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lite.cnn.com - on gopher - inofficial | |
ARTICLE VIEW: | |
Israel to halt airdrops ahead of Gaza City offensive as hostage | |
families lash out at Netanyahu | |
By Mahmoud Atef, Eugenia Yosef, Kareem El Damanhoury, Ibrahim Dahman, | |
Sana Noor Haq, Abeer Salman, Eyad Kourdi, CNN | |
Updated: | |
8:06 AM EDT, Sun August 31, 2025 | |
Source: CNN | |
Israel is set to halt airdrops over Gaza City and reduce the entry of | |
relief trucks ahead of a major offensive, a source told CNN, as the Red | |
Cross warned that Israeli plans for mass evacuation were | |
“impossible.” | |
The Israeli military is preparing to fully capture Gaza’s biggest | |
city after nearly two years of war, despite growing opposition at home | |
and warnings that the campaign will have disastrous and unbearable | |
consequences in the besieged region. | |
In Tel Aviv, crowds of protesters demanded that the government pursue a | |
ceasefire rather than escalate its offensive. Families of hostages | |
being held in Gaza blasted the Israeli government for its failure to | |
consider the latest ceasefire proposal, which Hamas accepted nearly two | |
weeks ago. | |
The Israeli military has carried out heavy bombing and ground attacks | |
on Gaza City in recent days, eyewitnesses and Palestinian authorities | |
say, choking vital services and leaving hundreds of thousands of people | |
crammed into an ever-shrinking area. | |
At least 47 people were killed in Gaza City on Saturday, according to | |
Gaza hospital figures. | |
An Israeli strike on Al-Nasr Street in the west of the city killed at | |
least 15 Palestinians, including six children, local health officials | |
said. | |
CNN footage from the courtyard of a hospital showed a row of dead | |
children shrouded in floral blankets. Family members mourn over their | |
small, lifeless bodies, including a toddler wearing a grey onesie with | |
a dinosaur print. | |
“I don’t know what happened,” one man told CNN. “These children | |
are the beloved of God. What was their sin?” | |
CNN has reached out to the Israeli military for comment. | |
Another Israeli attack on a building housing displaced Palestinians in | |
the Al-Rimal neighborhood of Gaza City killed at least seven people, | |
according to Gaza Civil Defense on Saturday. | |
Video from the scene soon after the attack showed numerous children | |
wandering dazed, covered in blood and dust. One person lies in the | |
street, his head cracked open in a pool of blood, while a boy is | |
carried away on an improvised stretcher. | |
The Israeli military told CNN in a statement that the attack targeted a | |
“key Hamas terrorist” and claimed that numerous mitigation | |
techniques were employed to reduce harm to civilians. | |
On Friday, the military declared Gaza City a “dangerous combat | |
zone” ahead of the planned assault, which Israeli Prime Minister | |
Benjamin Netanyahu says will target what he calls one of Hamas’.” | |
This week Israeli drones circled over several areas in and around the | |
city to drop leaflets, according to Gaza City residents, telling people | |
to evacuate to south of Wadi Gaza, which bisects the Strip. | |
But the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has denounced | |
the move. | |
“It is impossible that a mass evacuation of Gaza City could ever be | |
done in a way that is safe and dignified under the current | |
conditions,” ICRC President Mirjana Spoljaric said in , warning that | |
starving, disabled and injured Palestinians were incapable of moving. | |
“Such an evacuation would trigger a massive population movement that | |
no area in the Gaza Strip can absorb, given the widespread destruction | |
of civilian infrastructure and the extreme shortages of food, water, | |
shelter and medical care,” added Spoljaric. | |
‘Sabotage of the hostage deal’ | |
Hamas accepted a proposal for a 60-day ceasefire two weeks ago, but | |
Netanyahu has refused to consider it. The proposal calls for a 60-day | |
ceasefire and the release of 10 living hostages, as well as 18 deceased | |
hostages. In exchange, Israel would release a number of Palestinian | |
prisoners. | |
According to a source familiar with the planning, the security cabinet | |
will not discuss the proposal at the meeting on Sunday. The security | |
cabinet also failed to discuss the proposal at its meeting last week. | |
“If it looks like sabotage, if it sounds like sabotage - it’s | |
probably deliberate sabotage of the hostage deal,” the Hostages and | |
Missing Families Forum said in a statement. | |
One hostage’s mother warned that if Netanyahu decides to conquer Gaza | |
City and ignore the current ceasefire proposal on the table, he will be | |
“spilling the blood of Israeli citizens.” | |
Speaking at the weekly anti-war protest, Einav Zangkauer vowed to | |
ensure that Netanyahu is “charged with premeditated murder” if her | |
son, Matan, is not returned alive from Gaza. | |
“Netanyahu, if Matan comes back in a bag, not only will Matan and I | |
pay the price, but I will personally make sure you are charged with | |
premeditated murder,” Einav Zangkauer said on Saturday. | |
Zangauker has become one of Netanyahu’s fiercest and most vocal | |
critics, lambasting him publicly for not accepting ceasefire deals that | |
she says could have brought about Matan’s release from Hamas | |
captivity. | |
Residents in Gaza City ‘terrorized 24 hours a day’ | |
More than one million people are displaced in the central and western | |
parts of Gaza City alone, a municipality spokesperson said on Saturday, | |
warning that conditions are already “dire.” | |
“We expect a sharp increase in the number of casualties if the | |
occupation expands its military operation,” said Asem Alnabih. “We | |
are facing a total collapse of service, as the occupation continues to | |
prevent the entry of fuel and the machinery we need.” | |
A senior UN official warned this week that residents inside Gaza City | |
– who face physical exhaustion, hunger, malnourishment and fatigue | |
– are also under the constant shadow of bombing, weakening their | |
ability to make life or death decisions. | |
“These people are facing death. Yet, they are now facing the threat | |
of an invasion,” Sam Rose, the acting director of affairs for the | |
UN’s agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA) in Gaza told CNN. | |
“They’re being terrorized 24 hours a day.” | |
The Israeli military has announced plans to stop 10-hour “tactical | |
pauses” in hostilities, which began a month ago after severe aid | |
restrictions, siege and bombing wrought deadly starvation in the | |
enclave. | |
Further aid restrictions will likely only worsen Palestinians’ | |
plight. Nearly 700 days of war have brought to parts of Gaza, the | |
Integrated Food Security and Nutrition Phase Classification reported | |
last week. Israel has rejected the IPC’s findings and called on the | |
body to retract its report. | |
One young woman displaced with her family in Tal al-Hawa, western Gaza | |
City – including six siblings aged three to 18 – told CNN she has | |
lost 16 kilograms (35 pounds) since the hostilities began. | |
“The international community watches this genocide and famine, and | |
does nothing,” Raghad Ezzat Hamouda, a Palestinian student, said. | |
“We are human beings. Our children are dying of hunger in front of | |
the cameras,” added Hamouda. “Your silence is killing us. We need | |
action, not just words.” | |
In the past 24 hours, a further 10 people died of starvation and | |
malnutrition in Gaza bringing the total to at least 332 Palestinians | |
since October 7, 2023, the health ministry reported on Saturday. Of | |
those who died, 124 were children, the ministry added. | |
Israeli strikes in Gaza following the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, | |
attacks have killed 63,371 Palestinians and injured another 159,835 | |
people, according to the Ministry of Health in the enclave. | |
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