Israel issues expulsion orders for north Gaza hospitals ahead of new assault

Scottish First Minister John Swinney has urged British Prime Minister Keir Starmer to recall Parliament in order to sanction and halt arms sales to Israel over its war in Gaza.

“Netanyahu’s actions in Gaza amount to genocide, and the ground invasion of Gaza City only intensifies it,” Swinney wrote on X.

“The world cannot look away. We need serious and urgent action to put a stop to this.”

Starmer’s Labour government has faced accusations of complicity in Israel’s war amid mounting calls for a full arms embargo.

Netanyahu’s actions in Gaza amount to genocide, and the ground invasion of Gaza City only intensifies it.

The world cannot look away. We need serious and urgent action to put a stop to this.

The UK Government must recall Parliament, sanction Israel, and end all arms sales now.

— John Swinney (@JohnSwinney) August 21, 2025

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) has warned that conditions in Gaza City are deteriorating as Israel steps up its operations.

“Tens of thousands live in UNRWA shelters and the surrounding areas,” the agency said in a post on X, adding that it is providing displaced people with health care, drinking water, shelter and sanitation.

“There must be a #CeasefireNow,” it said.

UNRWA services in #Gaza City are at severe risk as the Israeli military operations intensify.

Tens of thousands live in UNRWA shelters and the surrounding areas.

UNRWA provides healthcare, drinking water, shelter, and sanitation to the displaced.

There must be a #CeasefireNow.… pic.twitter.com/CJpDkhQzbC

— UNRWA (@UNRWA) August 21, 2025

Britain and France were among 21 countries to sign a joint statement Thursday calling Israel's approval of a major settlement project in the West Bank "unacceptable and a violation of international law".

Israel approved the plans for the roughly 12-square-kilometre (five-square-mile) parcel of land known as E1 just east of Jerusalem on Wednesday.

"We condemn this decision and call for its immediate reversal in the strongest terms," said the statement of foreign ministers, whose signatories also included Australia, Canada and Italy.

Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Ireland, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain and Sweden also signed the statement, as did the European Commission's foreign affairs chief.

The statement noted that Israel's far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said the plan "will make a two-state solution impossible by dividing any Palestinian state and restricting Palestinian access to Jerusalem".

"This brings no benefits to the Israeli people," the foreign ministers said.

"Instead, it risks undermining security and fuels further violence and instability, taking us further away from peace.

"The government of Israel still has an opportunity to stop the E1 plan going any further. We encourage them to urgently retract this plan," they added.

After Benjamin Netanyahu said he had instructed “negotiations” for a ceasefire deal to begin, the Times of Israel reported that his office clarified there are no plans “at this stage” to send an Israeli delegation to Qatar or Egypt for talks.

In his video message, the Israeli prime minister gave no details on whom he had instructed, nor did he indicate whether he would accept the proposal already approved by Hamas.

Israel’s Government Press Office has released a video in which the Israeli prime minister says that he had directed the immediate initiation of negotiations for the release of all captives in Gaza and the conclusion of the war there on terms acceptable to Israel.

He also said that he had visited the Gaza Division, which is part of the Israeli military, to approve the plans to seize Gaza City and defeat Hamas.

Eighty-three percent of those killed in Israel’s war on Gaza have been civilians, according to classified Israeli military intelligence figures cited by the Guardian and Israeli outlets +972 and Local Call.

The report said that, as of May, Israeli intelligence had identified 8,900 Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad fighters as dead or “probably dead.” That represents just 17 percent of the roughly 53,000 Palestinians killed in Israeli attacks by that point.

“That apparent ratio of civilians to combatants among the dead is extremely high for modern warfare, even compared with conflicts notorious for indiscriminate killing, including the Syrian and Sudanese civil wars,” the report noted.

Palestinians have maintained since the start of Israel’s bombardment that most of those killed were civilians, including women and children. They have also accused the Israeli military of carrying out indiscriminate attacks that have devastated the enclave.

US envoy Tom Barrack on Thursday hailed steps to begin disarming groups operating in Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon.

Barrack congratulated the government and the Palestinian Fatah movement on their "agreement on voluntary disarmament in Beirut camps, a great accomplishment as a result of the bold action recently taken by the Lebanese Council of Ministers. A historic step toward unity and stability, showing true commitment to peace and cooperation."

The Gaza health ministry on Thursday rejected a call by the Israeli military to begin preparing evacuation plans for personnel in the north ahead of a military offensive to seize the area.

"The ministry of health expresses its rejection of any step that would undermine what remains of the health system after the systematic destruction carried out by the occupation authorities," the ministry said in a statement.

"Such a step would deprive more than one million people of their right to medical treatment and expose the lives of residents, patients, and the wounded to imminent danger."

Twenty-seven countries, including Britain, France and Germany called on Israel Thursday to allow "immediate independent foreign media access" into the besieged Palestinian territory of Gaza.

"Journalists and media workers play an essential role in putting the spotlight on the devastating reality of war," the members of the Media Freedom Coalition said in a joint statement.

Britain and France were among 21 countries to sign a joint statement Thursday calling Israel's approval of a major settlement project in the West Bank "unacceptable and a violation of international law".

"We condemn this decision and call for its immediate reversal in the strongest terms," the statement said of plans for the so-called E1 area near Jerusalem.

Other signatories included Australia, Canada and Italy.

Britain summoned Israel's ambassador in London on Thursday following Israel's approval of a widely condemned settlement plan that would cut across land which the Palestinians seek for a state.

Britain, along with other European nations, has slammed the plan as a "flagrant" breach of international law that would undermine the idea of a two-state solution.

Internal Israeli military figures published by +972 Magazine and The Guardian reveal that of 53,000 registered as killed in Gaza by the Israeli military, 8,900 are listed as named Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad fighters, meaning some 83 percent of those registered as killed by the Israeli military were civilians.

The Israeli military denied the report, saying the report and its authors lack "basic military understanding."

International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) officials will travel to Washington next week to confer with the US amid concerns about their inability to account for Iran's stockpile of near-weapons-grade uranium, Bloomberg News reported on Thursday.

The trip has been planned after IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi's top inspector failed to win Iranian approval to resume monitoring in Iran, the report added, citing diplomats with knowledge of the situation.

Reuters could not immediately verify the report. The IAEA did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

The head of the UN Palestinian refugee agency on Thursday voiced concern that children suffering from malnutrition in Gaza would die if emergency provisions are not immediately put in place during Israel's Gaza City military operation.

UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said that its data showed a six-fold increase in the number of children suffering from malnutrition in Gaza City since March.

"We have a population that is extremely weak that will be confronted with a new major military operation," he told a Geneva press club meeting. "Many will simply not have the  strength to undergo a new displacement."

"If there is no crisis plan, then they (the children suffering from malnutrition) will certainly be condemned," he said, addressing the audience in French.

Palestinian camps in Lebanon to start disarming Thursday: committee.

This is a developing story...

The Israeli military on Thursday said it had informed medical personnel and aid groups in northern Gaza to start making evacuation plans ahead of a military offensive to seize the area.

Israeli military officials this week informed "medical officials and international organizations in the northern Gaza Strip... to prepare for the evacuation of the population to the southern Gaza Strip", read the statement released by the military.

Israeli forces on Thursday opened live fire at a Palestinian in the Tel Rumeida area of central Hebron, local sources said as cited by the Wafa agency.

Israeli forces, according to the sources, were stationed at the military checkpoint in the Tel Rumeida neighbourhood before they opened live fire at the youth, whose identity has not been revealed yet.

There was no immediate confirmation of any injures or their nature.

Gaza's Ministry of Health has said that in the last 24 hours Israeli attacks have killed 70 Palestinians and wounded 365 others. The deaths include 18 aid seekers.

The ministry added that the death toll from Israel's war on the enclave is now 62,192 killed and a further 157,117 wounded.

The Israeli prime minister's office said on Thursday that Israeli citizen Saleh Abu-Hussein, who was detained in Lebanon for about a year, returned to Israel following negotiations with the help of the Red Cross.

The prime minister's office did not disclose details on the circumstances of the citizen's detention.

Turkish port authorities have begun informally requiring shipping agents for letters declaring that vessels are not linked to Israel and are not carrying military or hazardous cargo bound for the country, according to two shipping sources speaking to Reuters.

The sources said the harbour master's office had verbally instructed port agents to provide written assurances, adding that there was no official circular on the issue.

One of the sources said the instruction applied to ports across Turkey.

The guarantee letter should state that vessel owners, managers, and operators have no ties to Israel, and that certain types of cargo, including explosives and radioactive materials or military equipment, are not on board en route to Israel, the second source said.

The transport ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Israel's expanded offensive in the Gaza Strip, aimed at conquering Gaza City and targeting the remaining Hamas strongholds in the besieged Palestinian territory, is "intolerable", the Red Cross said on Thursday.

The Israeli military's plan, which includes the call-up of roughly 60,000 reservists, has deepened fears that the campaign will worsen the already catastrophic humanitarian crisis in the blockaded coastal strip.

"The intensification of hostilities in Gaza means more killing, more displacement, more destruction and more panic," Christian Cardon, chief spokesman for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), told AFP.

"Gaza is a closed space, from which nobody can escape... and where access to health care, food and safe water is dwindling," said Cardon.

"Meanwhile, the security of humanitarians is getting worse by the hour," the spokesman added.

"This is intolerable."

Gaza's Ministry of Health has said that two Palestinians have died from starvation over the past 24 hours as Israel continues its military campaign in the enclave, which has seen restrictions on aid entry.

271 people, including 112 children, have died from starvation in Gaza.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has called for a ceasefire in Gaza as Israel prepares to launch its assault on Gaza City in order to "avoid the massive death and destruction that a military operation against Gaza would inevitably cause." 

He also condemned Israel's expansion of settlements in the occupied West Bank, saying that "the decision by the Israeli authorities to expand illegal settlement construction, which would divide the West Bank, must be reversed."

"All settlement construction is a violation of international law." 

It is vital to reach immediately a ceasefire in Gaza and the unconditional release of all hostages, and to avoid the massive death and destruction that a military operation against Gaza would inevitably cause.

Simultaneously, the decision by the Israeli authorities to expand… pic.twitter.com/oqf6q6vo5N

— António Guterres (@antonioguterres) August 21, 2025

Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty underlined the "critical importance" of Israel responding positively to the latest ceasefire plan during a phone call with US special envoy Steve Witkoff, the foreign ministry said yesterday.

He stressed that Hamas's acceptance of the proposal offered an opportunity that should be seized, and that a 60-day truce could be used to work toward ending the war.

Earlier reports suggested Egypt and Qatar would invite Witkoff to Cairo for further talks, though no visit has been confirmed.

Hamas's armed wing, the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, said its fighters had attacked an Israeli military post in Khan Younis, killing and wounding soldiers. 

The group claimed it raided a newly built position southeast of the city and struck several houses used by Israeli troops, adding that one fighter blew himself up among soldiers.

The Israeli army said more than 15 Palestinian fighters opened fire and launched anti-tank missiles in an attempt to storm a fortified position of the Kfir Brigade's 90th battalion. 

According to the army, 10 fighters were killed and three Israeli soldiers were injured.

Israeli media described the incident as a "rare large-scale attack".

Hamas has called on mediators to apply "utmost pressure" on Israel to halt its offensive, as the Israeli army advances with operation "Gideon’s Chariots 2" to seize Gaza City.

In a statement yesterday, the group said it had accepted the latest ceasefire proposal, while accusing Israel of pressing ahead with its "brutal war against innocent civilians" and intensifying its operations in Gaza City. 

Hamas also accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of blocking any agreement and showing disregard for the lives of Israeli captives.

Earlier, the group urged a worldwide "global strike" in support of Gaza. 

Palestinian Islamic Jihad also appealed to Egypt and Qatar to pressure Israel to stop the assault, with both factions vowing to inflict losses on Israeli forces.

The Israeli army has launched the first stages of its operation to occupy Gaza City, with forces already active in areas including Beit Hanoun, al-Zeitoun and Jabaliya.

Military spokesmen said troops were now holding positions on the outskirts of the city as the assault begins in earnest.

Palestinians are being prepared for expulsion from Gaza City, according to Channel 12, which quoted an Israeli official as saying: "We are not waiting."

The same outlet reported that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered the army to shorten its timeline for the operation.