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Israeli Defense Minister Warns of Gaza City’s Destruction Unless Hamas Yields to His Country’s Terms

Smoke rises following an Israeli strike, in Gaza City, August 22, 2025. (Reuters)
Smoke rises following an Israeli strike, in Gaza City, August 22, 2025. (Reuters)
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Israeli Defense Minister Warns of Gaza City’s Destruction Unless Hamas Yields to His Country’s Terms

Smoke rises following an Israeli strike, in Gaza City, August 22, 2025. (Reuters)
Smoke rises following an Israeli strike, in Gaza City, August 22, 2025. (Reuters)

Israel’s defense minister warned Friday that Gaza’s largest city could be destroyed unless Hamas yields to his country's terms, as the world’s leading authority on food crises declared that the city is gripped by famine from fighting and an Israeli blockade. 

A day after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he would authorize the military to mount a major operation to seize Gaza City, Defense Minister Israel Katz warned that it could “turn into Rafah and Beit Hanoun,” areas largely reduced to rubble earlier in the war. 

“The gates of hell will soon open on the heads of Hamas’ murderers and rapists in Gaza — until they agree to Israel’s conditions for ending the war,” Katz wrote in a post on X. 

He restated Israel’s ceasefire demands: the release of all hostages and Hamas’ complete disarmament. 

Hamas issued a statement that called Katz's comments “a confession of committing a crime that amounts to ethnic cleansing.” The group has said it would release captives in exchange for ending the war, but it rejects disarmament without the creation of a Palestinian state. 

Netanyahu on Thursday said he had instructed officials “to begin immediate negotiations” to release hostages and end the war on Israel's terms. It was not immediately clear if that meant Israel would return to long-running talks mediated by Egypt and Qatar after Hamas said earlier this week that it accepted a new proposal from the mediators. 

Gaza City offensive could begin within days  

With ground troops already active in strategic areas, the wide-scale operation in Gaza City could start within days. 

Israel says Gaza City is still a Hamas stronghold, with a network of tunnels, after several previous large-scale raids. The city is also home to hundreds of thousands of civilians, some of whom have fled from other areas, and it contains some of the territory's critical infrastructure and health facilities. 

Israel could also accept the latest ceasefire proposal, which would forestall the offensive. The proposal calls for a phased deal involving hostage and prisoner exchanges and a pullback of Israeli troops, while talks continue on a longer-term ceasefire. Israeli leaders have resisted such terms since abandoning a similar agreement earlier this year under pressure from Netanyahu's far-right coalition allies. 

Many Israelis fear an assault could doom the roughly 20 hostages who have survived captivity since Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack. Aid groups and international leaders warn that renewed fighting would worsen Gaza’s humanitarian crisis. 

The logistics of evacuating civilians are expected to be daunting. Many residents say repeated displacement is pointless since nowhere in Gaza is safe, while medical groups warn that Israel’s call to move patients south is unworkable, with no facilities to receive them. 

Netanyahu has argued that the offensive is the surest way to free captives and crush Hamas. 

“These two things — defeating Hamas and releasing all our hostages — go hand in hand,” Netanyahu said Thursday while touring a command center in southern Israel. 

Since 251 people were taken hostage more than 22 months ago, ceasefire agreements and other deals have accounted for the vast majority of the 148 who were released, including the bodies of eight dead hostages. 

Israel has managed to rescue only eight hostages alive and to retrieve the bodies of 49 others. Fifty hostages remain in Gaza, about 20 of whom Israel believes to be alive. 

Report declares famine in Gaza City 

The world’s leading authority on food crises declared Friday that Gaza City is gripped by famine that is likely to spread if fighting and restrictions on humanitarian aid continue. 

A report by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification says nearly half a million people in Gaza, about one-fourth of the population, face catastrophic hunger that leaves many at risk of dying. It’s the first famine confirmed by the IPC in the Middle East. 

Netanyahu’s office denounced the IPC report as “an outright lie.” 

Israel says it has allowed enough aid to enter during the war, and it eased its blockade in recent weeks after images of emaciated children sparked international outrage. But UN agencies say it’s not nearly enough, especially after Israel imposed a complete ban on food imports from early March to mid-May. 

Airstrike hits area ahead of broader offensive  

Gaza City’s Shifa Hospital said at least 17 Palestinians were killed Friday as Israel escalated its activity in the area in the lead-up to its broader planned offensive. 

An Israeli airstrike hit a school in Sheikh Radwan, a Gaza City neighborhood where tens of Palestinians shelter in makeshift tents in the schoolyard. The attack killed at least seven people, according to an eyewitness and hospital records. 

The Israeli military said it wasn't aware of a strike in the area but in a statement said troops were operating on the outskirts of Gaza City and in the Zeitoun neighborhood. 

The strike is part of Israel’s ongoing push in Gaza City, where witnesses have reported intense bombardment in the days since Israel approved its plans to take the city. 

Amal Aboul Aas, who is now sheltering in Gaza City after being displaced four times, said the explosions were so intense she couldn’t sleep, yet she couldn’t leave either. 

“We do not have the money, the resources or the energy to evacuate again. I just wish for a quick death right where I am here because I am not going anywhere. Eventually one of these missiles will hit me,” she told The Associated Press. 

The Gaza Health Ministry said Friday that at least 62,263 Palestinians have been killed in the war. Two more people have died from malnutrition-related causes, bringing the total number of such deaths to 273, including 112 children, the ministry said. 

The ministry is part of the Hamas-run government and staffed by medical professionals. It does not say whether those killed by Israeli fire are civilians or combatants, but it says around half were women and children. The UN and many independent experts consider its figures to be the most reliable estimate of wartime casualties. Israel disputes its toll but has not provided its own. 

Hamas-led fighters started the war when they attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking hostages. 

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Arab World

Lebanon: Hezbollah Boycotts Cabinet Session over Iran Ambassador Expulsion

A previous session of the Lebanese Parliament (National News Agency)
A previous session of the Lebanese Parliament (National News Agency)
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Lebanon: Hezbollah Boycotts Cabinet Session over Iran Ambassador Expulsion

A previous session of the Lebanese Parliament (National News Agency)
A previous session of the Lebanese Parliament (National News Agency)

Ministers from Hezbollah and its ally Amal boycotted Lebanon's cabinet session on Thursday in protest over the government declaring the Iranian ambassador persona non grata, a Lebanese official told AFP.

The two Shiite parties have a combined four ministers, with one independent Shiite also represented in the cabinet present at the meeting, the official said, as the spat over the Iranian diplomat's expulsion escalated.

Hezbollah is an armed movement backed by Iran, which also has political representation in both government and parliament.

Arab World

Lebanese Fear Another Occupation as Israel Threatens to Use Gaza Tactics in the South

Israeli military vehicles maneuver on the Lebanese side of the border, as seen from the Upper Galilee in northern Israel, 25 March 2026. EPA/ATEF SAFADI
Israeli military vehicles maneuver on the Lebanese side of the border, as seen from the Upper Galilee in northern Israel, 25 March 2026. EPA/ATEF SAFADI
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Lebanese Fear Another Occupation as Israel Threatens to Use Gaza Tactics in the South

Israeli military vehicles maneuver on the Lebanese side of the border, as seen from the Upper Galilee in northern Israel, 25 March 2026. EPA/ATEF SAFADI
Israeli military vehicles maneuver on the Lebanese side of the border, as seen from the Upper Galilee in northern Israel, 25 March 2026. EPA/ATEF SAFADI

As Israel trades fire with Hezbollah, calls for mass evacuations and sends ground troops deeper into Lebanon, its leaders have hinted at a long-term occupation modeled on the devastating conquest of much of Gaza after Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, attack.

Israel says it needs to establish a zone of control in the depopulated south to shield its own northern communities, which have faced daily rocket attacks since the Iran-backed militant Hezbollah group joined the wider war. Many in Lebanon fear that could mean the open-ended displacement of over a million people, the flattening of their homes and a loss of territory.

Israel's Defense Minister Israel Katz said this week that it would create a “security zone” up to the Litani River, some 30 kilometers (20 miles) from the border in some places. He said troops would destroy homes, which he claimed were being used by militants, and that residents would not return until northern Israel is safe.

The campaign would mirror the one in Gaza, in which Israeli forces flattened and largely depopulated the eastern half of the Palestinian territory, Katz said on Tuesday. Israel has said it won't withdraw from the enclave until Hamas disarms as part of a US-brokered ceasefire deal.

“We have ordered an acceleration in the destruction of Lebanese homes in contact-line villages to neutralize threats to Israeli communities, in accordance with the model of Beit Hanoun and Rafah in Gaza,” Katz said, referring to border towns that were largely obliterated.

From one war to the next

After a 2024 ceasefire halted Israel's last war with Hezbollah, Israeli forces gradually withdrew from southern Lebanon except for five strategic hilltops along the border.

Lebanese returned to find that homes, infrastructure, and some entire villages destroyed. Israel said it had dismantled Hezbollah infrastructure that could have been used to launch an Oct. 7-style attack, and it continued to strike what it said were militant targets on a near-daily basis after the truce.

Hezbollah resumed it attacks after Israel and the United States launched the war with Iran on Feb. 28, accusing Israel of having repeatedly violated the ceasefire. Israel accused Lebanon's government of failing to carry out its pledge to disarm Hezbollah, despite its unprecedented steps toward criminalizing the group.

In the latest fighting, Israel has launched blistering air raids across Lebanon, killing more than 1,000 people — mostly outside of the border area — and displacing over a million. It has warned residents to evacuate a wide swath of the south, extending from the border to the Zahrani River, some 55 kilometers (34 miles) away.

The Israeli military says it has launched a limited ground operation. Political leaders speak of more ambitious plans.

Bezalel Smotrich, Israel's far-right finance minister and a member of its Security Cabinet, said this week that the current war must end with “fundamental change.”

“The Litani must be our new border with the state of Lebanon,” he said.

Echoes of an earlier occupation Israel invaded southern Lebanon in 1982 during the country's civil war. Hezbollah, established that year, waged a guerrilla campaign that eventually ended the Israeli occupation in 2000.

This time around, Israel has bombed seven bridges over the Litani, the northern edge of a UN-patrolled buffer zone established after previous conflicts. Israel says Hezbollah was using the bridges to move fighters and weapons, and that its military will control the remaining crossings.

Heavy fighting has meanwhile erupted in the town of Khiam, the fall of which would cut off the south from Lebanon's eastern Bekaa Valley, another area with a large Hezbollah presence.

After the bridges were bombed, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun accused Israel of seeking to sever the south from the rest of the country “to establish a buffer zone, entrench the reality of occupation, and pursue Israeli expansion within Lebanese territories.”

UN peacekeepers say the bombing of the bridges and ongoing clashes have hindered their operations and put personnel at risk.

“This is the closest fighting activity we have seen to our positions,” said Kandice Ardel, spokesperson for the UN mission known as UNIFIL. “Bullets, fragments, and shrapnel have hit buildings and open areas inside our headquarters.”

Ardel said peacekeepers at observation points have seen a growing presence of Israeli troops and “engineering assets,” though they have not seen any new military positions built yet.

‘Different shades’ of control

Mohanad Hage Ali, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Middle East think tank in Beirut, said Israel has already established “different shades” of control.

“The first line of borders is a no-man zone. This is basically a large parking lot that is facing Israel,” he said. “There is nothing there, no movement, nothing at all.”

Lebanese movement is restricted farther north. During last year's olive harvest, farmers struggled to reach their groves because of regular Israeli strikes and had to be accompanied by Lebanese troops and UNIFIL peacekeepers, who coordinated with Israel.

Sarit Zehavi, the founder and president of the Alma Institute and a retired Israeli military officer, said Israel will likely establish a more extensive area of control stretching farther north.

She acknowledged that Israel was unlikely to defeat Hezbollah and was at risk of having to maintain a long-term presence in southern Lebanon.

“But the other alternative is to take the risk that we will be slaughtered. It’s as simple as that,” she said.

No diplomatic offramp in sight

Lebanon's government has broken a longstanding taboo by proposing direct talks with Israel. It has also taken action against Hezbollah since the last war, criminalizing its activities and claiming to have dismantled hundreds of military positions.

But neither the US nor Israel has shown any interest in such talks as they focus on the wider war with Iran.

If negotiations occur, Israel could demand major concessions in exchange for relinquishing territory taken by force — an updated version of the decades-old “land for peace” formula.

Israel seized parts of Syria after the overthrow of Syrian President Bashar Assad and is in talks with the new government in Damascus about an updated security arrangement. In Gaza, it has vowed to keep half the territory until the militant Palestinian Hamas group lays down its arms, as each side has accused the other of violating the truce reached in October.

Lebanese who fled their homes are meanwhile in limbo — and some fear they may never return.

Elias Konsol and his neighbors fled the Christian border village of Alma al-Shaab with UNIFIL's help. He was reunited with his mother, who cried in his arms, at a church near Beirut where funeral services were being held for a resident killed in an Israeli strike.

Konsol said there were no weapons or Hezbollah fighters in his village, but it was forced to evacuate anyway.

“We no longer know our fate,” he said. “We don’t know if we will see our homes and village again.”

Arab World

Lebanon: Hezbollah Claims Targeting 10 Israeli Merkava Tanks

Israeli tanks near the Israeli side of the border with Lebanon, amid escalating hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, as the US-Israeli conflict with Iran continues, in northern Israel, March 25, 2026. REUTERS/Tyrone Siu
Israeli tanks near the Israeli side of the border with Lebanon, amid escalating hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, as the US-Israeli conflict with Iran continues, in northern Israel, March 25, 2026. REUTERS/Tyrone Siu
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Lebanon: Hezbollah Claims Targeting 10 Israeli Merkava Tanks

Israeli tanks near the Israeli side of the border with Lebanon, amid escalating hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, as the US-Israeli conflict with Iran continues, in northern Israel, March 25, 2026. REUTERS/Tyrone Siu
Israeli tanks near the Israeli side of the border with Lebanon, amid escalating hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, as the US-Israeli conflict with Iran continues, in northern Israel, March 25, 2026. REUTERS/Tyrone Siu

Lebanon's Iran-aligned Hezbollah group said Thursday that it struck10 Israeli Merkava tanks in three southern towns along the border.

In a series of separate statements, Hezbollah said that its members targeted the advanced Israeli tanks with guided missiles in the towns of Deir Siryan, Debel, and Al-Qantara, and achieved confirmed hits.

Earlier, Hezbollah said it targeted the headquarters of the Israeli Ministry of War in the center of Tel Aviv, and the Dolphin barracks of the Military Intelligence Division north of Tel Aviv with a number of missiles.

The Israeli military said an Israeli soldier was killed in fighting in south Lebanon after the army announced it was conducting ground operations against Hezbollah.

"Staff sergeant Ori Greenberg, aged 21, from Petah Tikva, a soldier of the Reconnaissance unit, Golani Brigade, fell during combat in southern Lebanon," the military said.

In total, three Israeli soldiers have been killed in fighting in south Lebanon since Hezbollah drew the country into the Israel and US war on Iran by launching rocket attacks against Israel on March 2 to avenge the killing of Iran's supreme leader Ali Khamenei.

Israel is responding by launching large-scale raids on Lebanon, while its forces have advanced into southern Lebanon.

After the Lebanese Presidency repeatedly announced its readiness to open direct negotiations with Israel in order to end the war, Hezbollah announced its refusal to negotiate "under fire."

Its Secretary-General, Naim Qassem, said Wednesday in a statement: "When negotiating with the Israeli enemy under fire is proposed, it is an imposition of surrender and a deprivation of all of Lebanon's capabilities."

He called on the government to "reverse its decision to criminalize resistance and the resistance fighters," after announcing a ban on the party's security and military activities, as part of a series of unprecedented measures it has taken since the outbreak of the war.