Sunday 31, Aug 2025 {HMC} Seven Israeli soldiers were wounded in an explosion targeting an armoured vehicle in Gaza City on Friday night, the Israel Defense Forces have said.
The soldiers were wounded while operating in the Zeitoun neighbourhood, which has been the site of intense Israeli military activity in recent weeks.
Intense clashes in the area on Friday night were reported by Arab media, including Al Jazeera, which said that Hamas had attempted to kidnap some of the Israeli soldiers at the time of the explosion – reports the Israeli military said were false.
Israel declared Gaza City a “dangerous combat zone” on Friday, ending the daily humanitarian pauses that were meant to alleviate hunger there. Gaza City is in the throes of famine, a result of an Israeli blockade that despite the pauses has choked off food and medical supplies into the territory.
The Israeli defence ministry approved plans to occupy and take over Gaza City last week, and despite international and domestic opposition, is pushing ahead with the offensive.
Israel’s war in Gaza has killed more than 63,000 people over the last 23 months. Israel launched the war after Hamas-led militants carried out an attack in southern Israel, killing about 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages.
On Thursday, Abu Obeida, a spokesperson for Hamas’s military wing, warned that Israel’s plans to occupy Gaza City would increase the chances of the group capturing Israeli soldiers and that any Israeli military operation would put the lives of remaining hostages at risk.
Before its offensive, the Israeli military is seeking to forcibly displace the residents of Gaza City to southern Gaza.
Israeli bombardments of the area have intensified in recent days, with the Israeli air force carrying out strikes on tent encampments in Zeitoun and the al-Nasr neighbourhood of Gaza City on Saturday morning, according to the Palestinian news agency Wafa. At least 62 Palestinians had been killed across Gaza in the previous 24 hours, Gaza’s health authorities said.
The renewed bombardment has already caused more than 23,000 residents of Gaza City to leave, the UN said on Thursday.
Gaza City hosts nearly half of Gaza’s 2 million population and is in the grip of famine. The head of the International Committee of the Red Cross has warned that it would be impossible to keep these residents safe during a mass-displacement scenario.
“It is impossible that a mass evacuation of Gaza City could ever be done in a way that is safe and dignified under the current conditions,” said Mirjana Spoljaric in a statement on Saturday. She added that no other area in the Gaza Strip had the capacity to accommodate such a massive displacement, given the already dire shortages of food and shelter.
Gaza’s health ministry reported on Saturday that 10 people had died as a result of starvation or malnutrition in the past 24 hours, including three children. Since the war beganin October 2023, 332 people have starved to death in Gaza – the majority of whom have died since July.
Despite the worsening humanitarian crisis, Israel will soon slow or halt aid into parts of northern Gaza as it begins its Gaza City offensive, an Israeli official told the Associated Press on Saturday. The official said Israel would halt airdropped aid into Gaza City over the coming days and decrease the number of aid trucks that entered northern Gaza, even as the UN says the number of aid trucks entering Gaza is far below what is needed.
The continued Israeli-aid blockade and planned Gaza City operation has drawn a global outcry, including condemnation by six European foreign ministers on Friday. Many EU member states, such as Ireland and Spain, have called for a suspension of the bloc’s free trade pact with Israel, but countries including Germany and Hungary are against this measure.
On Saturday, the EU’s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, said she was “not optimistic” that the EU would take any measures against Israel because of internal EU divisions.
“I’m not very optimistic, and today we are definitely not going to adopt decisions … We are divided about this issue,” Kallas told journalists at a meeting in Denmark for foreign ministers to discuss suspending EU funding to Israeli startups. The proposal would require a voting majority in the bloc, something that the EU does not have.
The Irish foreign minister, Simon Harris, said: “If the EU does not act as a collective now and take sanctions against Israel, whenever will it. What more could it possibly take? Children are starving.”
As the EU debated taking steps against Israel, the US announced it would not allow the president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, to travel to New York next month for the UN general assembly. It also denied and revoked the visas of about 80 Palestinian officials.
Abbas was due to attend a conference where Britain, France, Canada and Australia are expected to recognise a Palestinian state – a step opposed by the US and Israel.
The step is unprecedented, as the US is obliged to allow access for foreign diplomats to the UN in New York under the 1947 UN headquarters agreement, except in the case of a security threat.
The decision drew international condemnation, with the vice-president of the Palestinian Authority, Hussein al-Sheikh, calling it a clear violation of international law.
EU foreign ministers urged the US to reconsider its decision to bar Palestinian officials from attending the UN general assembly, Kallas said on Saturday. The Spanish prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, called the decision “unjust” and expressed support in a phone call to Abbas.
Palestine is a member of the UN and is a permanent observer state, allowing it to participate in the organisation’s proceedings.
source hiiraaan online
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