No meaningful pressure on Israel despite ‘unprecedented’ public opinion shift

Daniel Levy, a former Israeli negotiator, says “there is an unprecedented shift in how Israel is perceived and an unprecedented mobilisation among the public” against what Israel is doing in Gaza and the wider region.

“But this has not yet at least translated into meaningful pressure, because words of condemnation when they are not matched with action that is commensurate to the crimes being committed, that does not have an effect,” Levy told Al Jazeera.

He noted that Israel continues to trade with countries around the world, Israelis can travel abroad without visa restrictions, and Israeli assets are not being frozen in banks, and the country continues to participate in the global arms trade.

“So until we see an alignment of the words, the rhetoric, with the actual actions, we can expect Israel to continue” with its policies in Gaza and the Middle East.

Only serious US, Western pressure will get Israel to change policy

The push by several nations to recognise a Palestinian state has been an “irritation” for the Israeli government, says Rami Khouri, a distinguished fellow at the American University of Beirut.

But it hasn’t stopped Israel from pursuing its hardline policies, Khouri told Al Jazeera, noting that the country’s approval of its longstanding E1 settlement expansion plans came in response to the British and French pledge to recognise the State of Palestine.

“This is the only thing that the Israelis can do is use military force and be more aggressive, ideologically and on the ground, including attacking the West Bank, Lebanon and Syria,” Khouri explained.

“This is a pretty clear regional, comprehensive, sustained, long-term, well-established policy. This is what Zionism and the State of Israel do, and they haven’t yet figured out how to shift from that to a diplomatic, negotiated resolution of their conflict.”

Khouri added that a shift will only happen “when the United States and other Western powers force it to do that, and there’s no sign of that yet”.

‘We could have ended the war a year ago’: Father of Israeli captive

As we’ve been reporting, the families of captives held in Gaza are protesting today in Israel as part of a nationwide “Day of Disruption” to demand the return of their loved ones from Gaza and an end to the war.

“Go back to the negotiation table. There’s a good deal on the table. It’s something we can work with,” said Ruby Chen, the father of 21-year-old Itay Chen, a dual Israeli-American citizen whose body is being held in Gaza. “We could get a deal done to bring all the hostages back.”

Einav Zangauker, whose 25-year-old son Matan was abducted from an Israeli kibbutz on October 7, 2023 and is among those believed to still be alive, also said the Israeli government “could have ended the war a year ago”.

“We could have saved hostages and soldiers, but the prime minister [Netanyahu] chose, again and again, to sacrifice civilians for the sake of his rule,” Zangauker said.

_{Black smoke rises from burning tires on Highway 2 in Tel Aviv on Tuesday.}


‘They are starving, you are celebrating’

Israeli news outlet Haaretz is reporting that dozens of protesters are demonstrating outside a restaurant in Jerusalem that is hosting an event by the Binyamin Regional Council – a body that oversees dozens of illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank.

Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, is expected to attend after a security cabinet meeting.

According to Haaretz, the protesters are chanting, “They are starving, you are celebrating.”

Haaretz also said hundreds of protesters have set out on a march from Tel Aviv’s central railway station to Hostage Square.

_{A rally calling for an end to the war on Gaza and the return of Israeli captives, in Tel Aviv}

ISRAELIS March Against Genocide

Long lines of men, women and children forced to leave Gaza City

Videos verified by Al Jazeera’s Sanad factchecking unit show Palestinians fleeing the Saftawi area, north of Gaza City, after repeated Israeli threats and attacks.

The area, which Israel has said it plans to forcibly seize, has been under intense Israeli bombardment.

The footage captures long lines of men, women, and children walking along dusty and ravaged streets, many carrying bags, blankets, and mattresses. Some push carts piled with belongings while others hold children by the hand as they move westward on foot.

Families appear exhausted and distressed as they abandon their homes with only what they can carry with them and almost no vehicles in sight.

Death toll in Israeli attack on market near Gaza City rises to five

A source at al-Ahli Arab Hospital has told Al Jazeera that two women were among those killed in the Israeli attack on the popular market east of Gaza City. Videos shared on social media and verified by Al Jazeera showed people rushing injured people from the site of the attack.

A civil defence spokesperson posted a video documenting the scene from inside al-Ahli Arab Hospital, stating that more than 50 wounded people arrived as a result of the shelling.

‘Gaza is being crushed before the eyes of the world’

Reham Mahdi Al Jarrah, communications coordinator with the Women’s Affairs Center, a Palestinian non-profit group, says Israel’s expanded assault on Gaza City has not stopped for a “single moment”.

“Whole neighbourhoods are being completely wiped out … Families have nothing left. They’ve lost their homes, their jobs, their money, their savings, their dreams,” she told Al Jazeera.

“Have you ever heard of that white light that people say they see before they die? Since the ground invasion into Gaza City, I see it every single night,” said Al Jarrah, adding that nights are dominated by the roar of artillery and drones.

“The ear-splitting sound of bombing is so terrifying that me and my colleagues are unable to sleep … I cannot find the exact word to describe how horrifying the sound of bombing is as they are moving deeper into the city as they are levelling houses.”

She urged the United Nations, the international community and all people of conscience to act immediately, before Gaza is “crushed before the eyes of the world”.


_{A woman walks near a house that was destroyed by Israel in Gaza City, August 26}

CNN Hasbara at work:

https://www.cnn.com/world/live-news/israel-hamas-gaza-war-08-26-25

On Monday morning, Hussam Al-Masri, a cameraman who worked for Reuters, was positioned on an external stairwell of the Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza, providing a live feed showing fighting in the distance elsewhere in the enclave.

Al-Masri was killed in an Israeli strike on the hospital.

Some minutes later, after people had rushed to treat those wounded in the strike – and other journalists arrived to cover the attack – a second Israeli strike hit the hospital.

At least 20 people were killed in the “double tap” strike, including five journalists. Israel called the attack a “tragic mishap” and said it is launching an investigation.

IDF's initial inquiry into Gaza hospital strike claims troops identified Hamas camera

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) claimed Tuesday that the “double-tap” strike on Nasser Hospital, which killed at least 20 people, was aimed at a camera positioned by Hamas.

“From an initial inquiry, it appears that Golani Brigade troops, operating in the area of Khan Yunis to dismantle terrorist infrastructure, identified a camera that was positioned by Hamas in the area of the Nasser Hospital that was being used to observe the activity of IDF troops, in order to direct terrorist activities against them." _{IDF statement on Nasser Hospital inquiry.}

Israel did not provide evidence for the claim.

“In light of this,” the statement continued. “The troops operated to remove the threat by striking and dismantling the camera and the inquiry showed that the troops operated to remove the threat.”

So the Reuters cameraman was Hamas camera... But it was a tragic mishap.


IDF claims six "terrorists" were killed in Nasser Hospital strike

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) claimed in a statement that “six of the individuals killed” in its strikes on Nasser Hospital were terrorists.

“Six of the individuals killed were terrorists, one of whom took part in the infiltration into Israeli territory on October 7th,” said the statement, which announced the conclusion of the initial inquiry into the incident. “At the same time, the Chief of the General Staff regrets any harm caused to civilians.”

A security source told CNN that none of the journalists killed on Monday were targets of the strike.

IDF outlines further inquiries into "several gaps" related to Nasser strike

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it would “examine several gaps” related to its “double-tap” attack on Nasser Hospital, including an “examination of the authorization process prior to the strike” and an “an examination of the decision making process in the field.”

The IDF claimed Tuesday that an initial inquiry into the strike, which killed at least 20 people, including journalists and medical staff, showed that the intended target was a camera positioned by Hamas to capture Israeli military activity. Israel did not provide evidence for the claim.

“The Chief of the General Staff emphasized that the IDF directs its activities solely toward military targets,” the statement concluded.

An Israeli security official previously told CNN that the forces involved in the strike were authorized to strike the camera with a drone, but fired two tank shells: the first at the camera and the second at rescue forces.

Further inquiries to add more lies on top of the other lies. Throw out a bunch of contradicting statements to be repeated by the Western Media to ? legitimize firing tank shells at a crowded hospital ?

Israel's Hospital Attack LIES Fall Apart

Israel is seeking to ‘eliminate and annihilate the Palestinian people’

Mustafa Barghouti, secretary general of the Palestinian National Initiative, says Israel is pursuing three processes simultaneously as Netanyahu pushes to “remap” the entire Middle East.

The first is an effort “to eliminate and annihilate the Palestinian people by conducting not only genocide, but also ethnic cleansing”, Barghouti told Al Jazeera from Ramallah.

The second is an attempt to “annex the lands of other countries” in the region.

“At this moment, they have already invaded big parts of Syria and Lebanon, and the proposals they are making, with the help of the American administration, are about ripping away from Syria any form of sovereignty,” Barghouti said.

And the third process, he explained, is creating Israeli dominance in the region, which includes “economic hegemony, political hegemony [and] intelligence hegemony over the whole Middle East”.

International condemnation of Israel ‘performative, feckless, meaningless’

US President Trump is continuing a long history of American administrations that have backed, financed and armed Israel as it expands its illegal settlements throughout the occupied territory, says Omar Rahman, a fellow at the Middle East Council on Global Affairs.

But the Trump administration also has taken “many illegal steps on behalf of Israel”, including supporting the genocide in Gaza and recognising Israel’s claims to Jerusalem and the occupied Syrian Golan Heights, Rahman noted.

“Israel always understood that unless there was a kind of meaningful pushback against it for its settlement policy, then it could continue to do whatever it wanted,” he told Al Jazeera.

Rahman added that as long as governments continue to support Israel in practice, any rhetorical condemnation remains “performative, feckless [and] meaningless”.

Israeli gov’t outspoken about killing ‘as many Palestinians as possible’

Nabeel Khoury, a former US diplomat, has been speaking to us about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s vision for a so-called “Greater Israel”.

“This is an old idea that dates back to … the early rise of the world Zionist movement,” Khoury told Al Jazeera.

“The idea was that it was a compromise to establish the State of Israel on only roughly two-thirds” of Palestine, he explained, but that Israel would eventually expand “to what they think religiously appeal[s] to most Jews around the world”.

Under Netanyahu’s far-right government, “the time has come” to implement this idea, Khoury said, noting that Israel’s cabinet ministers are becoming more vocal in their push to kill “as many Palestinians as possible”.

“There is very little doubt now that the ‘Greater Israel’ idea is on its way to being implemented,” Khoury added.

Netanyahu hails Israel’s blocking of Palestinian state at settler event: Report

Israeli news outlet Haaretz has reported on comments Netanyahu made at an event hosted by the Binyamin Regional Council, an Israeli settlement body, to celebrate 17 new illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.

“We are now coming from a cabinet meeting. I don’t think I can expand too much, but I will say one thing – it started in Gaza and it will end in Gaza,” Haaretz quoted the Israeli prime minister as saying.

“We will not leave these monsters there, we will release all our hostages, we will make sure Gaza no longer poses a threat to Israel,” Netanyahu said, according to the report.

“I promised 25 years ago that we would deepen our roots, and we did, together. I said we would prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state, and we are doing it, together. I said we would build and hold on to parts of our country, our homeland, and we are doing so,” he added.

Israelis rally in Tel Aviv to demand captives’ release

_{Tens of thousands of protesters march in Tel Aviv}


Protests in Israel needs to be ‘durable’ to succeed

Alon Pinkas, a former Israeli diplomat, says protests in Israel calling for a ceasefire in Gaza and the return of the remaining captives need to be sustained, durable and resilient if they are going to force the government to change its policies.

“They need to be out every day,” Pinkas told Al Jazeera. “This needs not to be 120,000, which is what we have in Tel Aviv right now. It needs to be half a million or a million.”

Unless this happens, Pinkas said, Netanyahu can “weather the storm”, adding that the Israeli prime minister is not being impacted by international pressure to cease the war on Gaza.

“What you see right now is a country completely at odds and disconnected from the government,” Pinkas said.

_{Protesters demand the release of captives held in Gaza during a rally in Tel Aviv on August 26}

Trump envoy says US negotiating ‘multiple entries’ into Abraham Accords

Steve Witkoff, the US special envoy to the Middle East, has not offered concrete details about which countries are purportedly in talks to normalise relations with Israel as part of the so-called Abraham Accords.

“We are negotiating multiple entries into the Abraham peace accords because of your vision,” Witkoff told Trump before a cabinet meeting in Washington, DC, as he heaped praise on the US president.

During Trump’s first term in office, his administration brokered a series of deals that saw Arab states agree to normalise relations with Israel.

But efforts to reach further agreements have stalled amid the Israeli military’s deadly bombardment of the Gaza Strip, with countries saying they will not normalise relations with Israel until it ends its war on the territory.

Family urges pressure on Israel to release detained Palestinian American teen

The family of a Palestinian American teenager held in Israeli prison for six months without charge or trial have renewed their call for the US government to pressure Israel to release him.

Mohammed Ibrahim, a 16-year-old Palestinian American citizen from Florida, was arrested by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank in February on stone-throwing accusations that he and his family deny.

“The prison that he’s in is notorious for torture and suffering,” Zeyad Kadur, the boy’s uncle, said during a news conference in Florida.

“He’s getting starved [and has] scabies from his feet to his fingertips, begging for ointment to treat him,” Kadur said. “Our politicians, from our city council members to the White House, need to do something about this.”

_{Mohammed Ibrahim was detained in February in the West Bank}

War will end when US stops giving Israel weapons: US congressman

Democratic Congressman Ro Khanna has condemned the US government’s continued support for Israel a day after Trump said he thinks the Israeli war on Gaza will end within three weeks.

“Trump keeps saying the war in Gaza will end but gives Netanyahu a blank check,” Khanna wrote on X.

“The war ends when we stop giving Israel military weapons to kills [sic] civilians & when we, like 147 nations with France, Canada, UK, recognize a Palestinian state.”

The US has provided billions of dollars in military assistance to Israel since it began its war on Gaza. It also has blocked efforts at the UN and other international bodies to end the war and hold Israel accountable for abuses against Palestinians.

Trump keeps saying the war in Gaza will end but gives Netanyahu a blank check. Each day civilians are killed or starved. The war ends when we stop giving Israel military weapons to kills civilians & when we, like 147 nations with France, Canada, UK, recognize a Palestinian state. https://t.co/owsdGO4JyG

— Ro Khanna (@RoKhanna) August 26, 2025

Deadly Israeli attack hits crowded Gaza market

The chaotic aftermath of Israel’s deadly attack on a crowded Gaza market has been captured on video.

Be aware: The footage below contains distressing images.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/aj32khgmvVQ

MSF details attack at Gaza water distribution point on Saturday

Doctors Without Borders, known by its French acronym MSF, says a Palestinian man and girl were injured when heavy gunfire erupted near one of its water distribution points in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis on Saturday.

The group said the girl was waiting near a water distribution truck when she was shot in the ribs and rushed to Nasser Hospital while the man was shot in the hand. The truck, clearly marked with MSF logos, was also hit along with nearby tents sheltering displaced families, the aid group said.

“People should not have to risk their lives for water,” said Helen Ottens-Patterson, MSF’s head of mission, who warned that Israeli restrictions are pushing water supplies to “deadly levels”.

“In the chaos of the moment, it was not clear where these intense and consecutive bursts of gunshots were fired from,” Ottens-Patterson said.

The incident forced MSF to suspend water deliveries, cutting off one of the few available lifelines for Palestinians already enduring famine and widespread thirst.

“People should not have to risk their lives for water. We have repeatedly denounced this pervasive disregard for all human life in Gaza and all necessities like water required to sustain human life.”https://t.co/OgujFKuQTc

— MSF International (@MSF) August 26, 2025

Palestinians injured in Israeli attack on southern Gaza’s al-Mawasi

The Palestinian Civil Defence says a number of people have been injured after Israeli warplanes bombed tents for displaced Palestinians in the so-called “safe zone” of al-Mawasi near Khan Younis.

Volunteer doctor says situation at Nasser Hospital ‘catastrophic’

Dr Milena Angelova, a Bulgarian doctor working at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, says the facility lacks even the most basic medical supplies.

In an interview with our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic, she said medical staff are forced to rely on “primitive methods” due to the absence of essential diagnostic equipment.

“We’re dealing with many children wounded by shrapnel, bullets, and other injuries caused by the war,” said Angelova, adding that Israel’s attacks on the hospital yesterday killed innocent civilians.

UN says Gaza faces deepening humanitarian catastrophe

The latest UN humanitarian office (OCHA) update warns of worsening starvation, mounting casualties, and collapsing services across the Gaza Strip.

The UN and NGOs have said Israel’s plan to intensify military operations in Gaza City will have a “horrific humanitarian impact” on people who are already exhausted, displaced and malnourished. They have also said it could amount to forcible transfer – a crime against humanity.

Here are some of the key points from OCHA’s update:

Main events on August 26th

• Israel has carried out intensified attacks across Gaza, including a strike on a popular market east of Gaza City, killing at least five Palestinians and injuring many others.
• Videos verified by Al Jazeera’s Sanad fact-checking agency show Palestinians fleeing the as-Saftawi area north of Gaza City as Israel pushes ahead with its plans to seize the city.
• The Palestinian Authority has condemned what it calls a “dangerous escalation” by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank after a raid in Ramallah injured dozens of Palestinians.
• Several Palestinians and international activists have been wounded after a group of Israeli settlers attacked residents in Masafer Yatta, south of Hebron in the West Bank, the Wafa news agency reports.
• US special envoy Tom Barrack has triggered a storm of criticism after scolding reporters during a news conference in the Lebanese capital, Beirut, telling them to “act civilised” and saying their conduct reflected the regional turmoil.

Reuters journalist pens powerful words as she resigns protesting Gaza complicity

Canadian journalist working for Reuters has resigned to express her opposition to her employer’s role in enabling the atrocities committed against journalists in Gaza. Valerie Zink’s stunning resignation came just hours after six more journalists died in IDF strikes on a hospital in Gaza. Rifat Jawaid says Gaza journalists are the bravest in his fraternity as he highlights the role played by western media outlets.

United Nations Executive EXPOSES Genocidal Gaza Humanitarian Foundation

"Time to Cut Ties with Israel": U.N. Expert Francesca Albanese on Gaza Hospital Bombing

Israel's war on Gaza is the deadliest conflict for journalists in recorded history. In an attack on Nasser Hospital in Gaza Monday, Israel killed five more journalists in addition to over a dozen others. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed the hospital attack was a "tragic mishap," but just hours later, Israeli forces killed a sixth journalist. "There is a pattern of targeting and killing journalists that lets us think that there is an intention," says Francesca Albanese, U.N. special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territory.

As countries prepare for the U.N. General Assembly, Albanese notes the complicity of Western states in the genocide in Gaza, particularly the United States. "There has been a tolerance of Israel's impunity for decades," says Albanese. "However, the United States is the single most important factor of crisis in the United Nations."