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Figures from a classified Israeli military intelligence database indicate five out of six Palestinians killed by Israeli forces in Gaza have been civilians, an extreme rate of slaughter rarely matched in recent decades of warfare.
As of May,19 months into the war, Israeli intelligence officials listed 8,900 named fighters from Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad as dead or “probably dead”, a joint investigation by the Guardian, the Israeli-Palestinian publication +972 Magazine and the Hebrew-language outlet Local Call has found.
At that time 53,000 Palestinians had been killed by Israeli attacks, according to health authorities in Gaza, a toll that included combatants and civilians. Fighters named in the Israeli military intelligence database accounted for just 17% of the total, which indicates that 83% of the dead were civilians.
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.
“That proportion of civilians among those killed would be unusually high, particularly as it has been going on for such a long time,” said Therése Pettersson from the Uppsala Conflict Data Program, which tracks civilian casualties worldwide. “If you single out a particular city or battle in another conflict, you could find similar rates, but very rarely overall.”
8,900 Named fighters listed as dead or ‘probably dead’ in Israeli database as of May 2025
In global conflicts tracked by UCDP since 1989, civilians made up a greater proportion of the dead only in Srebenica – although not the Bosnian war overall – in the Rwandan genocide, and during the Russian siege of Mariupol in 2022, Pettersson said.
chart
Many genocide scholars, lawyers and human rights activists, including Israeli academics and campaign groups, say Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, citing the mass killing of civilians and imposed starvation.
The Israeli military did not dispute the existence of the database or dispute the data on Hamas and PIJ deaths when approached for comment by Local Call and +972 Magazine. When the Guardian asked for comment on the same data, a spokesperson said they had decided to “rephrase” their response.
A brief statement sent to the Guardian did not directly address questions about the military intelligence database.
It said “figures presented in the article are incorrect”, without specifying which data the Israeli military disputed. It also said the numbers “do not reflect the data available in the IDF’s systems”, without detailing which systems.
A spokesperson did not immediately respond when asked why the military had given different responses to questions about a single set of data.
The database names 47,653 Palestinians considered active in the military wings of Hamas and PIJ. It is based on apparent internal documents from the groups seized in Gaza, which have not been viewed or verified by the Guardian.
Multiple intelligence sources familiar with the database said the military viewed it as the only authoritative tally of militant casualties.
The military also considers the Gaza health ministry toll reliable, Local Call has reported, and the former head of military intelligence appeared to cite it recently, even though Israeli politicians regularly dismiss the numbers as propaganda.
52,928 Gaza health ministry’s overall death toll as of 14 May 2025
Both databases may underestimate casualty numbers. The Gaza ministry of health lists only people whose bodies have been recovered, not the thousands buried under rubble. Israeli military intelligence are not aware of all militant deaths or all new recruits. But the databases are the ones used by Israeli officers for war planning.
Israeli politicians and generals have variously put the number of militants killed as high as 20,000, or claimed a civilian-to-combatant ratio as low as 1:1.
The higher totals cited by Israeli officials may include civilians with Hamas links, such as government administrators and police, even though international law prohibits targeting people not engaged in combat.
They probably also include Palestinians with no Hamas connections. Israel’s southern command allowed soldiers to report people killed in Gaza as militant casualties without identification or verification.
Cumulative recorded deaths and injuries as a direct result of Israeli aggression, thousands
“People are promoted to the rank of terrorist after their death,” said one intelligence source who accompanied forces on the ground. “If I had listened to the brigade, I would have come to the conclusion that we had killed 200% of Hamas operatives in the area.”
Itzhak Brik, a retired general, said serving Israeli soldiers were aware that politicians exaggerated the Hamas toll. Brik advised the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, at the start of the war and is now among his most strident critics. “There is absolutely no connection between the numbers that are announced and what is actually happening. It is just one big bluff,” he said.
Brik commanded Israel’s military colleges, and said he kept in touch with serving officers. He described meeting soldiers from a unit identifying Palestinians killed in Gaza, who told him “most of them” were civilians.
Even though much of Gaza has been reduced to ruins and tens of thousands of people killed, the classified database lists nearly 40,000 people considered by the army to be militants and still alive.
An aerial photo taken earlier this month of a suburb reduced to rubble in central Gaza. Photograph: Alessio Mamo/The Guardian
Casualty estimates from Hamas and PIJ members also indicated Israeli officials were inflating the militant toll in public statements, said Muhammad Shehada, a Palestinian analyst.
By December 2024 an estimated 6,500 people from the military and political wings of both groups had been killed, members told him. “Israel expands the boundaries so they can define every single person in Gaza as Hamas,” he said. “All of it is killing in the moment for tactical purposes that have nothing to do with extinguishing a threat.”
The ratio of civilian casualties among the dead may have increased further since May, when Israel tried to replace UN and humanitarian organisations that had fed Palestinians throughout the war. Israeli forces have killed hundreds of people trying to get food from distribution centres in military exclusion zones.
Now starving survivors, already forced into just 20% of the territory, have been ordered to leave the north as Israel prepares for another ground operation that is likely to have catastrophic consequences for civilians.
Map
The scale of the killing was partly owing to the nature of the conflict, said Mary Kaldor, professor emeritus at the LSE, director of the Conflict Research Programme and author of New Wars, an influential book about warfare in the post-cold-war era.
International humanitarian law was developed to protect civilians in conventional wars, in which states deploy troops to face each other on the battlefield. This is still largely the model for Russia’s war in Ukraine.
In Gaza Israel is fighting Hamas militants in densely populated cities, and has set rules of engagement that allow its forces to kill large numbers of civilians in strikes on even low-ranking militants. “In Gaza we are talking about a campaign of targeted assassinations, really, rather than battles, and they are carried out with no concern for civilians,” Kaldor said.
Palestinians at a food distribution point run by a charity in Gaza City in July. Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images
The ratio of civilians among the dead in Gaza was more comparable to recent wars in Sudan, Yemen, Uganda and Syria, where much of the violence had been directed against civilians, she said. “These are wars where the armed groups tend to avoid battle. They don’t want to fight each other, they want to control territory and they do that by killing civilians,.
“Maybe that is the same with Israel, and this is a model of war [in Gaza] that is about dominating a population and controlling land. Maybe the objective always was forced displacement.”
Israel’s government says the war is one of self-defence after the Hamas-led attacks on 7 October 2023, which killed 1,200 people.
But political and military leaders regularly use genocidal rhetoric. The general who led military intelligence when the war began has said 50 Palestinians must die for every person killed that day, adding that “it does not matter now if they are children”. Aharon Haliva, who stepped down in April 2024, said mass killing in Gaza was “necessary” as a “message to future generations” of Palestinians, in recordings broadcast on Israeli TV this month.
A man clasps the body of two-year-old Mila, who was killed with her baby brother, Mohammed, in an Israeli attack on the Nuseirat refugee camp in Deir al-Balah in August last year. Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images
Many Israeli soldiers have testified that all Palestinians are treated as targets in Gaza. One stationed in Rafah this year said his unit had created an “imaginary line” in the sand and fired at anyone who crossed it, including twice at children and once at a woman. They shot to kill, not to warn, he said. “Nobody aimed for their legs”.
Neta Crawford, a professor of international relations at Oxford University and co-founder of the Costs of War project, said Israeli tactics marked a “worrisome” abandonment of decades of practices developed to protect civilians.
In the 1970s public revulsion about American massacres in Vietnam forced western militaries to shift how they fought. New policies were imperfectly implemented but reflected a focus on limiting harm to civilians that no longer appeared to be part of Israel’s military calculus, she said.
“They say they’re using the same kinds of procedures for civilian casualty estimation and mitigation as states like the United States. But if you look at these casualty rates, and their practices with the bombing and the destruction of civilian infrastructure, it is clear that they are not.”
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Vladimir Putin is demanding that Ukraine give up all of the eastern Donbas region, renounce ambitions to join NATO, remain neutral and keep Western troops out of the country, three sources familiar with top-level Kremlin thinking told Reuters.
The Russian president met Donald Trump in Alaska on Friday for the first Russia-US summit in more than four years and spent almost all of their three-hour closed meeting discussing what a compromise on Ukraine might look like, according to the sources who requested anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.
Speaking afterwards beside Trump, Putin said the meeting would hopefully open up the road to peace in Ukraine – but neither leader gave specifics about what they discussed.
Read More: Russia seeks say in Ukraine peace deal
In the most detailed Russian-based reporting to date on Putin’s offer at the summit, Reuters was able to outline the contours of what the Kremlin would like to see in a possible peace deal to end a war that has killed and injured hundreds of thousands of people.
In essence, the Russian sources said, Putin has compromised on territorial demands he laid out in June 2024, which required Kyiv to cede the entirety of the four provinces Moscow claims as part of Russia: Dontesk and Luhansk in eastern Ukraine – which make up the Donbas – plus Kherson and Zaporizhzhia in the south.
Kyiv rejected those terms as tantamount to surrender.
In his new proposal, the Russian president has stuck to his demand that Ukraine completely withdraw from the parts of the Donbas it still controls, according to the three sources. In return, though, Moscow would halt the current front lines in Zaporizhzhia and Kherson, they added.
Russia controls about 88% of the Donbas and 73% of Zaporizhzhia and Kherson, according to US estimates and open-source data.
Moscow is also willing to hand over the small parts of the Kharkiv, Sumy, and Dnipropetrovsk regions of Ukraine it controls as part of a possible deal, the sources said.
Putin is sticking, too, to his previous demands that Ukraine give up its NATO ambitions and for a legally binding pledge from the US-led military alliance that it will not expand further eastwards, as well as for limits on the Ukrainian army and an agreement that no Western troops will be deployed on the ground in Ukraine as part of a peacekeeping force, the sources said.
The district her village is in – Huairou – and neighbouring Miyun district, just on the outskirts of Beijing, received a year’s worth of rain in a single week.
Yet the two sides remain far apart, more than three years after Putin ordered thousands of Russian troops into Ukraine in a full-scale invasion that followed the annexation of the Crimean peninsula in 2014 and prolonged fighting in the country’s east between Russian-backed separatists and Ukrainian troops.
Ukraine’s foreign ministry had no immediate comment on the proposals.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has repeatedly dismissed the idea of withdrawing from internationally recognised Ukrainian land as part of a deal, and has said the industrial Donbas region serves as a fortress holding back Russian advances deeper into Ukraine.
“If we’re talking about simply withdrawing from the east, we cannot do that,” he told reporters in comments released by Kyiv on Thursday. “It is a matter of our country’s survival, involving the strongest defensive lines.”
Joining NATO, meanwhile, is a strategic objective enshrined in the country’s constitution and one which Kyiv sees as its most reliable security guarantee. Zelenskiy said it was not up to Russia to decide on the alliance’s membership.
The White House and NATO didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment on the Russian proposals.
Political scientist Samuel Charap, chair in Russia and Eurasia Policy at RAND, a US-based global policy think-tank, said any requirement for Ukraine to withdraw from the Donbas remained a non-starter for Kyiv, both politically and strategically.
“Openness to ‘peace’ on terms categorically unacceptable to the other side could be more of a performance for Trump than a sign of a true willingness to compromise,” he added. “The only way to test that proposition is to begin a serious process at the working level to hash out those details.”
Trump: Putin wants to see it ended
Russian forces currently control a fifth of Ukraine, an area about the size of the American state of Ohio, according to U.S. estimates and open-source maps.
The three sources close to the Kremlin said the summit in the Alaskan city of Anchorage had ushered in the best chance for peace since the war began because there had been specific discussions about Russia’s terms and Putin had shown a willingness to give ground.
“Putin is ready for peace – for compromise. That is the message that was conveyed to Trump,” one of the people said.
The sources cautioned that it was unclear to Moscow whether Ukraine would be prepared to cede the remains of the Donbas, and that if it did not then the war would continue. Also unclear was whether or not the United States would give any recognition to Russian-held Ukrainian territory, they added.
A fourth source said that though economic issues were secondary for Putin, he understood the economic vulnerability of Russia and the scale of the effort needed to go far further into Ukraine.
Also Read: US Treasury official slams India for ‘profiteering’ off cheap Russian oil
Trump has said he wants to end the “bloodbath” of the war and be remembered as a “peacemaker president”. He said on Monday he had begun arranging, opens new tab a meeting between the Russian and Ukrainian leaders, to be followed by a trilateral summit with the US president.
“I believe Vladimir Putin wants to see it ended,” Trump said beside Zelenskiy in the Oval office. “I feel confident we are going to get it solved.”
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Thursday that Putin was prepared to meet Zelenskiy but that all issues had to be worked through first and there was a question about Zelenskiy’s authority to sign a peace deal.
Putin has repeatedly raised doubts about Zelenskiy’s legitimacy as his term in office was due to expire in May 2024 but the war means no new presidential election has yet been held. Kyiv says Zelenskiy remains the legitimate president.
The leaders of Britain, France and Germany have said they are sceptical that Putin wants to end the war.
Security guarantees for Ukraine
Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff was instrumental in paving the way for the summit, and the latest drive for peace, according to two of the Russian sources.
Witkoff met Putin in the Kremlin on August 6 with Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov. At the meeting, Putin conveyed clearly to Witkoff that he was ready to compromise and set out the contours of what he could accept for peace, according to two Russian sources.
If Russia and Ukraine could reach an agreement, then there are various options for a formal deal – including a possible three-way Russia-Ukraine-U.S. deal that is recognised by the UN Security Council, one of the sources said.
Another option is to go back to the failed 2022 Istanbul agreements, where Russia and Ukraine discussed Ukraine’s permanent neutrality in return for security guarantees from the five permanent members of the UN Security Council: Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States, the sources added.
“There are two choices: war or peace, and if there is no peace, then there is more war,” one of the people said.
A US State Department official on Thursday said that continuous vetting applies to “all of the more than 55 million foreigners who currently hold valid United States visas”, including those who have already been admitted to enter the country.
“The State Department revokes visas any time there are indications of a potential ineligibility, which includes things like any indicators of overstays, criminal activity, threats to public safety, engaging in any form of terrorist activity, or providing support to a terrorist organisation,” the official said.
In a written comment to The Associated Press, the official said that if a visa holder presents these indications, their visa will be revoked and they will be subject to deportation if they are already in the US.
US President Donald Trump has made cracking down on illegal immigration a focus of his presidency, boosting resources to secure the border and arresting people in the country illegally.
Earlier this month, the US government announced that it could require bonds of up to $15,000 for some tourist and business visas under a pilot programme to crack down on visitors who overstay their visas.
The programme gives US consular officers the discretion to impose bonds on visitors from countries with high rates of visa overstays, according to a Federal Register notice, which adds that bonds could also be applied to people coming from countries where screening and vetting information is deemed insufficient.
In July, US broadcaster CNN reported that the US would soon require international visitors to pay a “visa integrity fee” of at least $250, a new addition to existing visa application costs, according to a provision in the Trump administration’s domestic policy bill.
The fee is to be paid at the time visas are issued. Although there will be no fee waivers for the payment, the provision states that travellers who comply with the terms of their visa can have the fee reimbursed after their trip.
In June, United States consulates in Karachi and Lahore requested that all applicants for F, M or J nonimmigrant visas make their social media accounts public for vetting.
US consular officers are now required to conduct a “comprehensive and thorough vetting” of all student and exchange visitor applicants to identify those who “bear hostile attitudes toward our citizens, culture, government, institutions, or founding principles”, said a US diplomatic cable.
A Saudi citizen prevented a potential catastrophe after he drove a burning truck out of a fuel station, earning him the King Abdulaziz Medal of the First Class.
In recognition of his heroic act, the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud has directed, based on the recommendation of Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud to award Maher Fahd Al Dalbahi the King Abdulaziz Medal of the First Class and a financial reward of one million riyals.
Al Dalbahi’s family expressed their gratitude, describing the recognition as a medal of honour and an extension of the leadership’s continued commitment to valuing the sacrifices made by its citizens in various fields.
DUBAI (Reuters) – Iran on Thursday launched its first solo military exercises since its June war with Israel, state media reported, seeking to reassert an image of strength after suffering heavy losses.
Navy units of Iran’s regular armed forces fired missiles and drones at open water targets in the Indian Ocean under the “Sustainable Power 1404” drill, state television reported.
“These drills take place around a month after the Iran-Russia drill under the name Casarex 2025 which took place in Iran’s northern waters (Caspian Sea). The Sustainable Power drills…are in Iran’s southern waters,” state TV said.
Lebanese President asks UK to support UNIFIL mandate renewal by UN Security Council
BEIRUT: Lebanese President Joseph Aoun on Thursday urged the UK to back Lebanon’s request to the UN Security Council for the renewal of the mandate for the UN Interim Force in Lebanon, the international peacekeeping force in the south of the country.
He stressed the important role it plays in upholding the ceasefire agreement with Israel and efforts to guarantee regional stability.
He reaffirmed Lebanon’s commitment to the continued presence of UNIFIL forces in southern Lebanon and told the British Ambassador to Lebanon, Hamish Cowell, that he “attaches great importance to the UK’s support for his position calling on the Security Council to extend UNIFIL’s mandate, both to ensure the full implementation of Resolution 1701, and to enable the complete deployment of the Lebanese Army along Lebanon’s internationally recognized borders.”
Resolution 1701 was adopted by the Security Council in 2006 with the aim of resolving the conflict that year between Israel and Hezbollah. It calls for the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Lebanon, the withdrawal of Hezbollah and other forces from southern Lebanon, and the disarmament of Hezbollah and other armed groups.
The Security Council will meet on Monday to discuss the annual extension of UNIFIL’s mandate to assist in the deployment of the Lebanese Army in the south, and work to ensure the withdrawal of Israeli forces.
The extension talks this time differ from previous years as a result of major shifts on the ground, including the occupation by Israeli forces of five strategic hills in southern Lebanon during their recent ground offensive against Hezbollah.
The ceasefire agreement that halted this conflict, which called for the full withdrawal of Hezbollah from areas south of the Litani River and the deployment of the Lebanese Army there, also contributed to a decline in US support for UN efforts in Lebanon, particularly UNIFIL.
Cowell reaffirmed the UK’s support for Lebanon during this critical period, including efforts to enhance stability and strengthen the capabilities of the Lebanese Army.
The Security Council initially granted UNIFIL its mandate more than 47 years ago, and it has been monitoring the situation along Lebanon’s volatile border with Israel since the 1970s. The size of the force increased after the 2006 war to about 10,000 peacekeepers from more than 47 countries.
The assistant secretary-general of the Arab League, Hossam Zaki met President Aoun and other Lebanese officials during a visit to Beirut on Thursday.
Zaki said he conveyed the League’s support for recent moves by Lebanese authorities to exert their authority over all Lebanese territory, and to restrict possession of weapons to the state, noting that “such principles are stipulated in Arab League resolutions, particularly the most recent resolution issued at the Baghdad Summit a few months ago.”
He called on the international community to put pressure on Israel to withdraw from all Lebanese territory it occupies and refrain from any actions that violate Lebanese sovereignty.
“All relevant parties, particularly the US, have been informed, through Ambassador Thomas Barrack, that what is now required is Israel’s commitment to withdraw from the areas it occupies in southern Lebanon, return prisoners, and fully implement Resolution 1701,” Zaki said.
“Only then can the necessary conditions be created for the Lebanese state to extend its sovereignty, through its own armed forces, to all territories up to the internationally recognized borders.”
He also welcomed Lebanon’s commitment to the enforcement of exclusive state control over weaponry in a manner that protects the interests of all Lebanese citizens.
Zaki addressed what he described as the ongoing “media squabbling” in Lebanon over the efforts to ensure non-state groups surrender their weapons, Hezbollah’s refusal to disarm and the group’s resultant threats of unrest and civil war. He said the issue must be handled with caution, as “no one wants to see the country slide into a situation with undesirable consequences.”
He also emphasized the need to restore stability and civil peace in Lebanon, and to pursue policies that ensure the state sovereignty over all of its territory.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Nawaf Salam is facing a campaign by Hezbollah supporters who have accused him of treason over the call for Hezbollah and other militias to disarm.
A banner with words “A collaborator has no sect and no religion” was raised alongside a road in the Hermel area accusing him of working with Israel. It was signed by “the clans and families of Hermel.”
However, the “clans of Baalbek-Hermel” subsequently issued a statement in which they said “banners that incite strife do not represent our clans or our values.”
Maronite Patriarch Bechara Al-Rahi has also been accused of treason after he said that “the resistance’s slogan has collapsed and the words of Hezbollah Secretary-General Naim Qassem are political rhetoric.”
MP Samy Gemayel, the leader of the Kataeb Party, speaking after a meeting with Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, an ally of Hezbollah, said: “We condemn the accusations of treason against our patriarch, which are unacceptable as they aim to undermine all efforts for consensus and solutions, including those proposed by Berri through his attempts to find common ground.”
He also rejected “any marginalization of the Shiite community, which must be a partner in building the new Lebanon.”
In other developments, the Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation reported that Lebanon had returned an Israeli citizen, Saleh Abu-Hussein, who had been detained in Lebanon for more than a year, to Israel through the Ras Al-Naqoura border crossing.
The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said: “The return was carried out following negotiations with the help of the Red Cross.”
Security sources said Abu-Hussein is a Palestinian with Israeli citizenship from the Rumana area of Galilee Region, who suffers from mental health issues.
“His family does not know how he arrived in Lebanon,” the sources said. “He was detained in Lebanon in July last year after he entered Lebanese territory and requested water, and was subsequently handed over to the Lebanese General Security.”
Israel’s military says it has warned medical officials and international organisations to prepare for the planned evacuation of Gaza City’s one million residents ahead of an offensive to occupy it.
The officials were told that “adjustments” were being made to hospitals in southern Gaza to receive patients, a statement said.
Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry rejected “any step that would undermine what remains of the health system”. The UN and aid groups have also vowed to stay to help those who cannot or choose not to move.
Meanwhile, Palestinians said there had been heavy bombardment in eastern areas of the city, a day after the military said it had taken the first steps in the offensive.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is meeting security officials on Thursday to approve the military’s takeover plans despite widespread international and domestic opposition.
He announced Israel’s intention to conquer the entire Gaza Strip after indirect talks with Hamas on a ceasefire and hostage release deal broke down last month.
The Israeli military plans to evacuate Gaza City’s entire population and move it to shelters in the south before troops move into the territory’s largest urban area.
As part of its preparations, it said, officers from military body Cogat carried out “initial warning calls” to medical officials and international organisations on Tuesday.
“The officers emphasised to the medical officials that adjustments are being made to the hospital infrastructure in the south of the Strip to receive the sick and wounded, alongside an increased entry of necessary medical equipment,” a statement said.
It quoted the officers as telling them in the calls: “We are going to provide you with a place to be in, whether it is a field hospital or any other hospital.”
However, Gaza’s health ministry expressed its “rejection of any step that would undermine what remains of the health system after the systematic destruction carried out by the occupation [Israeli] authorities”.
“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,” it warned.
Eighteen of Gaza’s 36 hospitals are currently partially functional, according to the UN. Eleven of them are located in Gaza City governorate and one is in North Gaza governorate.
The UN and non-governmental organisations warned earlier this week that an Israeli offensive in Gaza City would have a “horrific humanitarian impact”.
“We reiterate our commitment to serve people wherever they are, and we remain present in Gaza City to provide lifesaving support,” they stated.
They also warned that hospitals in the south were “operating at several times their capacity, and taking on patients from the north would have life-threatening consequences”.
Motasem Dalloul, a journalist in Gaza City, told the BBC he had seen and heard multiple Israeli air strikes there on Thursday.
“From time to time there are fighter jets which carry out attacks that destroy homes and other facilities, mainly in the eastern side of Gaza City, in Zeitoun neighbourhood and Sabra neighbourhood,” he said.
The Hamas-run Civil Defence agency said at least 48 people were killed by Israeli strikes and fire across Gaza on Thursday, including eight in Sabra.
Mr Dalloul also said a “large number” of Israeli drones were flying overhead.
Some were broadcasting messages to residents, telling them to evacuate to “safe zones” in the south of Gaza, he said. But he disputed that such areas were safe, saying people were being killed “in every corner” of the south.
“A lot of people are intending not to move from the city,” he said. “They believe that if we will be killed, let’s be killed in our homes.”
Reuters
Hundreds of people also joined a rally in Gaza City to demand an end to the war and reject Israel’s plan for further displacement.
“We are exhausted. We die a thousand times a day. We don’t want to leave, we want to stay here,” Bissan Ghazal told the BBC. “Stop the bloodshed. This is enough.”
Umm Abdul Rahman Hajjaj said she wanted to tell the Hamas ceasefire negotiators: “What we demand is an immediate end to the war – because the longer it continues, the greater the number of martyrs, wounded, and prisoners”.
In Tel Aviv, relatives of Israeli hostages still held by Hamas urged their government to accept a proposed ceasefire deal to bring back some of their loved ones.
“There’s a deal on the table. This is the opening we need for a comprehensive deal. We must sign it immediately,” said Dalia Cusnir, the sister-in-law of hostage Eitan Horn and released former hostage of Iair Horn.
“Time is running out. The hostages cannot survive much longer in the hand of these brutal captors. We cannot support more fighting.”
Reuters
Hostages’ families are urging the Israeli government to agree a deal to end the war and bring home all those held by Hamas
Mediators Qatar and Egypt are trying to secure a deal to avert the offensive and have presented a new proposal for a 60-day truce and the release of around half of the 50 hostages, which Hamas said it had accepted on Monday.
Israel has not yet submitted a formal response, but Israeli officials have said that they would no longer accept a partial deal and demanded a comprehensive one that would see all the hostages released. Only 20 of them are believed to still be alive.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres said it was “vital” to reach an immediate ceasefire and avoid what he called the “inevitable death and destruction” that a new operation in Gaza City would cause.
On Wednesday, an Israeli military spokesman said “the preliminary actions” of the Gaza City offensive had begun and that troops were already “holding the outskirts”.
Netanyahu’s office said he had “directed that the timetables – for seizing control of the last terrorist strongholds and the defeat of Hamas – be shortened”.
Hamas accused the Israeli leader of continuing a “brutal war against innocent civilians in Gaza City” and criticised what it said was his “disregard” for the ceasefire proposal.
The Israeli military launched a campaign in Gaza in response to the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.
At least 62,192 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory’s health ministry. The ministry’s figures are quoted by the UN and others as the most reliable source of statistics available on casualties.
David Lammy has joined 20 other foreign ministers around the world in condemning Israeli plans to build an illegal settlement on the West Bank, with the Foreign Office summoning the Israeli ambassador to communicate the government’s displeasure.
The foreign secretary co-signed a joint statement on Thursday criticising the so-called E1 plan, a 3,400-home settlement that critics say would divide the West Bank in half.
Officials then summoned Tzipi Hotovely to the Foreign Office in a rare public rebuke for the Israeli ambassador. The actions marked a further intensification of recent international criticism for Israel over its tactics in Gaza and the West Bank.
The statement, which was signed by 21 countries including the UK, Australia, Canada and France, said: “The decision by the Israeli higher planning committee to approve plans for settlement construction in the E1 area, east of Jerusalem, is unacceptable and a violation of international law. We condemn this decision and call for its immediate reversal in the strongest terms.”
In a separate statement, the Foreign Office confirmed it had summoned Hotovely in a display of public criticism. “If implemented, these settlement plans would be a flagrant breach of international law and would divide a future Palestinian state in two, critically undermining a two-state solution,” the department said in a statement.
It did not say which minister or official had met Hotovely or what was said in the meeting. The Israeli embassy did not respond to a request for comment.
Israel announced on Wednesday it had approved plans to build the major new block in the West Bank, with the deliberate intention – according to Israel’s far-right finance minster, Bezalel Smotrich – of preventing the creation of a Palestinian state.
Smotrich on Wednesday called the decision to approve the settlement a “significant step that practically erases the two-state delusion and consolidates the Jewish people’s hold on the heart of the land of Israel”.
The proposals would extend the Jewish settlement of Ma’ale Adumim towards Jerusalem, further separating occupied East Jerusalem from the West Bank, and dividing the north and south of the territory.
The statement by the 21 foreign ministers said: “Minister Smotrich says this 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. Instead, it risks undermining security and fuels further violence and instability, taking us further away from peace.”
British officials say Israel’s renewed expansionism in the West Bank has played a critical role in pushing them into a decision to recognise Palestine as an independent state. Keir Starmer said last month he would issue formal recognition before next month’s UN general assembly, unless Israel committed to a ceasefire and a two-state solution.
The international community has also expressed outrage over Israel’s plan to take control of Gaza City, with the UN assistant secretary general, Miroslav Jenča, warning it would cause “forced displacement, killings and destruction”.
The Israel Defense Forces said on Wednesday that Benjamin Netanyahu had instructed them to accelerate the planned assault on Gaza City, the prospect of which has already prompted thousands of Palestinians to flee.
On Thursday the UK was one of 27 countries to sign a separate statement demanding that international journalists be given access to Gaza to allow them to cover the “unfolding humanitarian catastrophe” in the war zone.
The statement from the Media Freedom Coalition (MFC), an international advocacy group that the UK helped to create, said: “We … urge Israel to allow immediate independent foreign media access and afford protection for journalists operating in Gaza.”
A record 111,000 asylum applications were made to the UK during the year to June, but the government is processing cases faster, new Home Office figures show.
This is an increase of 14% from the previous year, and it is higher than the peak of 103,000 in 2002.
But officials are processing more cases than before the general election, meaning that over the long term there may be fewer people in the system needing housing support.
The latest data, which covers Labour’s first year in office, comes as the government faces growing pressure over immigration.
The figures also showed 71,000 cases, relating to 91,000 people, were awaiting an initial decision. The number of cases is lower than the number of people since one case can also cover the main claimant’s family.
That backlog is almost half the peak of 134,000 cases at the end of June 2023.
This means that there are 18,536 fewer people waiting for a decision today than there were in March.
The numbers of asylum seekers in hotels has risen slightly to 32,059 – a figure higher than when Labour came to power, but well below a peak of 56,000 in September 2023 under the Conservatives.
Labour has pledged to clear the backlog by 2029, pledging to cut Channel crossings and to open new government-run accommodation.
Ministers hope to end the use of hotels over the long term. However that depends on how quickly they can remove people who have no case to be in the UK.
Asylum seekers who cannot financially support themselves are placed in housing while their claims and appeals are considered.
In the year ending June 2025, the Home Office forcibly removed 9,100 people – up a quarter on the previous year.
More than half were foreign national offenders who were being deported at the end of sentences.
Meanwhile, the High Court on Tuesday ruled a hotel in Epping, Essex, should stop housing asylum seekers after a legal challenge by the local council.
Other councils across the country, including some run by Labour, are now considering legal action.
Most asylum claims were made by people from Pakistan, very few of whom arrived in the UK on small boats – rather, most arrived legally on work or study visas and only later claimed asylum.
Meanwhile, most people arriving by small boat were from Afghanistan.
‘I feel left behind’
Among the backlog of asylum claims is Daastan’s – who did not want to use his real name.
The 26-year-old fled Afghanistan in 2023, fearing for his life after his father and brother were targeted by the Taliban.
After arriving in the UK, he applied for asylum and the Home Office found him a hotel room in Yorkshire, where he has been ever since.
“You escape one problem and now you’re in another problem,” he told the BBC.
His claim was denied after around a year, and he is now awaiting the outcome of an appeal.
He is given three meals a day and is allowed to leave for a walk if he signs out with a guard. Otherwise, he spends most of his days in silence as his roommate does not speak English.
One day, through his window, he watched as guards and police surrounded the hotel and stopped protestors from getting any closer.
“All we asylum seekers wanted was a shelter so the government put us in a hotel. That wasn’t our choice,” he said. “We haven’t done anything.”
Elsewhere, Godgive – who also did not want to use her real name – told the BBC she felt “left behind” and “stuck” in the asylum system.
She has not seen her six-year-old son since she left Cameroon, fleeing violence, three years ago.
Waiting for the outcome of her claim, she lives in a shared house with other asylum seekers provided by the Home Office in the north-east of England.
A house manager comes regularly to sweep her bedroom and make sure she has no forbidden items, like a TV. There is little privacy.
Godgive said she considered ending her life at one stage: “I needed to stop living. It was too much.”
Unable to work or study, she said she dreamt of volunteering or training herself in new skills – anything to give her purpose and a way to contribute.
“I don’t know where to go and I don’t know when it’s going to change.”
Government spending on asylum in the UK was down by 12%, the new figures show.
The total stood at £4.76bn in the year ending March 2025, down from £5.38bn the previous year.
It covers Home Office costs related to asylum, including direct cash support and accommodation, but not costs relating to intercepting migrants crossing the Channel.
Specific costs for hotels were not published in the latest data, but Home Office figures released in July showed £2.1bn was spent on hotel accommodation – down from £3bn the previous year.
The data for the year to June 2025 also showed that:
Small boat arrivals accounted for 88% of arrivals, at 43,000
This was 38% higher than the previous year, but slightly lower than the peak in 2022 of 46,000 people
More than half of those arriving came from Afghanistan, Eritrea, Iran, Sudan and Syria
Afghans were the most common nationality, accounting for 15% of small boat arrivals (6,400)
Since January 2018, three-quarters of small boat arrivals were men, while only 16% were children
5,011 children – those under the age of 18 – crossed by small boat to apply for asylum in the year to June
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said Labour has “strengthened Britain’s visa and immigration controls, cut asylum costs and sharply increased enforcement and returns”.
She blamed the “broken immigration and asylum system” and said the previous Conservative government had left it in “chaos”.
Shadow home secretary Chris Philp said the government is “failing” and has lost control of our borders”.
Liberal Democrat spokesperson Lisa Smart MP said the asylum backlog has been “far too large for far too long”.
“The Conservatives trashed our immigration system and let numbers spiral. Now this Labour government is failing to get a grip on the crisis,” she said.
If you are suffering distress or despair, details of help and support in the UK are available at BBC Action Line.
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