The Israeli military pressed operations around Gaza City on Wednesday (August 27, 2025), as President Donald Trump prepared to host a White House meeting on post-war plans for the shattered Palestinian territory.

Israel is under mounting pressure both at home and abroad to end its almost two-year campaign in Gaza, where the military is preparing to conquer the territory’s largest city and the United Nations has declared a famine.

Mediators have circulated a draft ceasefire and hostage release deal which has been accepted by Palestinian militant group Hamas, whose October 2023 attack triggered the devastating war. But Israel has yet to give an official response.

On the ground, the Israeli military said its troops were “operating on the outskirts of Gaza City to locate and dismantle terror infrastructure sites above and below ground”.

The army’s Arabic-language spokesman, Avichay Adraee, wrote on X that the evacuation of Gaza’s largest city was “inevitable”.

The vast majority of Gaza’s population has been displaced at least once during the war, and aid groups working in the territory consider the plan unrealistic and dangerous.

The U.N. estimates that nearly a million people currently live in Gaza governorate, which includes Gaza City and its surroundings in the north of the territory.

Residents of Gaza City’s Zeitoun neighbourhood spoke of heavy Israeli bombardment overnight. “Warplanes struck several times, and drones fired throughout the night,” said Tala al-Khatib, 29. “Several homes in Zeitoun were blown up. We are still in our house — some neighbours have fled, while others remain. But wherever you flee, death follows you,” she said.

Abdel Hamid al-Sayfi, 62, said he hadn’t gone outdoors since Tuesday (August 26, 2025) afternoon. “Whoever steps outside is fired upon by the drones,” he told AFP by telephone. “My phone battery is about to die, and once it does, we will lose all contact. Our fate is unknown,” he added.

‘Comprehensive plan’

AFP footage on Wednesday (August 27, 2025) showed thick smoke rising into the sky following air strikes on the Abu Iskandar and Sheikh Radwan neighbourhoods in the north of Gaza City.

Defence Minister Israel Katz vowed on Friday (August 22, 2025) to destroy the city if Hamas does not agree to end the war on Israel’s terms.

It came after the defence ministry approved the military’s plan to seize the city and authorised the call-up of roughly 60,000 reservists.

It also came as the United Nations officially declared a famine in Gaza governorate, including Gaza City, that it blamed on “systematic obstruction of aid” by Israel.

Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff said the U.S. president would host top officials at the White House on Wednesday (August 27, 2025) to thrash out a detailed plan for post-war Gaza.

“We’ve got a large meeting in the White House tomorrow, chaired by the president, and it’s a very comprehensive plan we’re putting together for the next day,” Mr. Witkoff said on Fox News, without offering more details.

Mr. Trump stunned the world earlier this year when he suggested the United States should take control of the Gaza Strip, clear out its inhabitants and redevelop it as seaside real estate.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised the proposal, which sparked an outcry in Europe and the Arab world.

‘Will end in Gaza’

As Israel’s security cabinet convened on Tuesday (August 26, 2025) evening, tens of thousands of protesters massed in commercial hub Tel Aviv to demand an end to the war and a hostage deal.

Afterwards, Mr. Netanyahu declined to be drawn on what had been decided. “But I will say one thing: it started in Gaza and it will end in Gaza. We will not leave those monsters there,” he said.

Mr. Netanyahu last week ordered immediate talks aimed at securing the release of all remaining captives, while also doubling down on the plan to seize Gaza City.

That came days after Hamas said it had accepted the latest ceasefire proposal put forward by mediators, which would see the staggered release of hostages over an initial 60-day period in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.

In Doha on Tuesday (August 26, 2025), Qatari foreign ministry spokesman Majed al-Ansari said that mediators were still “waiting for an answer” from Israel.

The war was sparked by Hamas’s October 2023 attack, which resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures.

Out of 251 hostages seized during the attack, 49 are still held in Gaza, including 27 the Israeli military says are dead.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 62,819 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to figures from the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza that the United Nations considers reliable.

Published – August 27, 2025 05:34 pm IST

The United Nations on Friday (August 22, 2025) officially declared a famine in Gaza, the first in the Middle East, with its experts saying 500,000 people were facing “catastrophic” hunger.

U.N. aid chief Tom Fletcher said the famine was entirely preventable, saying food could not get through to the Palestinian territory “because of systematic obstruction by Israel”.

But Israel’s Foreign Ministry immediately hit back, saying “there is no famine in Gaza”.

In a statement, it slammed the report by the Rome-based IPC panel, saying it was “based on Hamas lies laundered through organisations with vested interests”.

U.N. agencies have for months been warning of the deteriorating humanitarian situation in the Palestinian territory.

In its latest updated on Friday, the IPC said “as of 15 August 2025, famine (IPC Phase 5) — with reasonable evidence — is confirmed in Gaza Governorate”, Gaza City, which covers about 20 percent of the Gaza Strip.

Famine is projected to expand to Deir el-Balah and Khan Yunis governorates by the end of September, which would cover around two-thirds of the Palestinian territory.

“After 22 months of relentless conflict, over half a million people in the Gaza Strip are facing catastrophic conditions characterised by starvation, destitution and death,” the report said.

This number, based on information gathered between July 1 and August 15, is expected to increase to nearly 641,000 people — nearly a third of the population — by the end of September.

‘Haunt us all’

The IPC said this was the most severe deterioration in the situation since it began analysing hunger in the Gaza Strip.

It said the change was driven by a sharp escalation in the war between Israel and Hamas, and the resulting massive displacement of people, combined with the severe restriction of access to humanitarian and commercial supplies of food.

In early March, Israel completely banned aid supplies from Gaza, before allowing very limited quantities to enter at the end of May, leading to severe shortages of food, medicine, and fuel.

Speaking in Geneva, the U.N.’s Fletcher said the famine should “haunt us all”.

“It is a famine that we could have prevented if we had been allowed. Yet food stacks up at borders because of systematic obstruction by Israel,” he told reporters.

The IPC noted the local food system has also collapsed, with an estimated 98 percent of cropland in the Gaza Strip either damaged, inaccessible or both, livestock decimated and fishing banned.

To add to this, the health system has severely deteriorated, while access to safe drinking water and adequate hygiene has been drastically reduced.

The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification Initiative (IPC) is a coalition of monitors tasked by the UN to warn of impending crises.

Its definition of a famine has three elements.

Firstly, at least 20% of households — one in five — must have an extreme lack of food.

Second, at least 30% — one in three — children under five are acutely malnourished.

And third, at least two in every 10,000 people are dying every day because of outright starvation or because of malnutrition and disease.

Hamas’s October 2023 attack on Israel that sparked the war resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.

Israel’s offensive has killed at least 62,192 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to figures from the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza that the United Nations considers reliable.

Published – August 22, 2025 03:45 pm IST