Israel violently kills scores in Gaza amid communications blackout

The UN investigator who this week accused Israel of committing genocide in Gaza said she sees parallels with the butchery in Rwanda, and that she hopes one day Israeli leaders will be put behind bars.

Navi Pillay, a South African former judge who headed the international tribunal for the 1994 Rwanda genocide and also served as UN human rights chief, acknowledged that justice "is a slow process".

But as late South African anti-apartheid icon Nelson "Mandela said, it always seems impossible until it's done", she told AFP in an interview.

"I consider it not impossible that there will be arrests and trials" in the future.

Pillay's Independent International Commission of Inquiry (COI), which does not speak on behalf of the United Nations, issued a bombshell report on Tuesday concluding that "genocide is occurring in Gaza" -- something Israel vehemently denies.

The investigators also concluded that Israeli President Isaac Herzog, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defence minister Yoav Gallant have "incited the commission of genocide".

 Syria’s President Ahmed al-Sharaa told reporters in Damascus on Wednesday that ongoing negotiations with Israel to reach a security pact could lead to results "in the coming days."

He described the security pact as a "necessity" and said it would need to respect Syria’s airspace and territorial unity and be monitored by the United Nations.

US Senator Bernie Sanders described Israel's brutal offensive on Gaza as a genocide on Wednesday, before calling on Washington to end its "complicity in the slaughter of the Palestinian people".

"The intent is clear. The conclusion is inescapable: Israel is committing genocide in Gaza," Sanders stated.

Huge numbers of Palestinians were fleeing Gaza City by any means on Wednesday as the Israeli military pressed its ground offensive, killing dozens in strikes.

The offensive has sparked outrage among the international community, with the Palestinian territory already devastated by nearly two years of war and the Gaza City region gripped by a UN-declared famine.

Gaza's civil defence agency, a rescue force operating under Hamas authority, said Israeli fire had killed at least 62 people across the territory on Wednesday.

An Israeli strike on the eastern city of Baalbek killed at least two people on Wednesday, Lebanon's health ministry said.

Lebanon's official National News Agency reported that the strike was carried out by "an Israeli drone". Israel frequently launches strikes in Lebanon, saying it is targeting Hezbollah, despite a ceasefire that brought its most recent war with the group to a halt in November.

Baalbek, a millennia-old city and home to a set of UNESCO World Heritage-listed Roman temples, sits in the Bekaa Valley, which is close to the Syrian border.

Under pressure from the United States and fearing an escalation of Israeli strikes, the Lebanese government is now moving to disarm Hezbollah.

The group, which previously dominated Lebanese politics and was thought to be better armed than the military, was severely weakened by the war with Israel.

The European Union on Wednesday proposed curbing trade ties with Israel and sanctioning ministers in its strongest action yet over the war on Gaza, though reluctance from key member states risks blocking adoption.

The bloc's executive, however, said it would take immediate action by freezing some 20 million euros ($23.7 million) in support for Israel.

Pressure has mounted on the 27-nation bloc to act against Israel over its devastating nearly two-year offensive in Gaza.

"The horrific events taking place in Gaza on a daily basis must stop," EU chief Ursula von der Leyen said.

"There needs to be an immediate ceasefire, unrestrained access for all humanitarian aid, and the release of all hostages held by Hamas."

Under its new proposals, Brussels is pressing to suspend the parts of a cooperation deal that allow for reduced tariffs on goods coming from Israel.

Officials said the measure would hit more than a third of Israel's exports to the EU, worth around six billion euros -- including agricultural produce such as dates and nuts.

An Israeli air strike on Wednesday afternoon targeted a car in Lebanon's Baalbek, located in the east of the country, in violation of the ceasefire agreement. 

Local media reported that several people have been wounded. 

Israeli forces on Wednesday killed at least 75 Palestinians since dawn, in attacks targeting areas and buildings across the Strip. 

According to medical sources, at least 53 of the victims were killed in Gaza City, where Israel has launched an unprecedented ground offensive in efforts to illegally occupy the area. 

Israeli forces arrested two Palestinians in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, Wafa reported, seizing a vehicle during the raid.

The military also conducted raids in Nablus, firing sound grenades that sparked a fire in a resident’s home, according to Wafa.

Fijian Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka inaugurated the country's embassy in Jerusalem on Wednesday, the island nation's first resident mission in Israel.

"I'd like to acknowledge the special bond and the enduring friendship and relationship that has existed between Fiji and the State of Israel," Rabuka said following the inauguration at a ceremony held at Israel's Foreign Ministry in the presence of Foreign Minister Gideon Saar.

Most countries have their diplomatic seats in Tel Aviv due to the disputed status of Jerusalem. Israel claims the city as its eternal and undivided capital while the Palestinian Authority wants Israeli-occupied and annexed east Jerusalem as the capital of a future state.

Israeli fighter jets over the Red Sea launched ballistic missiles to target Hamas leaders in Qatar last week, a U.S. defense official told news agency The Associated Press, in what was a novel method likely designed to overcome the energy-rich country’s air defenses and avoid entering any Mideast nation’s airspace.

The Sept. 9 attack, which killed six people in Qatar's capital, Doha, upended months of diplomacy mediated by the Arabian Peninsula nation to reach a ceasefire in the war that has devastated the Gaza Strip over nearly two years.

Just over a week after the missile launch, Israel began a ground offensive targeting Gaza City.

That has reignited anger in the region over the war, while the Doha attack has raised fears in other countries that they, too, could be struck.

The Israeli military took advantage of the element of surprise by firing in a direction probably not anticipated by Qatar or the United States, whose Mideast forward headquarters operates out of Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar.

Even if those countries did know, experts say the Patriot missile batteries in Qatar likely would have been unable to intercept the missiles traveling through space at multiple times the speed of sound.

“We're probably talking about a few minutes from fire to impact, so not long at all,” Sidharth Kaushal, a missile expert and senior research fellow at the London-based Royal United Services Institute think tank, told the AP.

“Even if (Patriot batteries) did pick it up, interception would have been dumb luck at that point."

Jordan’s King Abdullah II met Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani in Amman on Wednesday for talks at Basman Palace.

According to Qatar News Agency, the two leaders discussed regional issues, with a particular focus on the war in Gaza.

In a post on X, King Abdullah said: "We are united by brotherhood and a shared commitment to strengthening ties between our countries and peoples, and we will continue working together in service of Arab and Islamic causes."

حياك الله أخي سمو الشيخ تميم بين أهلك في الأردن. تجمعنا أخوة وحرص مشترك على توطيد العلاقات بين بلدينا وشعبينا الشقيقين، وسنواصل العمل سويا من أجل خدمة القضايا العربية والإسلامية pic.twitter.com/hYKMWHwRNG

— عبدالله بن الحسين (@KingAbdullahII) September 17, 2025

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar on Wednesday warned the EU against taking action against Israel, after the bloc's executive proposed curbing trade ties and sanctioning ministers over the Gaza war.

"The recommendations of the college of Commissioners led by President (Usrula) von der Leyen are morally and politically distorted," Saar wrote on X, adding that: "Moves against Israel will harm Europe's own interests."

"Any action against Israel will receive an appropriate response, and we hope we will not have to use them," he wrote.

The United Nations voiced grave concerns on Wednesday about food and other supplies running out in northern Gaza, where hundreds of thousands of people were already experiencing famine, after Israel closed the only crossing there last week.

Israel began its long-expected ground assault on Gaza City in the north on Tuesday and is stepping up efforts to empty the city of civilians by opening an additional route southwards.

Hundreds of thousands of people are sheltering in the city and many are reluctant to follow Israel's orders to move because of the dangers along the way, dire conditions, a lack of food in the southern area, and fear of permanent displacement.

"There are grave concerns over fuel and food stock depletion in a matter of days as there are now no direct aid entry points into northern Gaza and resupply from south to north is increasingly challenging due to mounting road congestion and insecurity," the U.N. humanitarian office (OCHA) said in a statement.

The Zikim Crossing was shut on September 12 and no aid groups have been able to import supplies since, it said.

Late on Tuesday the Israeli military said that humanitarian aid would be allowed to enter northern Gaza, without giving details.

Thousands of people in Kurdish-controlled northeastern Syria rallied Wednesday in support of their autonomous administration and called for decentralisation as negotiations with Damascus over the region's future stall.

Damascus and Syria's Kurds have been in talks to integrate Kurdish civil and military institutions into the central government under a March deal, but differences between the two sides have held up implementation.

The Kurds have called for decentralisation, which Damascus has rejected.

Thousands of people were seen on the streets in the city of Qamishli, some raising the flags of the administration or the US-backed Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, the administration's de facto army.

Some held a banner reading: "The SDF is the will of the people."

In a speech, senior Syrian Kurdish official Aldar Khalil said: "When we talk about decentralisation, we want it for all Syria, not just our own region."

"If the Kurdish issue is not resolved, Syria will not be a democratic state and the crises will not end," he said.

Several rounds of talks have been held between Damascus and the Kurds since the March deal but tensions have stymied progress.

Israeli settlers entered the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound on Tuesday under heavy protection from Israeli police, according to the Wafa news agency.

The Jerusalem governorate reported that dozens of settlers entered the site in groups, where they carried out tours and performed Talmudic rituals, which are forbidden at the compound.

Iran on Wednesday dismissed as "nonsense" US Secretary of State Marco Rubio criticism this week of the Islamic republic's missile programme as an "unacceptable risk".

"He was speaking nonsense," foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei told journalists, adding the United States was "not supposed to comment on the defensive capabilities of a nation that has decided to preserve its independence at any cost."

Saudi Arabia on Wednesday condemned "in the strongest terms" the Israeli ground operation in Gaza City, the kingdom's foreign ministry said in a statement, a day after Israel unleashed a long-threatened ground assault on the enclave.

The European Commission on Wednesday proposed to suspend free-trade arrangements on Israeli goods due to the war in Gaza, even though the measure does not currently have sufficient support among the European Union's member countries to pass.

EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas also proposed a package of sanctions on two Israeli ministers, as well as violent settlers and Hamas members.

Internet and phone networks in northern Gaza have been cut off following Israeli attacks, according to the Palestinian Telecommunications Regulatory Commission.

The commission reported that fixed internet and landline services in Gaza and North Gaza governorates were disrupted after Israeli forces targeted key supply routes.

It added that repair crews are working around the clock to restore services despite the dangerous conditions on the ground.

Human Rights Watch accused Israeli forces Wednesday of forcibly displacing residents of southern Syria, which Israel has demanded be demilitarised in a new security deal Syria is seeking with its neighbour.

The statement quoted the Israeli military as saying it is operating in southern Syria "to protect the citizens of the State of Israel" and that its activities are "in accordance with international law".

The report came as Syrian state media said Israeli forces seized several people in the south, and a day after Damascus said it was working with Washington to reach mutual "security understandings" with Israel.

"Israeli forces occupying parts of southern Syria since December 2024 have carried out a range of abuses against residents, including forced displacement, which is a war crime," HRW said in a statement.

HRW said that "Israeli forces have seized and demolished homes, blocked residents from their property and livelihoods, and arbitrarily detained residents and transferred them to Israel".

The New York-based watchdog said it interviewed residents, reviewed images and analysed satellite imagery to corroborate accounts.

Pope Leo on Wednesday denounced the "unacceptable" conditions faced by Palestinians in Gaza, voicing solidarity with civilians and renewing his appeal for a ceasefire in the war in the devastated Palestinian territory.

"I express my deep closeness to the Palestinian people in Gaza, who continue to live in fear and survive in unacceptable conditions, forced once again to leave their land," the pope said in his weekly general audience at the Vatican.

The pope renewed his call for a truce, for the freeing of hostages held in Gaza, and for a negotiated diplomatic solution to the conflict. He urged the faithful to join him in prayer "that a dawn of peace and justice may soon arise".

Leo, elected the first U.S. pope in May, has been stepping up his calls for a halt to the war in Gaza in recent weeks.

Earlier this month the pope met Israeli President Isaac Herzog at the Vatican. In an unusually lengthy statement afterwards, the Vatican said Leo had lamented the "tragic situation in Gaza" with Herzog. 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday that he would meet with US President Donald Trump later this month after addressing the UN General Assembly.

"Trump invited me to the White House. I will meet with him... after my speech at the UN," Netanyahu said at a press conference.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi will hold a call with his British, French and German counterparts on Wednesday, Iran's foreign ministry spokesperson said, as Tehran seeks to avert the reimposition of international sanctions.

Yemen's Houthi group have claimed a missile and drone attack on Israel, targeting an airport and a "sensitive site".

The Houthi military spokesman, Yahya al-Sarea, said in a statement last night that the rebel group's missile force "successfully" targeted "a sensitive Israeli site" in Jaffa with a "Palestine 2" hypersonic missile.

Sarea also said that the group had targeted Ramon airport near Eilat with drones.

The military spokesman said that the attack led to "millions of Zionists fleeing to shelters" and caused "airport operations to come to a standstill".

The Houthi-led Al-Masirah TV said that Israeli media had reported a "state of mass panic" following the Houthi attack, which it said took place "just two hours" after the Israeli strikes on Hodeidah port.

Hamas has accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of "undermining all opportunities to reach an agreement that would lead to releasing the prisoners and ending the brutal genocide war in Gaza".

The group said in statements on Telegram both in Arabic and in Hebrew that the US administration was well aware of Netanyahu's actions, including the latest "criminal attack on the state of Qatar and the attempt to assassinate the negotiating delegation" while discussing US President Donald Trump's latest proposal.

Egypt's Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday warned of "the catastrophic" regional fallout from Israel's ground offensive on Gaza City.

The ministry strongly condemned the offensive, describing it in a statement on Facebook as "a dangerous escalation and a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law".

It said that the region "stands on the brink of a new phase of chaos due to Israeli recklessness and excessive arrogance".

"Such actions will inevitably harm the interests of all regional and international parties without exception," it added.

Japan will not recognise a Palestinian state for the time being, and Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba will skip a relevant meeting during the United Nations General Assembly this month, the Asahi newspaper reported on Wednesday, citing unnamed government sources.

Japan's stance would run counter to moves to recognise a Palestinian state by France, Britain and Canada - its Group of Seven peers - as well as Australia.

The stance aligns Japan with the United States, Israel's closest ally, which has rejected the idea of recognising a Palestinian state.

Within the G7, German and Italian officials have called an immediate recognition of Palestine "counterproductive". 

Israel announced on Wednesday a "temporary" new route for residents to flee Gaza City, as it launched an intense ground offensive after massive bombardment of the Palestinian territory's main city.

The Israeli military "announces the opening of a temporary transportation route via Salah al-Din Street", spokesman Avichay Adraee said in a statement, adding that "the route will be open for 48 hours only".

Iranian authorities hanged a man on Wednesday after convicting him of spying for Israel's Mossad intelligence agency since 2022, the judiciary said.

"Babak Shahbazi... was executed by hanging this morning following due legal process and the confirmation of his sentence by the Supreme Court," the judiciary's Mizan Online news website said.

It was not immediately clear when Shahbazi was arrested but Mizan said he was sentenced to death for the capital offences of "corruption on earth" and "waging war against God".

Mizan reported that he was involved in the design and installation of industrial cooling systems for companies linked to military, security and telecommunications organisations and facilities.

His access to these sites enabled him "to provide information to the Mossad in exchange for money and residency in a foreign country," it added.

Since its June war with Israel, Iran has vowed swift justice for people accused of collaborating with its arch foe.

In August, authorities executed Roozbeh Vadi -- who worked at a subsidiary of the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran -- after convicting him of handing over information about Iranian nuclear scientists and facilities.

In late July, Iran's intelligence agency said it had arrested "20 spies, Mossad operational and support agents, and elements connected to the (Israeli) regime's intelligence officers in Tehran" as well as several other provinces.

Iran is the world's second-most prolific executioner after China, according to human rights groups, including Amnesty International.

A coalition of leading aid groups Wednesday urged the international community to take stronger measures to stop Israel's offensive on Gaza City after a commission of UN experts found Israel was committing genocide in Gaza.

“What we are witnessing in Gaza is not only an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe, but what the UN Commission of Inquiry has now concluded is a genocide,” read the statement from the aid groups.

“States must use every available political, economic, and legal tool at their disposal to intervene. Rhetoric and half measures are not enough. This moment demands decisive action."

The message was signed by leaders of over 20 aid organizations operating in Gaza, including the Norwegian Refugee Council, Anera and Save the Children.

The statement came a day after Israel launched its offensive in Gaza City in earnest, vowing to overwhelm a city already in ruins from nearly two years of war.