Israeli assault on Gaza City escalates as Trump drives post-war plan at White House

This picture taken from a position on the Israeli border with the Gaza Strip shows destroyed buildings in the embattled territory on Aug 27, 2025. — Bernama pic
Thursday, 28 Aug 2025 9:36 AM MYT
GAZA CITY, Aug 28 — The Israeli military pressed operations around Gaza City yesterday as US President Donald Trump hosted a meeting on post-war plans for the shattered Palestinian territory.
Israel is under mounting pressure both at home and abroad to end its almost two-year campaign in Gaza, where the United Nations has declared a famine.
Mediators have circulated a truce proposal which has been accepted by Palestinian militant group Hamas, whose October 2023 attack triggered the devastating war. But Israel has yet to give an official response.
On the ground, Gaza’s civil defence agency said Israeli strikes and gunfire killed at least 38 people yesterday, including 16 in Gaza City.
The Israeli military, which is preparing to conquer Gaza City, said troops were operating on the outskirts of the territory’s largest city “to locate and dismantle terror infrastructure sites”.
As aid groups have warned against expanding the Israeli offensive, the army’s Arabic-language spokesman, Avichay Adraee, said on X that Gaza City’s evacuation was “inevitable”.
The vast majority of the Gaza Strip’s population of more than two million people have been displaced at least once during the war.
In Jabalia, just north of Gaza City, resident Hamad al-Karawi said he had left his home after a message broadcast from a drone ordered people to evacuate immediately.
“We scattered out onto the streets with no place or home to take refuge in,” he told AFP.
‘Death follows you’
Axios and the BBC reported that former British Prime Minister Tony Blair attended a meeting at the White House late yesterday to discuss plans for post-war Gaza. Axios said Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner also took part.
No details emerged from the gathering, which Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff had earlier promised would be “large meeting”.
“It’s a very comprehensive plan we’re putting together,” Witkoff told Fox News, without offering more details.
Trump stunned the world earlier this year when he suggested the US should take control of the Gaza Strip, clear out its inhabitants and redevelop it as seaside real estate.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised the proposal, which sparked a global outcry.
Witkoff in his interview accused Hamas of having “slow-played” the negotiations process. Senior Hamas official Izzat al-Rishq accused Witkoff of echoing “Netanyahu and his government of war criminals”.
In Gaza City’s Zeitoun neighbourhood yesterday, residents reported heavy Israeli bombardment overnight.
“Some neighbours have fled... But wherever you flee, death follows you,” said Tala al-Khatib, 29.
Zeitoun resident Abdel Hamid al-Sayfi, 62, said he had avoided going outside.
“Whoever steps outside is fired upon by the drones,” he told AFP.
Media restrictions in Gaza and difficulties in accessing many areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify the tolls and details provided by the civil defence agency or the Israeli military.
‘Starvation as weapon of war’
The UN declared a famine in Gaza governorate last week, blaming “systematic obstruction” of humanitarian deliveries by Israel.
Yesterday, Israel called on the UN-backed hunger monitor, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification Initiative (IPC), to retract the report, arguing it was “fabricated”.
After a UN Security Council meeting yesterday, 14 members — all but Israel’s top ally the US — issued a joint declaration saying they trusted the IPC’s work.
“The use of starvation as a weapon of war is clearly prohibited under international humanitarian law. Famine in Gaza must be stopped immediately,” the declaration said.
Save the Children’s president Inger Ashing told the Security Council that the charity’s “clinics are almost silent,” adding: “Now, children do not have the strength to speak or even cry out in agony.”
Out of 251 hostages seized during Hamas’s 2023 attack, 49 are still held in Gaza, including 27 the Israeli military says are dead.
Netanyahu last week said he ordered immediate negotiations aimed at securing the release of all remaining captives, while also doubling down on the plan to seize Gaza City.
Key mediator Qatar said on Tuesday it was still “waiting for an answer” from Israel on the latest ceasefire proposal, which would see the staggered release of hostages in exchange for Palestinians in Israeli custody over an initial 60-day truce.
The Hamas attack that sparked the war resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 62,895 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to figures from the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza that the UN considers reliable. — AFP
Here is the official Isaac response to the fraudulent IPC Report.
ReplyDeletehttps://youtu.be/oKUeZRyRHkI?feature=shared
Interview with GHF Director.
ReplyDelete99% of UN Food actually goes to Harm-ass, is this why some Gazans are hungry? UN trucks are attacked by Harm-ass and diverted. During these attacks people are injured and killed. Is this where the bodies are coming from instead of GHF sites? Early on some of the GHF truck drivers were attacked and killed and left to die at the Al Nasser Hospital.
In Haiti, Congo, Sudan etc the UN Agencies there work with organizations like GHF, privately funded and with private contract security personnel for crowd control and to prevent looting....the UN Agencies there have no problems, but only in Gaza the UN Agency refuses to follow this model for aid distribution. One has to ask them.....Why?
TS's Hint: UNRWA exists to serve Palestinians only, no one else. Created in the late 40s and intended to finish resettling work in a few years but 75 years on they have yet to resettle a single Palestinian. Elsewhere in the world it is UNHCR that is responsible to resettle refugees and to-date more than a hundred million Europeans, Africans, Asians have happily MOVED ON with their lives. They all live in new countries and their anak cucu cicik doing very well thank you very much.
Recently over 200 NGOs sent a letter to the UN urging them to collaborate with GHF in both funding and logistics. UN had meeting with GHF on Aug 6. UNRWA immediately bang table and demand "urgent clarification". This is swiftly followed by the infamous fraudulent "Famine" report by IPC.
https://youtu.be/x3qKJkO_3fQ?feature=shared
https://www.thenewhumanitarian.org/news/2025/08/08/international-aid-agencies-hold-secret-collaboration-meeting-gaza-humanitarian
https://www.thenewhumanitarian.org/news/2025/08/13/unrwa-demands-urgent-clarification-over-un-meeting-gaza-humanitarian-foundation-ghf