DEIR AL-BALAH: Israeli strikes and gunfire killed at least 38 people across Gaza, health officials said, as international pressure grows for a ceasefire but Israel’s leader remains defiant about continuing the war.
Strikes in central and northern Gaza killed people in their homes in the early hours of Saturday morning, including nine from the same family in a house in the Nuseirat refugee camp, according to health staff at the Al-Awda hospital where the bodies were brought.
The attacks came hours after a defiant Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told fellow world leaders at the UN General Assembly Friday that his nation “must finish the job” against Hamas in Gaza.
Netanyahu’s words, aimed as much at his increasingly divided domestic audience as the global one, began after dozens of delegates from multiple nations walked out of the UN General Assembly hall en masse Friday morning as he began speaking.
International pressure on Israel to end the war is increasing, as is Israel’s isolation, with a growing list of countries deciding recently to recognize Palestinian statehood — something Israel rejects.
Countries have been lobbying US President Donald Trump to press Israel for a ceasefire. On Friday, Trump told reporters on the White House lawn that he believes the US is close to achieving a deal on easing fighting in Gaza that “will get the hostages back” and “end the war.”
Trump and Netanyahu are scheduled to meet Monday, and Trump said on social media Friday that “very inspired and productive discussions” and “intense negotiations” about Gaza are ongoing with countries in the region.
Yet, Israel is pressing ahead with another major ground operation in Gaza City, which experts say is experiencing famine. More than 300,000 people have fled, but up to 700,000 are still there, many because they can’t afford to relocate.
The strikes Saturday morning demolished a house in Gaza City’s Tufah neighborhood, killing at least 11 people, more than half of them women and children, according to the Al-Ahly Hospital where the bodies were brought. Four other people were killed when an airstrike hit their homes in the Shati refugee camp, according to Shifa hospital.
Six other Palestinians were killed by Israeli gunfire while seeking aid in southern and central Gaza, according to Nasser and Al Awda hospitals where the bodies were brought.
Israel’s army did not immediately respond about the airstrikes or the gunfire.
Hospitals and health clinics in Gaza City are on the brink of collapse. Nearly two weeks into the offensive, two clinics have been destroyed by airstrikes, two hospitals shut down after being damaged and others are barely functioning, with medicine, equipment, food and fuel in short supply.
Many patients and staff have been forced to flee hospitals, leaving behind only a few doctors and nurses to tend to children in incubators or other patients too ill to move.
On Friday, aid group Doctors Without Borders said it was forced to suspend activities in Gaza City amid an intensified Israeli offensive. The group said Israeli tanks were less than half a mile from its health care facilities and the escalating attacks have created an “unacceptable level of risk” for its staff.
Meanwhile, the food situation in the north has also worsened, as Israel has halted aid deliveries through its crossing into northern Gaza since Sept. 12 and has increasingly rejected UN requests to bring supplies from southern Gaza into the north, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said.
Israel’s campaign in Gaza has killed more than 65,000 people and wounded more than 167,000 others, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. It doesn’t distinguish between civilians and combatants, but says women and children make up around half the fatalities. The ministry is part of the Hamas-run government, but UN agencies and many independent experts consider its figures to be the most reliable estimate of wartime casualties.
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Airstrikes and shooting kill at least 38 people in Gaza as Israel ignores demands for a ceasefire
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Airstrikes and shooting kill at least 38 people in Gaza as Israel ignores demands for a ceasefire
- On Friday, Netanyahu told the UN General Assembly that Israel “must finish the job” against Hamas
- This comes as international pressure mounts for a ceasefire, but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu remains defiant
Israel accused of move expanding Jerusalem borders for first time since 1967
- Planned development is formally a westward expansion of the Geva Binyamin, or Adam, settlement situated north-east of Jerusalem in the West Bank
- Some 200,000 Israelis live in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem, while more than 500,000 others live in West Bank settlements and outposts
JERUSALEM: Israeli NGOs have raised the alarm over a settlement plan signed by the government which they say would mark the first expansion of Jerusalem’s borders into the occupied West Bank since 1967.
Israel has occupied east Jerusalem since 1967 and later annexed it in a move not recognized by the international community.
Palestinians view east Jerusalem as the capital of their future state.
The proposal, published in early February but reported by Israeli media only on Monday, comes as international outrage mounts over creeping measures aimed at strengthening Israeli control over the West Bank.
Critics say these actions by the Israeli authorities are aimed at the de facto annexation of the Palestinian territory.
The planned development, announced by Israel’s Ministry of Construction and Housing, is formally a westward expansion of the Geva Binyamin, or Adam, settlement situated north-east of Jerusalem in the West Bank.
In a statement, the ministry said the development agreement included the construction of around 2,780 housing units for the settlement, with an investment of roughly 120 million Israeli shekels (around $38.7 million).
But the area to be developed lies on the Jerusalem side of the separation barrier built by Israel in the early 2000s, while Geva Binyamin sits on the West Bank side of the barrier, and the two are separated by a road.
In a statement, Israeli settlement watchdog Peace Now said there would be no “territorial or functional connection” between the area to be developed and the settlement.
“The new neighborhood will be integral to the city of Jerusalem,” Lior Amihai, Peace Now’s executive director, told AFP.
“What is unique about that one is that it will be connected directly to Jerusalem, but it will be beyond the annexed municipal border. So it will be in complete West Bank territory, but just adjacent to Jerusalem,” he said.
‘Living there as Jerusalemites’
The move comes days after Israel’s government approved a process to register land in the West Bank as “state property,” drawing widespread international condemnation and fears among critics that it would accelerate annexation of the Palestinian territory.
Days earlier, Israel’s security cabinet approved a series of measures to tighten control over areas of the West Bank administered by the Palestinian Authority under the Oslo accords.
Those measures, which also sparked international backlash, include allowing Jewish Israelis to buy West Bank land directly and allowing Israeli authorities to administer certain religious sites in areas under the Palestinian Authority’s control.
Amihai said that the current government — one of the most right-wing in Israel’s history — was “systematically working to annex the occupied territories and to prevent Palestinian statehood.”
The case of Jerusalem, he said, was particularly symbolic.
“Every change to Jerusalem is sensitive to both the Israeli public, but also to the Palestinians,” he told AFP.
Aviv Tatarsky, a researcher at Ir Amim, an Israeli NGO focusing on Jerusalem within the context of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, said the latest planned development amounted to a de facto expansion of the city of Jerusalem.
“If it is built, and people live there, the people who will live there, they will be living there as Jerusalemites,” he told AFP.
“In all practical terms, it’s basically not the settlement that will be expanded, but Jerusalem.”
‘Facts on the ground’
The development agreement was signed by Israel’s Construction and Housing Ministry, the Finance Ministry and the Binyamin Regional Council, which represents settlements north of Ramallah in the central West Bank.
It has yet to be reviewed by the Civil Administration’s Higher Planning Committee, in a process which could take several months or years.
Tatarsky said that international pressure had so far made it difficult for recent Israeli governments to make formal declarations on annexation.
“It’s much easier to create facts on the ground, which, altogether... actually add up to annexation,” the researcher said.
The West Bank, occupied since 1967, would form the largest part of any future Palestinian state but is seen by many on the religious right as Israeli land.
Some 200,000 Israelis live in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem, while more than 500,000 others live in West Bank settlements and outposts, which are illegal under international law.
Around three million Palestinians live in the territory.
The current Israeli government has fast-tracked settlement expansion, approving a record 52 settlements in 2025.
Israel has occupied east Jerusalem since 1967 and later annexed it in a move not recognized by the international community.
Palestinians view east Jerusalem as the capital of their future state.
The proposal, published in early February but reported by Israeli media only on Monday, comes as international outrage mounts over creeping measures aimed at strengthening Israeli control over the West Bank.
Critics say these actions by the Israeli authorities are aimed at the de facto annexation of the Palestinian territory.
The planned development, announced by Israel’s Ministry of Construction and Housing, is formally a westward expansion of the Geva Binyamin, or Adam, settlement situated north-east of Jerusalem in the West Bank.
In a statement, the ministry said the development agreement included the construction of around 2,780 housing units for the settlement, with an investment of roughly 120 million Israeli shekels (around $38.7 million).
But the area to be developed lies on the Jerusalem side of the separation barrier built by Israel in the early 2000s, while Geva Binyamin sits on the West Bank side of the barrier, and the two are separated by a road.
In a statement, Israeli settlement watchdog Peace Now said there would be no “territorial or functional connection” between the area to be developed and the settlement.
“The new neighborhood will be integral to the city of Jerusalem,” Lior Amihai, Peace Now’s executive director, told AFP.
“What is unique about that one is that it will be connected directly to Jerusalem, but it will be beyond the annexed municipal border. So it will be in complete West Bank territory, but just adjacent to Jerusalem,” he said.
‘Living there as Jerusalemites’
The move comes days after Israel’s government approved a process to register land in the West Bank as “state property,” drawing widespread international condemnation and fears among critics that it would accelerate annexation of the Palestinian territory.
Days earlier, Israel’s security cabinet approved a series of measures to tighten control over areas of the West Bank administered by the Palestinian Authority under the Oslo accords.
Those measures, which also sparked international backlash, include allowing Jewish Israelis to buy West Bank land directly and allowing Israeli authorities to administer certain religious sites in areas under the Palestinian Authority’s control.
Amihai said that the current government — one of the most right-wing in Israel’s history — was “systematically working to annex the occupied territories and to prevent Palestinian statehood.”
The case of Jerusalem, he said, was particularly symbolic.
“Every change to Jerusalem is sensitive to both the Israeli public, but also to the Palestinians,” he told AFP.
Aviv Tatarsky, a researcher at Ir Amim, an Israeli NGO focusing on Jerusalem within the context of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, said the latest planned development amounted to a de facto expansion of the city of Jerusalem.
“If it is built, and people live there, the people who will live there, they will be living there as Jerusalemites,” he told AFP.
“In all practical terms, it’s basically not the settlement that will be expanded, but Jerusalem.”
‘Facts on the ground’
The development agreement was signed by Israel’s Construction and Housing Ministry, the Finance Ministry and the Binyamin Regional Council, which represents settlements north of Ramallah in the central West Bank.
It has yet to be reviewed by the Civil Administration’s Higher Planning Committee, in a process which could take several months or years.
Tatarsky said that international pressure had so far made it difficult for recent Israeli governments to make formal declarations on annexation.
“It’s much easier to create facts on the ground, which, altogether... actually add up to annexation,” the researcher said.
The West Bank, occupied since 1967, would form the largest part of any future Palestinian state but is seen by many on the religious right as Israeli land.
Some 200,000 Israelis live in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem, while more than 500,000 others live in West Bank settlements and outposts, which are illegal under international law.
Around three million Palestinians live in the territory.
The current Israeli government has fast-tracked settlement expansion, approving a record 52 settlements in 2025.
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