Israel levels high-rise buildings in relentless Gaza City assault

TNA’s live coverage of the latest from the war on Gaza concludes for today. Join us again tomorrow at 0900 GMT for updates from the besieged Palestinian enclave.
 

The family of Israeli hostage Alon Ohel said they were “shocked to see Alon’s condition” in a video released by Hamas on Friday.

In a statement, the family said, “After consulting with eye specialists in Israel and around the world, it is clear that Alon cannot see in his right eye. The frequent blinking in his eyes indicates a serious difficulty in focusing and seeing for long periods of time.”

The family stressed that “there is no international law that permits holding an injured civilian captive without adequate medical treatment. The responsibility for Alon’s well-being lies with his captors and the Hamas leadership, who are obligated to protect his life and health according to the rules of international law.”

According to the family, Ohel holds both Serbian and German citizenship, adding that “the nations of the world will not stay silent if his medical condition worsens.”

They said they are seeking to speak with U.S. Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff, as well as Serbian and German officials.

The Palestinian Journalists Syndicate has reported that August was among the deadliest months yet for media workers, with 15 journalists- including three women- killed by Israeli forces.

In a report, the syndicate’s Freedoms Committee documented 86 violations against journalists in the occupied West Bank and Gaza, ranging from killings, injuries, and arrests to assaults and the targeting of homes and media offices.

At least nine journalists were injured, some left with permanent disabilities such as amputations and paralysis.

US President Donald Trump said Friday that more hostages may have died in Gaza and that the United States was in "deep negotiation" with Hamas amid a new Israeli offensive.

"There could be some that have recently died, is what I'm hearing. I hope that's wrong, but you have over 30 bodies in this negotiation," Trump, a staunch ally of Israel, told reporters in the Oval Office.

Operatives seized 251 hostages during the massive October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel, with 47 still in Gaza.

The Israeli military says 25 of them are dead. Israel is seeking the return of their remains.

Trump at one point said there were "about 38 dead people -- young, beautiful dead people" before giving the numbers of 20 and then 30.

Trump suggested that the United States remained in talks with Hamas.

"We're in very deep negotiation with Hamas," Trump said.

On Hamas-held hostages, Trump said, "We said let them all out right now, let them all out, and much better things will happen for them.

"But if you don't let them all out, it's going to be a tough situation, it's going to be nasty."

Saudi Arabia’s foreign ministry has denounced repeated remarks by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu advocating the forced displacement of Palestinians, including through the Rafah crossing, which Israeli forces have completely sealed.

In a statement published by the official Saudi Press Agency, Riyadh said Israel’s use of siege and starvation to drive displacement amounts to a “serious violation” of international law and basic humanitarian principles.

Saudi Arabia also voiced full support for Egypt’s rejection of such plans and called on the international community to intervene to stop Israel’s “aggressive policies” against Palestinians.

The kingdom reaffirmed its opposition to any form of forced transfer and demanded that Israeli authorities be held accountable for “genocide and grave violations” against the Palestinian people.

Hamas issued a statement on Friday condemning the bombardment, destruction, and forced displacement of residents in Gaza City, calling them “crimes against humanity.”

The group said Israeli strikes on densely populated residential towers amounted to “an organised crime of forcible transfer.”

It rejected Israeli claims that the buildings were being used by resistance fighters, describing them as “false pretexts” and a “criminal plan to justify brutality.”

Hamas urged the international community to act swiftly to stop what it described as Israel’s genocide in Gaza.

The Palestinian Prisoner’s Society (PPS) says Israeli forces have carried out more than 19,000 arrests across the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, since the war on Gaza began 700 days ago.

The figure does not include arrests inside Gaza, where the number is believed to be in the thousands, according to a statement released by Wafa news agency.

Israeli authorities have officially classified 2,662 detainees from Gaza as "unlawful combatants", though rights groups argue the real figure is much higher due to cases of enforced disappearance.

Since October 2023, at least 585 women and 1,550 children have been detained in the occupied West Bank, PPS reported.

The group also said 77 Palestinians have died in Israeli custody during this period, including 46 from Gaza.

The bodies of 74 of those who died remain withheld by Israel, along with at least 85 other deceased prisoners whose remains have not been returned to their families.

The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) reported that its al-Saraya Field Hospital in Gaza City received the body of one person and treated 15 others who were injured while waiting for aid in the Zikim area.

Despite what it described as crippling shortages of medical supplies, PRCS staff said they were able to stabilise and treat the wounded. Earlier in the day, at least three more Palestinians were killed while queueing for aid in southern Gaza.

Israeli forces have repeatedly fired on Palestinians struggling to obtain scarce food parcels at the controversial distribution centres supported by Israel and the United States.

News agency The Associated Press called into question on Friday the rationale behind Israeli strikes on a Gaza hospital last month which killed one of its contributors and four other Palestinian journalists.

Consecutive Israeli strikes on Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis on August 25 killed 22 people, including five journalists, according to local authorities.

Following the deadly incident, the Israeli military said it was carrying out an "initial inquiry", and a day after, said its forces had been targeting a camera operated by Hamas.

But on Friday, the Associated Press said its own reporting on the attack raised "serious questions about Israel's rationale for the strikes and the way they were carried out."

AP said that the top of the building struck by the Israeli military was "well known as a journalists' gathering point" and that witnesses described Israel "frequently" observing the area by drone, "including about 40 minutes before the attack".

The news agency quoted a military official as saying a rooftop camera was believed to be used by Hamas due to "suspicious behaviour".

It said the only detail given was the fact there was a towel over the camera and the operator -- which it interpreted as an attempt to avoid identification.

AP reported that the camera in fact belonged to video journalist Hussam al-Masri -- who worked with Reuters news agency and who "routinely covered his equipment with a white cloth to protect it from the scorching sun and dust".

AP said al-Masri, who was killed in the first strike on the hospital, regularly recorded livestreams from the location and should have been identified by the Israeli drone that flew over just before the strike.

The US news agency also reported that "there has been no evidence of a second camera at the site where al-Masri was killed".

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hailed the Israel-Premier Tech team on Friday for riding on in the Vuelta a Espana even though repeated roadside protests left several of its cyclists saying they felt scared.

"Great job to Sylvan (Adams) and Israel's cycling team for not giving in to hate and intimidation. You make Israel proud!" he posted on X, referring to the team's billionaire Israeli-Canadian owner.

Israel-Premier Tech is a private organisation and not a state team. It has enhanced security protection during races and has long asked its riders not to wear jerseys bearing the word "Israel" when training to avoid being targeted.

A grandson of South Africa's anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela said Friday he would join pro-Palestinian activists seeking to break Israel's naval blockade of Gaza with an aid boat from Tunisia.

"We particularly chose, as the South African delegation, to join the Global Sumud Flotilla here in Tunisia from an African point to say: Africa is part of this struggle," Mandla Mandela told journalists in Tunis.

"As Africans, we know very well what it means to live under occupation, under oppression," he said.

The Maghreb Sumud Flotilla will set sail on Sunday, organisers say, aiming to join other Gaza-bound boats that have already left from Spain and Italy.

Initially scheduled for last Thursday, it was postponed due to bad weather, and organisers have yet to confirm the place and time of departure.

Organisers have said about 100 activists have registered to join the flotilla from Tunis.

At its premiere, a powerful new Gaza film at the Venice Film Festival sparked 23 minutes of sustained applause. But the next day hate emails flooded in, the director said Friday.

"The Voice of Hind Rajab" from French-Tunisian director Kaouther Ben Hania is a strong contender for the festival's Golden Lion to be awarded Saturday.

It has already garnered the support of famous Hollywood names attached as executive producers.

Between Wednesday night, after the film's premiere, and Thursday, "my producers, including the well-known American names Brad Pitt and Joaquin Phoenix, had their mailboxes flooded with thousands and thousands" of intimidating messages, Ben Hania told news agency AFP.

The same message, sent over and over, was "super intimidating," she added.

The film covers the last minutes of the life of a five-year-old Palestinian girl who was killed by Israeli fire last year while trying to escape Gaza with her family. It uses real-life recordings of the desperate telephone calls she made to the Red Crescent rescue service.

The Palestinian health ministry said Israeli forces shot dead a 57-year-old man near a checkpoint in the occupied West Bank on Friday, while the military said it had "eliminated the terrorist".

In a statement, the Palestinian health ministry announced "the martyrdom of citizen Ahmed Abdel Fattah Shahada... by occupation bullets," near a checkpoint south of Nablus in the northern West Bank late on Friday.

The Israeli military said in a statement that "a terrorist arrived at (a) checkpoint and hurled a suspicious object at (Israeli) soldiers operating in the area."

"The terrorist did not comply to (Israeli military) instructions, thereafter the soldiers followed standard operating procedures and eliminated the terrorist in order to remove the threat," it added.

It said no Israeli soldiers were injured.

Violence has surged in the Palestinian territory, which Israel has occupied since 1967, since the start of the Gaza war nearly two years ago.

Lebanon's cabinet on Friday welcomed a plan drafted by the army to disarm Hezbollah but decided to keep its contents secret, the information minister said, a move that could escalate the standoff over the Shia Muslim group's arsenal, which it has refused to relinquish.

The Iran-backed group and its allies object to the disarmament plan and all five Shia ministers walked out of the cabinet session as soon as Lebanese army commander Rodolphe Haykal entered to present it.

Three Palestinians have been injured after being attacked by Israeli forces at the Deir Sharaf military checkpoint west of Nablus, according to Palestinian news agency Wafa, citing an official.

UNICEF reports that in the whole of July, some 13,000 children were treated for malnutrition in Gaza, adding that in the first two weeks of August, that figure was 7,200. 

UNICEF staffer Tess Ingram said that the agency's worst fears had come true whilst warning that the famine could spread to other areas of the enclave.

13,000 children in Gaza were admitted for malnutrition treatment in July.

In the first two weeks of August, that number was 7,200.

UNICEF’s Tess Ingram reports on the impact of famine and insufficient aid on children in Gaza, and how UNICEF is responding. pic.twitter.com/7jnBXyV6K3

— UNICEF (@UNICEF) September 5, 2025

The World Health Organization chief on Friday urged Israel to stop the "catastrophe" of people starving to death in Gaza, where at least 370 people have died from malnutrition since the war began.

"This is a catastrophe that Israel could have prevented, and could stop at any time," Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters from the WHO headquarters in Geneva, stressing that "starvation of civilians as a method of war is a war crime and can never be tolerated".

"The starvation of the people of Gaza will not make Israel safer, nor will it facilitate the release of the hostages," he added.

Egypt said on Friday it would not tolerate mass displacement of Palestinians and what it described as genocide, continuing to ratchet up its criticism of Israel's Gaza offensive as thousands of residents of Gaza City defied Israeli orders to leave.

"Displacement is not an option and it is a red line for Egypt and we will not allow it to happen," Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty told reporters in Nicosia.

"Displacement means liquidation and the end of the Palestinian cause and there is no legal or moral or ethical ground to evict people from their homeland," he said.

His comments are in line with a hardening of Egyptian language this year about Israel's conduct in the enclave, which borders Egypt, even as it has worked with Qatar and the US to try to mediate a ceasefire in the almost two-year-old war.

Repeating accusations of genocide levelled by the Egyptian leadership against Israel in recent months, he added: "What is happening on the ground is far beyond the imagination. There is a genocide in motion there, mass killing of civilians, artificial starvation created by the Israelis," Abdelatty said.

The Sudanese paramilitary Rapid Support Forces has committed numerous crimes against humanity in the country's civil war, in particular in its siege of El-Fasher in western Darfur, UN investigators said Friday.

The United Nations' fact-finding mission for Sudan also found evidence of war crimes by both sides in the conflict between the regular army and the RSF, which has killed tens of thousands of people since it broke out in April 2023.

"Our findings leave no room for doubt: civilians are paying the highest price in this war," mission chief Mohamed Chande Othman said in a statement.

The mission, in a new report, determined that the RSF had "committed crimes against humanity, notably murder, torture, forced displacement, persecution on ethnic grounds, and other inhumane acts".

Hezbollah and Amal ministers, along with the fifth Shia minister Fadi Makki, have walked out of the cabinet meeting discussing the army's plan to disarm Hezbollah.

The meeting had begun about an hour ago in Beirut. Local reports said the group did not leave Baabda Palace entirely but instead moved to a side hall.

The cabinet session comes under heavy US pressure and amid intensified Israeli strikes in southern Lebanon.

The Lebanese presidency said on X that President Joseph Aoun and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam met at Baabda Palace shortly before the meeting opened at 15:00 local time.

Ministers are expected to review the army’s proposal, though details of the plan have not yet been made public.

Gaza’s Ministry of Health says Israeli forces have killed at least 69 Palestinians and wounded 422 in Gaza over the past 24 hours.

The ministry added that the total number of casualties of Israel’s war on Gaza since October 7, 2023, has risen to 64,300 killed and 162,005 wounded.

Lebanon's Council of Ministers has begun its meeting in Beirut to discuss the army's plan to disarm Hezbollah, local media, including LBCI reported. 

The Lebanese presidency said on X that President Joseph Aoun and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam met at Baabda Palace shortly before the meeting opened at 15:00 local time. 

By 15:04, the presidency confirmed the cabinet session was underway. 

Ministers are expected to review the army's proposal, though details of the plan have not yet been distributed.

The session comes under heavy US pressure and amid intensified Israeli strikes in southern Lebanon. 

Republishing footage from an Israeli strike that destroyed the Mushtaha Tower in Gaza City, Palestinian Ambassador to the UK Husam Zomlot said that "Israel's barbarity defies words - and the world's inaction is nothing less than complicity." 

Just now in #Gaza City: the last remains of a residential building were crushed on top of a defenceless population. Israel’s barbarity defies words — and the world’s inaction is nothing less than complicity. pic.twitter.com/0jJPDSMzOi

— Husam Zomlot (@hzomlot) September 5, 2025

The Israeli army has justified a series of strikes targeting the high-rise Mushtaha Tower in Gaza City, saying that Hamas had used the building "to advance and execute attacks against (Israeli) troops in the area".

An animated infographic accompanying the first statement showed a video camera on top of a tower block with a Hamas "observation command centre" in the building and an "underground tunnel route" below.

The army said that before Friday's strike, "precautionary measures were taken in order to mitigate harm to civilians", including prior warnings.

The management of the tower denied the claims, according to Al Jazeera, adding that the management said the building was only accessible to displaced people.

Earlier, the army said it had "identified significant Hamas terrorist activity within a wide variety of infrastructure sites in Gaza City, and particularly in high-rise buildings".

"In the coming days, the (Israeli military) will strike structures that have been converted into terrorist infrastructure in Gaza City: cameras, observation command centres, sniper and anti-tank firing positions, command-and-control compounds," the statement said.

The Israeli military announced it struck a high-rise building in Gaza City on Friday that it said was being used by Hamas, as the army gears up to conquer the urban centre.

"A short while ago, the (Israeli military) struck a high-rise building that was being used by the Hamas terrorist organisation in the area of Gaza City," a statement said, adding that "Hamas established infrastructure that was used to advance and execute attacks against (Israeli) troops in the area".

The Israeli military said Friday that it would strike a range of targets in Gaza City in the coming days that it had identified as being used by Hamas, particularly high-rise buildings.

In a statement, the military said it had "conducted extensive intelligence gathering operations and identified significant Hamas terrorist activity within a wide variety of infrastructure sites in Gaza City, and particularly in high-rise buildings".

"In the coming days, the (Israeli military) will strike structures that have been converted into terrorist infrastructure in Gaza City: cameras, observation command centres, sniper and anti-tank firing positions, command-and-control compounds," the statement said.

Israeli politicians have reacted to the video released by Hamas showing Israeli captives held in Gaza.

Yair Lapid, leader of opposition party Yesh Atid, was quoted by The Times of Israel as saying on X that "the sign of life that was publicised this morning is another painful reminder that Israel must return to negotiations to bring back the captives and try to close a deal."

Yair Golan, leader of the Democrats, said that the video "illustrates the immediate need to bring everyone back," adding, "The most just war in Israel's history has become a war for Netanyahu's survival."

Meanwhile, far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir used the video to call for Israel to fully occupy Gaza, saying on X: "Hamas' psychological terror is meant to make us stop the operation in Gaza," adding "the warranted response: Full occupation, total crushing, encouragement of massive [Palestinian migration]. Only thus do we win, and only thus do we bring back the hostages in security."

Forty-four Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza since dawn, according to Al Jazeera, citing medical sources, adding that 30 of the dead were killed in Gaza City.

A settler attack on the occupied West Bank village of Khirbet Khallet al-Dabe in Masafer Yatta, south of Hebron, saw multiple Palestinians injured, according to Palestinian news agency Wafa, reporting details of the attack.

Multiple people sustained fractures and broken bones in the attack, while one person, Abaas Dababseh, was stabbed. A three-month-old girl was exposed to gas, which caused suffocation during the attack.

Alongside injuries, the property of the residents was also damaged in acts of vandalism, which included the samshing of homes, water tanks, and solar power systems supplying electricity.

The armed wing of Palestinian militant group Hamas released footage on Friday purporting to show two captives seized during the 7 October 2023 attack on Israel alive in Gaza City late last month.

The video shows one captive in a car being driven through a neighbourhood with destroyed buildings, calling on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to carry out a planned military offensive to conquer Gaza City. The captive, who is later filmed meeting another captive, says he is in Gaza City and that the video was filmed on 28 August 2025.

AFP was unable to immediately verify the video or the date it was filmed.

Finland is joining the French-Saudi New York declaration on a peaceful resolution of the Palestinian question and implementation of a two-state solution, the Nordic country said on Friday.

Israelis have come out in protest against the war on Gaza on its 700th day, with the families of Israeli captives held in the enclave calling for the government to end the war.

Silvia Cunio, the mother of two captives, Ariel and David, held in Gaza said "pathetic politics" was preventing their release, according to Haaretz, which ran the comments made at a protest in Kiryat Gat.

She added that "they could have been here a long time ago. Enough! End the war, bring them home." 

Demonstrations are set to be held across the country today.

Teresa Ribera, the European Commission Vice President, has labelled Israel's war on Gaza a genocide in calls for the bloc to call for a ceasefire in the enclave.

"The genocide in Gaza exposes Europe's failure to act and speak with one voice, even as protests spread across European cities and 14 UN Security Council members call for an immediate ceasefire," she told an opening ceremony at Paris's Science Po university.