A man walks past a mural depicting the Palestinian leader Marwan Barghouti, with a message that reads in Arabic, “See you soon”, on Israel’s separation barrier in the West Bank city of Bethlehem, on August 20, 2025.
| Photo Credit: AP

READ MORE

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday (August 12, 2025) revived calls to “allow” Palestinians to leave the Gaza Strip, as the military prepares a broader offensive in the territory.

Past calls to resettle Gazans outside of the war-battered territory, including from U.S. President Donald Trump, have sparked concern among Palestinians and condemnation from the international community.

Also read | Benjamin Netanyahu’s push for a no-state solution

Mr. Netanyahu defended his war policies in a rare interview with Israeli media, broadcast shortly after Egypt said Gaza mediators were leading a renewed push to secure a 60-day truce.

The premier told Israeli broadcaster i24NEWS that “we are not pushing them out, but we are allowing them to leave”.

“Give them the opportunity to leave, first of all, combat zones, and generally to leave the territory, if they want,” he said, citing refugee outflows during wars in Syria, Ukraine and Afghanistan.

In the Gaza Strip, Israel for years has tightly controlled the borders and barred many from leaving.

“We will allow this, first of all within Gaza during the fighting, and we will certainly allow them to leave Gaza as well,” Netanyahu said.

For Palestinians, any effort to force them off their land would recall the “Nakba”, or catastrophe — the mass displacement of Palestinians during Israel’s creation in 1948.

Netanyahu has endorsed Trump’s suggestion this year to expel Gaza’s more than two million people to Egypt and Jordan, while far-right Israeli ministers have called for their “voluntary” departure.

Cairo talks

Israel’s plans to expand its offensive into Gaza City come as diplomacy aimed at securing an elusive ceasefire and hostage release deal in the 22-month-old war has stalled for weeks, after the latest round of negotiations broke down in July.

Egypt’s Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty announced that Cairo was “working very hard now in full cooperation with the Qataris and Americans”, aiming for “a ceasefire for 60 days, with the release of some hostages and some Palestinian detainees, and the flow of humanitarian and medical assistance to Gaza without restrictions, without conditions”.

Hamas said in a statement early Wednesday that a delegation of its leadership had arrived in Cairo for “preliminary talks” with Egyptian officials.

A Palestinian source earlier told AFP that the mediators were working “to formulate a new comprehensive ceasefire agreement proposal” that would include the release of all remaining hostages in Gaza “in one batch”.

Netanyahu said in his interview he would oppose the staggered release of hostages, and instead would “want to return all of them as part of an end to the war — but under our conditions”.

Mediation efforts led by Qatar, Egypt and the United States have failed to secure a breakthrough since a short-lived truce earlier this year.

News of the potential truce talks came as Gaza’s civil defence agency said Israel has intensified its air strikes on Gaza City in recent days, following the security cabinet’s decision to expand the war there.

Intensified strikes

Netanyahu’s government has not provided an exact timetable on when forces may enter the area, but civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal said on Tuesday that air raids had already begun increasing over the past three days.

Israel is “intensifying its bombardment” using “bombs, drones, and also highly explosive munitions that cause massive destruction”, he said.

Bassal said that Israeli strikes across the territory, including on Gaza City, killed at least 33 people on Tuesday.

“The bombardment has been extremely intense for the past two days. With every strike, the ground shakes,” said Majed al-Hosary, a resident of Gaza City’s Zeitun neighbourhood.

An Israeli air strike on Sunday killed four Al Jazeera employees and two freelance reporters outside a Gaza City hospital, with Israel accusing one of the slain correspondents of being a Hamas militant.

Israel has faced mounting criticism over the war, which was triggered by Palestinian militant group Hamas’s October 2023 attack.

UN-backed experts have warned of widespread famine unfolding in the territory, where Israel has drastically curtailed the amount of humanitarian aid it allows in.

Netanyahu is under mounting domestic pressure to secure the release of the remaining hostages — 49 people including 27 the Israeli military says are dead — as well as over his plans to expand the war.

Hamas’s 2023 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.

Israel’s offensive has killed at least 61,599 Palestinians, according to the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza, whose toll the United Nations considers reliable.

Published – August 13, 2025 10:22 pm IST

Volker Turk cited an opinion released by the U.N. top court in July that called Israel’s occupation illegal. File
| Photo Credit: Reuters

The U.N. human rights chief said on Monday (September 9, 2024) that ending the nearly year-long war in Gaza is a priority and he asked countries to act on what he called Israel’s “blatant disregard” for international law in the occupied Palestinian territories.

Nearly 41,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, according to Gaza health officials, since Israel unleashed a military campaign in response to cross-border attacks by Hamas militants on October 7, 2023, in which 1,200 people were killed and a further 250 taken hostage. The conflict has also fuelled a surge in violence in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

“Ending that war and averting a full-blown regional conflict is an absolute and urgent priority,” the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, said in a speech at the start of the five-week U.N. Human Rights Council session in Geneva.

“States must not – cannot – accept blatant disregard for international law, including binding decisions of the (U.N.) Security Council and orders of the International Court of Justice, neither in this nor any other situation.”

He cited an opinion released by the U.N. top court in July that called Israel’s occupation illegal, and Mr. Turk said this situation must be “comprehensively addressed”. Israel has rejected the opinion and called it one-sided.

Mr. Turk’s comments were given in a broad speech marking the mid-way point of his four-year term as U.N. rights chief where he described massive challenges around the world and a crisis of political leadership. The session will also debate crises in Sudan, Afghanistan and Ukraine.

“It seems to me we are at a fork in the road. We can either continue on our current path – a treacherous ‘new normal’ – and sleepwalk into a dystopian future,” he said in a speech met with applause from diplomats.

He denounced the increased use of the death penalty and “alarming regressions” on gender equality, in reference to new morality laws in Afghanistan.

In Western countries like Britain, Germany and the United States, politicians risk spurring violence by scapegoating migrants and minorities during election periods, he said.

Mr. Turk, a former lawyer from Austria, also used the speech to defend his record, after criticism from some that his policy of engaging China over alleged abuses has been too soft.

“I believe in engagement, frank exchanges and keeping dialogue open, even more so in the face of fierce disagreement,” he said.

Permanent Representative of Algeria to the United Nations Amar Bendjama (L) and China’s ambassador to the United Nations, Zhang Jun, vote against a U.S. ceasefire resolution for the Gaza war during a UN Security Council meeting at the United Nations headquarters on March 22, 2024 in New York City.
| Photo Credit: Getty Images via AFP

Russia and China on March 22 vetoed a U.S.-sponsored U.N. resolution calling for “an immediate and sustained cease-fire” in the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza to protect civilians and enable humanitarian aid to be delivered to more than 2 million hungry Palestinians.

The vote in the 15-member Security Council was 11 members in favor, three against and one abstention.

Also read | The current global order — a fraying around many edges

Before the vote, Russia’s U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said Moscow supports an immediate ceasefire, but he questioned the language in the resolution and accused U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield of “misleading the international community” for “politicized” reasons.

The resolution put to a vote “determines” — which is a council order — “the imperative of an immediate and sustained ceasefire,” with no direct link to the release of hostages taken during Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel, which was in the previous draft. But it would unequivocally support diplomatic efforts “to secure such a ceasefire in connection with the release of all remaining hostages.”

The Security Council had already adopted two resolutions on the worsening humanitarian situation in Gaza, but none calling for a ceasefire.

Russia and China vetoed a U.S.-sponsored resolution in late October calling for pauses in the fighting to deliver aid, protection of civilians, and a halt to arming Hamas. They said it didn’t reflect global calls for a cease-fire.

The U.S., Israel’s closest ally, has vetoed three resolutions demanding a ceasefire, the most recent an Arab-backed measure supported by 13 council members with one abstention on Feb. 20.

A day earlier, the U.S. circulated a rival resolution, which has gone through major changes during negotiations before Friday’s vote. It initially would have supported a temporary cease-fire linked to the release of all hostages, and the previous draft would have supported international efforts for a cease-fire as part of a hostage deal.

Meanwhile, the 10 elected members of the Security Council have been drafting their own resolution, which would demand an immediate humanitarian cease-fire for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan that began March 10 to be “respected by all parties leading to a permanent sustainable cease-fire.”

It also demands “the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages ” and emphasizes the urgent need to protect civilians and deliver humanitarian aid throughout the Gaza Strip.

Palestinian militants killed some 1,200 people in the surprise Oct. 7 attack into southern Israel that triggered the war, and abducted another 250 people. Hamas is still believed to be holding some 100 people hostage, as well as the remains of 30 others.

In Gaza, the Health Ministry raised the death toll in the territory Thursday to nearly 32,000 Palestinians. It doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants in its count but says women and children make up two-thirds of the dead.

The international community’s authority on determining the severity of hunger crises warned this week that “famine is imminent” in northern Gaza, where 70% of people are experiencing catastrophic hunger. The report from the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification initiative, or IPC, warned that escalation of the war could push half of Gaza’s total population to the brink of starvation.

Israel faces mounting pressure from even its closest allies to streamline the entry of aid into the Gaza Strip and to open more land crossings, and come to a cease-fire agreement. But Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to move the military offensive to the southern city of Rafah, where some 1.3 million displaced Palestinians have sought safety. Netanyahu says it’s a Hamas stronghold.

The final U.S. draft eliminated language in the initial draft that said Israel’s offensive in Rafah “should not proceed under current circumstances.” Instead, in an introductory paragraph, the council would emphasize its concern that a ground offensive into Rafah “would result in further harm to civilians and their further displacement, potentially into neighboring countries, and would have serious implications for regional peace and security.”