Another Israeli division expected to join Gaza City invasion

The Israeli military has released aerial footage showing a large number of tanks and other armoured military vehicles advancing a ground invasion of Gaza City.

Army chief Eyal Zamir released a video message, saying the military is “deepening the achievements that will allow us to bring the end of the war closer”.

He said he presented a report of “all risks and opportunities” during the seizing of Gaza to the political echelon, and emphasised that returning the captives held in Gaza is a war goal.

According to the Israeli military, two divisions are now operating inside Gaza City and a third is expected to join the offensive in the coming days.

Israeli attack destroys Gaza City mosque

Footage circulating online, which has been verified by Al Jazeera, shows the moment an Israeli warplane bombed and destroyed the al-Aybaki Mosque in the Tuffah neighbourhood east of Gaza City.

Other clips showed Palestinians gathering around the mosque’s rubble.

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At least 106 killed by Israel in Gaza today, medical sources say

This latest update to today’s death toll comes to our team from sources at Gaza’s hospitals. At least 91 of those killed in Israeli attacks today lost their lives in Gaza City, they said.

Israeli army continue mass scale home demolition in Gaza City

Our correspondent on the ground in the Gaza Strip reports that the army has destroyed at least 17 residential buildings in Gaza City today. The army has kept up this pace of destruction for weeks now, leaving thousands homeless and forced to flee southward.

EU’s top diplomat says Israel making ‘desperate situation worse’ in Gaza

European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas says on X that Israel’s ground offensive in Gaza City will worsen the situation in the enclave. “Israel’s ground offensive in Gaza will make an already desperate situation even worse,” Kallas wrote on social media platform X.

“It will mean more death, more destruction & more displacement,” she said, noting that the European Commission will present measures tomorrow to pressure the Israeli government to change course.

France urges halt to Israel’s ‘destructive’ Gaza City military campaign

France’s Foreign Ministry has strongly condemned the expansion and intensification of the Israeli ground, air and naval offensive in Gaza City. It urged Israel in a statement to stop its “destructive campaign” in the city, which Israel has said it plans to seize and conquer over the next several months.

“France calls on Israel to end this destructive campaign, which no longer has any military logic, and to resume negotiations as soon as possible,” Paris said.

It also urged Israel to “immediately lift all restrictions imposed on the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza, so as to allow for its immediate, massive, and unhindered delivery”.

Gaza City invasion ‘desecration’ of God’s name: Progressive US Jewish group

The IfNotNow Movement says in addition to endangering the lives of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, the Israeli military’s push into Gaza City “spells almost certain death” for the remaining Israeli captives.

“Today’s ground invasion of Gaza City, the latest step of Israel’s genocide, is a chillul hashem, a desecration of G-d’s name,” IfNotNow executive director Morriah Kaplan said in a statement.

“With just days until Rosh Hashanah [the Jewish new year], we watch in horror as the Israeli military bombs and invades Gaza City, putting the lives of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in mortal danger.”

German police arrest demonstrators at pro-Gaza protests in Berlin

German police have once again arrested pro-Palestinian protesters in the capital, Berlin, as the Israeli army intensifies deadly attacks in Gaza.

Activists shared video clips on social media platforms showing scenes from the protest gathering, with demonstrators chanting against Israel’s genocide and famine, including banners that read, “Stop the starvation war”.

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Genocide committed and continuing in Gaza: UN investigators

UN investigators say Israel is committing “genocide” in Gaza in a bid to “destroy the Palestinians” there, and blame Israel’s PM and other top officials for incitement.

A United Nations Commission of Inquiry released a landmark report on Israel’s actions in Gaza, saying Israel is committing four of five acts of genocide under the 1948 convention and holding it responsible for carrying out genocide against Palestinians.

The report states that since October 2023, Israeli forces have bombed civilians in homes, shelters and safe zones. More than half of those killed were women, children and the elderly.

It also said Palestinians have suffered torture, sexual violence, forced displacement and cultural destruction, and Israel has imposed a siege on Gaza, cutting off food, water, power and medical aid and starving Palestinians.

Israel deliberately inflicted conditions to destroy Palestinians in Gaza, including reproductive violence. Its attack on Gaza’s largest IVF clinic has destroyed 1000s of embryos, sperm and eggs, a measure to prevent births. These are the same four crimes that the ICJ ordered Israel to “take all measures to prevent”.


UN accused Israel of genocide given orders from top Israeli officials

Navi Pillay, head of the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the rights situation in the occupied Palestinian territory, has told Al Jazeera that, based on the statements of Israel’s President Herzog, Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and the orders which they have given, the UN has reached the conclusion that Israel is committing genocide.

“Because these three individuals were agents of the state, under the law the state then is held responsible,” Pillay said. “So we say it is the State of Israel that has committed genocide.”

UN investigators call on UN member states to halt arms transfers to Israel

The UN investigators, who have concluded that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, have made four key recommendations for UN member states:

UN investigators say Israel responsible for failure to prevent and punish genocide

Navi Pillay, head of the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the rights situation in the occupied Palestinian territory, is delivering a news conference on the report that has just been launched.

The report concluded that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.

Here are some key points from the news conference:

Israel hits back at UN investigation

Israel has called the UN’s finding of genocide in its war on Gaza “fabricated”.

“The report relies entirely on Hamas falsehoods, laundered and repeated by others,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Israel has previously rejected UN probes that have found it deliberately sought to destroy the healthcare system in the Gaza Strip and committed crimes against humanity, accusing investigators of bias.

Since October 2023, Israel’s war on Gaza has killed at least 64,871 people and wounded 164,610. Thousands more are believed to be under the rubble.

UN chair accuses Israel of dismissing Gaza conduct concerns with routine responses

UN Commission chair on the Palestinian territory, Chris Sidoti, has accused Israel of refusing to engage with organisations which have raised concerns about the conduct of its army in Gaza.

At a news conference alongside Navi Pillay, he said: “They say the same thing every time. They’re producing the response by ChatGPT these days, and they spend so much money in the Foreign Ministry on propaganda, you’d think they’d come up with something original.”

Sidoti added that Israel should engage with the evidence of the report rather than dismiss findings.

UN commission concerned plans to destroy Palestinians in Gaza, West Bank and East Jerusalem

Pillay continues that the analysis in the report refers solely to the commission of genocide from October 2023 until July 2025, but added that the commission is seriously concerned that the intent “to destroy the Palestinians as a whole is guiding the Israelis as a whole in the rest of the occupied territories, including the West Bank and East Jerusalem”.

“It is also important to note that the events in Gaza since October 7 have not occurred in isolation.

“They were preceded by decades of unlawful occupation and oppression under an ideology requiring the removal of the Palestinian population from their lands and their replacement.”

UN report documents Israeli sexual violence against female Palestinian prisoners

The UN Commission of Inquiry’s report that concluded that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza includes shocking details about the mistreatment of Palestinian prisoners, particularly women.

“The Commission notes that female detainees were subjected to sexual assault and harassment in military and Israel Prison Service facilities, as well as threats to their lives and threats of rape,” it said. “The sexual harassment included attempts to kiss and touch their breasts.”

Survivors also reported prolonged and invasive strip-searches, the commission said.

“Women were beaten and harassed and had sexual insults directed at them. Female detainees were photographed without their consent and in degrading circumstances, including in their underwear in front of male soldiers, and these photographs were often posted on social media,” the report read.

It added that Israeli forces harassed and shamed Palestinian women publicly.

“For example, some Palestinian women were forced to strip to their underwear and remove their veils in public and in front of the community,” it said. “The Commission has found that Israeli security forces have deliberately humiliated and mocked Palestinian women based on their gender and ethnicity.”

How UN Commission of Inquiry concluded that Israel is committing genocide

The commission has applied the UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide to Israel’s actions in Gaza. It found that the Israeli military – at the orders of the Israeli government – is carrying out four of the five methods of genocide cited by the convention.

The report said Israel is: Killing members of the group [Palestinians]; causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; and imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group.

It also showed – through the public statements of Israeli officials – that Israel has dolus specialis of genocide – “specific intent” to destroy Palestinians as a people.

“The victims of the bombing were not singled out or targeted as individual civilians. On the contrary, victims were targeted collectively due to their identity as Palestinians,” the report read.

“The Israeli authorities intended to kill as many Palestinians as possible through its military operations in Gaza since 7 October 2023 and knew that the means and methods of warfare employed would cause mass deaths of Palestinians, including children.”

UN report highlights responsibility of other states in Gaza genocide

The UN Commission of Inquiry, which concluded that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, underscores in its report that countries across the world have a responsibility to stop the Israeli atrocities.

The report said the International Court of Justice’s ruling in January 2024 that found it plausible that Israel was committing genocidal acts in Gaza put “all states on notice”.

“As such, the duty to prevent genocide was triggered due to the actual or constructive knowledge of the immediate plausibility that genocide was being or was about to be committed,” it said.

“According to the International Court of Justice, where States Parties are able to contribute to the prevention of genocide, they are obligated to ’employ all means reasonably available to them, so as to prevent genocide so far as possible.’ Responsibility may be incurred if a State Party ‘manifestly failed to take all measures to prevent genocide which were within its power, and which might have contributed to preventing the genocide.'”

Several Western countries, including the US and Germany, continued to provide Israel with weapons and diplomatic support after the ICJ ruling.

Israel predictively dismissed UN body report as ‘fake’: Israeli ex-diplomat

Alon Pinkas, a former Israeli diplomat, has told Al Jazeera that he wishes the Israeli public would be “more aware of not only the moral implications, but also the political implications” of the UN inquiry’s landmark findings that Israel’s war on Gaza is a genocide.

Israel’s official position has been to “predictively” call it “fake” and “bogus” with “built-in anti-Israeli bias”, he said, adding that most Israelis have been in denial around what is happening in Gaza.

The UN has always been seen in Israel as somehow a “nemesis, and its organisation or affiliate bodies are seen as possessing anti-Israeli sentiment”, he said.

He said it is important for the Israeli public to realise “there’s nothing in it for Israel to occupy Gaza. There is nothing in it for Israel in launching a new military offensive … The Israel Defence Forces [Israeli army] chief of staff said things to that … extent, and he’s a bigger authority on military issues than I am.”

Palestine welcomes ‘irrefutable’ UN genocide finding

Palestine’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has called the UN commission’s finding of genocide this morning a “stark warning” for the international legal system even as it welcomes the report.

The findings “reveal the nature of the criminal war that threatens to undermine the foundations of the entire international legal system,” the ministry wrote on X. “International law experts and independent investigators have unanimously agreed that what our people in Gaza are enduring amounts, without the slightest ambiguity, to a fully realized crime of genocide, amid growing international consensus on this evident truth.”

“The situation in Gaza today portends a humanitarian catastrophe that cannot tolerate any leniency or delay,” it added.

The commission’s report – which Israel was quick to reject as “fabricated” – adds to previous United Nations findings that Israel is committing “war crimes and crimes against humanity”.

Irish president suggests Israel, allies supplying arms should be excluded from UN

Michael D Higgins says the UN Commission of Inquiry’s report that concluded that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza is an “important” document that should spark international action.

“I believe myself that the kind of actions that are necessary now are the exclusion of those who are practising genocide, and those who are supporting genocide with armaments,” the Irish president told reporters.

“We must look at their exclusion from the United Nations itself, and we should have no hesitation any longer in relation to ending trade with people who are inflicting this on our fellow human beings.”

Ireland, where many see parallels between the country’s struggle for independence from the United Kingdom and Palestinians’ push for self-determination, recognised Palestinian statehood last year.

The country has also formally backed South Africa’s case at the International Court of Justice, which accuses Israel of genocide.

Israel’s assault on Gaza City ‘utterly reckless and appalling’

The UK’s recently appointed foreign secretary, Yvette Cooper, says the Israeli army’s assault on Gaza “will only bring more bloodshed”.

Former Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn, however, said the UK government’s “legacy will be its complicity in one of the greatest crimes of our time”.

“This genocide belongs to Britain, too,” he wrote on X.

In another post on X, former Labour MP Zarah Sultana also questioned Britain’s involvement in Israel’s war on Gaza, calling on the government to “stop selling arms to Israel”.

Amnesty International urges UK to ‘punish’ genocide after UN report

Amnesty International has called on the UK to “prevent and punish” Israel’s genocide in Gaza after the release of the UN commission’s report.

Kristyan Benedict, Amnesty International UK’s crisis response manager, said in a statement that the UK “must change its position and take action without delay” amid the UN’s finding of genocide.

Although the UK has said it will recognise a Palestinian state, Prime Minister Keir Starmer has faced criticism for meeting Israeli President Isaac Herzog in London last week.

Hundreds of people, meanwhile, have been arrested for their support of the banned campaign group Palestine Action.

The UK government’s “continued reluctance to officially acknowledge even the risk of the ongoing genocide in Gaza is increasingly untenable and stands in stark contrast to overwhelming legal evidence and the mounting consensus among international genocide scholars and human rights organisations”, Benedict said.

“The government must now stop indulging in genocide denial. It must urgently fulfil its legal and moral responsibility by taking immediate, decisive steps to prevent and punish genocide.”

‘No restraint at all’: More reaction from UK to Israel’s Gaza City offensive

There has been a lot of reaction to Israel’s ground assault to seize Gaza City and the UN’s genocide finding from the UK, a country closely allied with Israel.

Diane Abbott, a veteran Labour MP, said there seems to be “no restraint at all on Israel’s actions … certainly not from its allies like Britain and the United States”.

The Scottish National Party has reiterated a call for a Palestinian state to be recognised as a step “towards peace and a two-state solution”.

Reacting to the UN report, which said genocide is taking place in Gaza, the leader of the Welsh party Plaid Cymru, Rhun ap Iorwerth, has called on PM Starmer to tell Trump, who is arriving in the UK today on his unprecedented second state visit, that action needs to be taken against Israel.

Also responding to the UN report, the Green Party posted on X: “Only last week our government were denying this reality and continue to sell arms to Netanyahu’s genocidal regime.”

UK urged to halt arms exports to Israel after UN genocide findings

Hannah Bond, CEO of the international humanitarian charity ActionAid, has welcomed the UN commission of inquiry’s finding that Israel is committing genocide and has called on the UK government to “halt all arms exports to the Israeli government immediately” or risk complicity.

Bond said the UK government has “dithered for long enough” and said it shouldn’t allow “today’s findings to fall on deaf ears”.

“The UK must take decisive action now to bring about an immediate and permanent ceasefire, and it must ensure that there is full accountability for all war crimes, crimes against humanity and atrocities that have taken place throughout this long and devastating war,” she added.

Mounting criticism of UK arms sales to Israel

The UK faces mounting pressure over two explosive developments: Israel’s announcement of its assault on Gaza City and the damning UN report accusing Israel of genocide.

Israel’s conduct in Gaza has been a big issue in UK politics for several reasons. The UK has historically considered Israel a close ally and has sent RAF reconnaissance flights over Gaza – which it attempted to hide. It has also continued arms sales, and senior government officials have repeatedly rejected accusations of genocide.

Following the UN commission’s findings this morning, these positions are now under intense scrutiny.

In cases where the government has come under pressure for specific acts by Israel’s army, which have been raised by MPs, it has often deferred to Israeli investigations, which almost always find no wrongdoing, or said the government would look into the issue.

However, of the 413 incidents examined in which potential violations of international humanitarian law may have occurred, the UK government said it had insufficient evidence to make a decision in 411.