail cell of Marwan Barghouti, threatens him

Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has paid a visit to the most prominent Palestinian detainee, Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti, footage shared on social media shows.

In the footage, Ben-Gvir is seen telling Barghouti, who has been in prison since 2002, including years in solitary confinement, “You won’t win. Whoever messes with the nation of Israel, whoever murders our children and women – we will wipe them out. You should know this, [this happened] throughout history.”

Relatives of 66-year-old Barghouti who viewed the footage told Al Jazeera Arabic there is a “shocking” change in his features, apparently from “exhaustion and hunger”, and expressed fear that he will be killed in custody.

Back in October, the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society accused Israeli prison staff of “brutally assaulting” and injuring Barghouti while he was being held in solitary confinement.

Palestinian National Council condemns threat against Marwan Barghouti, calls on Red Cross to ensure his safety

Palestinian National Council (PNC) Chairman Ruhi Fattouh has issued a statement condemning what he called physical and psychological attacks on jailed leader Marwan Barghouti, after Israel’s Ben-Gvir was filmed threatening him in his cell.

In a statement cited by the Wafa news agency, Fattouh said he holds Israel fully responsible for the life of Barghouti, who he said had been subjected to inhumane conditions while in solitary confinement, causing his apparent state of “weakness and emaciation”.

“These violations come within the bloody comprehensive war targeting our Palestinian people and its leadership, led by the prisoner Marwan Barghouti, and the aggression of ethnic cleansing launched by the right-wing terrorist government on the Palestinian territories,” he said, calling on the Red Cross and other rights groups to intervene immediately to ensure the safety of Barghouti and other Palestinian prisoners.

Ex-captives release video message to Trump urging him to stop war

Six freed Israeli captives and the widow of a captive who died in Gaza have addressed US President Trump in a video message, warning him that the Israeli government’s plan to expand fighting puts the remaining captives in danger.

“President Trump, the decision to expand the military operation puts each and every one of them in very great danger,” said ex-captive Sasha Troufanov in the video message put out by the Hostages and Missing Families Forum. “Every bullet, every strike could be the one that ends their life.”

“You have the power to make history,” added former captive Iair Horn, whose brother Eitan remains in captivity in Gaza. “To be the president of peace who ended the war, ended the suffering and bought every hostage home, including my little brother.”

”President Trump, you have the power to make history, to be the 'President of Peace' who ended the war, ended the suffering, and brought every hostage home.”

Hamas captivity survivors, together with the wife of a hostage who was murdered in captivity, have released a powerful… pic.twitter.com/SaJ89A4ygV

— Bring Them Home Now (@bringhomenow) August 14, 2025

Netanyahu reiterates ‘five principles for ending the war’

The Israeli prime minister has issued a statement reasserting the five principles he outlined earlier this week in a news conference.

He emphasised that the principles are:

Hamas criticises PA minister over call to disarm

Hamas has condemned reported remarks by Palestinian Authority Foreign Minister Varsen Aghabekian Shahin calling for the disarmament of Palestinian resistance groups, saying such statements “do not serve our people or national interests”.

In a statement, the group said resistance and its weapons are a “national right” as long as Israel’s occupation continues, and can only be relinquished with the full restoration of Palestinian rights and the establishment of an independent state with Jerusalem as its capital.

Hamas said it was “astonished” these comments came as Israel wages a “brutal genocide” in Gaza and advances illegal settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank.

The group urged Palestinian Authority leadership to retract such statements and stand with the Palestinian people and groups in resisting Israeli plans “aimed at erasing our people and seizing our land”.

Israel likely eying ‘additional land beyond Palestinian territories’

Netanyahu’s declared vision for a “greater Israel” is predictable given the longstanding rhetoric from his Likud party and broader Zionist ideology, says Mohamed Elmasry, professor at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies.

“This is something deeply rooted. If you go back to early Zionist founders, they based their conception of the land of Israel on a Biblical definition, which was not just from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea, but actually from the Euphrates River in Iraq to the Nile River in Egypt,” Almasry told Al Jazeera.

Netanyahu’s Likud party, he explained, “has adopted a greater Israel slogan since 1977. So this is something that’s very deeply rooted within Zionism and within Israeli politics. It’s also something that’s popular inside of Israel, so it’s certainly not surprising to see Israel pushing for this kind of greater Israel vision.”

Elmasry said Israel has been “encroaching upon Palestinian land” in the occupied West Bank for decades and now have their sights set on Gaza “and probably additional land beyond the Palestinian territories”.

UAE condemns Netanyahu’s ‘Greater Israel’ remarks

The United Arab Emirates has condemned statements by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about the so-called “Greater Israel vision”, which included Israel taking territory outside of its current borders, calling them a blatant violation of international law and the UN Charter.

In a statement, the UAE Foreign Ministry reiterated its rejection of any threat to the sovereignty of Arab states, and urged members of Israel’s government to stop making provocative statements.

The ministry also called for an end to all illegal settlement and expansion plans, warning they threaten regional stability and undermine prospects for peace.