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Israel Orders Palestinians to Leave Gaza City, Saying Those Who Stay Will Be Considered Militants

Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 1, 2025. REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 1, 2025. REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
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Israel Orders Palestinians to Leave Gaza City, Saying Those Who Stay Will Be Considered Militants

Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 1, 2025. REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 1, 2025. REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa

Israel's defense minister on Wednesday ordered all remaining Palestinians to leave Gaza City, saying it was their “last opportunity” and that anyone who stayed would be considered a militant supporter and face the “full force” of Israel's latest offensive. 

At least 16 Palestinians were killed across the territory, according to local hospitals, as Hamas weighed a new proposal from US President Donald Trump aimed at ending the war and returning the remaining captives taken in Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, attack that triggered it. 

Around 400,000 Palestinians have fled famine-stricken Gaza City since Israel launched a major offensive last month aimed at occupying it, but hundreds of thousands remain, many because they cannot afford to leave or are too weak to make the journey to tent camps in the south. 

“This is the last opportunity for Gaza residents who wish to do so to move south and leave Hamas terrorists isolated in Gaza City,” Defense Minister Israel Katz wrote on X. “Those who remain in Gaza will be (considered) terrorists and terror supporters.” 

Strike hits school sheltering displaced people  

At least seven people, including first responders, were killed when two Israeli strikes minutes apart hit a school sheltering displaced people in Gaza City, according to Al-Ahli Hospital, where the casualties were taken. Officials there said more than three dozen people were wounded. 

Five Palestinians were killed later in a strike on people gathered around a drinking water tank elsewhere in Gaza City, the hospital said. Shifa Hospital said a man was killed in a strike on his apartment. Strikes in central Gaza killed another three people, according to Al-Awda Hospital. 

Another strike hit a tent in the courtyard of Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the central town of Deir al-Balah, seriously wounding two people, according to hospital officials. 

Earlier on Wednesday at the same hospital, dozens of people attended a funeral service for a Palestinian freelance journalist, Yahya Barzaq. He was killed Tuesday along with five other people in an airstrike while working for Turkish broadcast outlet TRT. 

More than 189 Palestinian journalists and media workers have been killed by Israeli fire in Gaza since the outbreak of the war, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. 

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military on Wednesday's strikes or the strike that killed Barzaq. Israel states it tries to avoid harming civilians and blames Hamas for their deaths, saying its fighters are embedded in populated areas. 

The military said sirens sounded in communities near Gaza on Wednesday afternoon, after “two projectiles” crossed into Israel. No injuries were reported. 

Israel’s campaign in Gaza has killed more than 66,000 Palestinians and wounded nearly 170,000 others, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. The ministry does not differentiate between civilians and fighters in its toll, but has said women and children make up around half of the dead. 

The ministry is part of the Hamas-run government. UN agencies and many independent experts view its figures as the most reliable estimate of wartime casualties. 

The Hamas-led attack on southern Israel nearly two years ago killed some 1,200 people and 251 others were abducted. Most of the hostages have been freed under previous ceasefire deals, but 48 are still held in Gaza and around 20 believed by Israel to be alive. 

Trump's peace proposal  

On Wednesday, Egypt’s Foreign Minister Bader Abdelatty said Trump’s proposal requires more negotiations on certain elements, echoing remarks made by Qatar a day earlier. Hamas said it would study the plan, and it was not clear when it would respond. 

The comments by Qatar and Egypt, two key mediators, appeared to reflect Arab countries’ discontent over the text of the 20-point plan that the White House put out after Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced they had agreed on it Monday. 

The plan, which has received wide international support, requires Hamas to release hostages, leave power in Gaza and disarm in return for the release of Palestinian prisoners and an end to fighting. The plan guarantees the flow of humanitarian aid and promises reconstruction in Gaza, placing it and its more than 2 million Palestinians under international governance. However, it sets no path to Palestinian statehood. 

The Palestinian Authority in the occupied West Bank, led by rivals of Hamas, has welcomed the plan, as have Egypt, Jordan, Indonesia, Pakistan, Türkiye, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and United Arab Emirates. 

More roadblocks and a flotilla headed to Gaza 

The Israeli military said that starting at midday Wednesday, it would only allow Palestinians to flee south from Gaza City and not to head north on the only north-south route still open. 

Around 90% of Gaza's population has been displaced in the war, often multiple times, and finding food is a daily struggle for many. On Wednesday, the International Committee of the Red Cross said intensifying warfare in Gaza City forced it to suspend its operations there and relocate staff to southern Gaza. 

Meanwhile, a widely watched flotilla of activists carrying a symbolic amount of humanitarian aid is sailing toward Gaza, in what organizers have described as the largest attempt to date to break Israel’s maritime blockade of the strip. 

The activists aboard the Global Sumud Flotilla of about 50 vessels say they expect Israeli authorities to intercept them, as has happened in past flotilla attempts to reach Gaza. On Wednesday, they said two of the vessels were harassed by Israeli warships overnight. 

The core vessels set sail from Barcelona, Spain, on Sept. 1, and the flotilla could reach Gaza shores by Thursday, organizers said. Israeli authorities warned the boats would not be allowed to reach Gaza. 

Thursday is Yom Kippur — the high Jewish holiday of the Day of Atonement — when stores, businesses, public transportation and broadcasting shut down in Israel, beginning around sundown on Wednesday. 

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Arab World

Smotrich Announces Plan to 'Judaize the Galilee and Negev'

Far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich reviews the 'E1' settlement map in the West Bank (Archival - AFP)
Far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich reviews the 'E1' settlement map in the West Bank (Archival - AFP)
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Smotrich Announces Plan to 'Judaize the Galilee and Negev'

Far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich reviews the 'E1' settlement map in the West Bank (Archival - AFP)
Far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich reviews the 'E1' settlement map in the West Bank (Archival - AFP)

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, head of the far-right Religious Zionism party, announced a broad plan to “Judaize” the Galilee and the Negev under the slogan “Yes. We Judaize!”

The plan targets the Arab presence in the north and south, the two regions with large Arab populations. It includes the establishment of dozens of Jewish communities and farms and the expansion of existing settlements.

It also calls for the cancellation of development plans for Arab communities, in what critics describe as an openly discriminatory policy targeting Israel’s Arab citizens.

Speaking at an election rally, Smotrich said that following what he described as initial results showing the success of his “Decisive Plan” for the West Bank, his party would demand, in the next government, control of the Planning Administration and the Israel Land Authority in order to impose sweeping changes on planning policy and land allocation.

Arab World

Three Israeli Vetoes Complicate Progress in Southern Lebanon

Members of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) in southern Lebanon (Reuters)
Members of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) in southern Lebanon (Reuters)
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Three Israeli Vetoes Complicate Progress in Southern Lebanon

Members of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) in southern Lebanon (Reuters)
Members of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) in southern Lebanon (Reuters)

Israel has raised three objections that are blocking progress toward a political or military resolution in southern Lebanon: it has rejected a proposed Italian force to carry out verification in a pilot zone, opposed expanding the model zones and obstructed plans for the post-UNIFIL phase.

Those plans include proposals for a European force to replace the UN mission when its mandate expires at the end of this year.

Arrangements for the next phase in southern Lebanon are becoming increasingly tangled.

Disputes persist over the security mechanism that would accompany any Israeli withdrawal, who would verify compliance and how far that party’s authority would extend, as Israeli operations in the south continue.

Against that backdrop, President Joseph Aoun met Lebanese Army Commander General Rodolphe Haykal to review security conditions across the country, particularly in the south, amid continued Israeli attacks on southern villages and towns.

Haykal briefed Aoun on his visit to Italy and talks with Italian officials.

The presidential statement gave no details of those discussions or whether they directly addressed proposals for future security arrangements.

Israel accused of obstruction

Nearly two months after the Framework Agreement was signed, there has been no move to establish additional pilot zones.

Israeli media have meanwhile reported objections to a proposal for an Italian force to help monitor areas from which Israeli troops are expected to withdraw and where the Lebanese army would assume responsibility.

Lebanese ministerial sources told Asharq Al-Awsat that Israel’s shifting positions and objections were among the main reasons no decision had been reached on who would take part in the next phase of security arrangements in southern Lebanon, what duties and powers that party would have, or the rules governing its work.

“The Israelis previously had no objection to Italian participation, but they are now objecting to an Italian force, after objections to the French had also emerged,” the sources said.

“So far, there is no final decision on who will participate, what tasks will be assigned to them, the limits of those tasks, or how they will be carried out.”

Israeli positions keep changing, the sources said.

“Sometimes they object to the French and sometimes to the Italians. At every stage, new conditions or positions emerge. That is why the final arrangements have yet to take shape.”

Contacts are continuing as Lebanon explores possible alternatives, but no final formula has been agreed upon, the sources said.

“Otherwise, the outlines of the next phase would already be clearer.”

The terms of the arrangements themselves are a major source of the deadlock, the sources added.

“Israel is making demands about the force’s powers and operating mechanisms, including issues involving searches of homes and the nature of its participation in field operations. These matters raise several concerns and are obstructing an agreement.”

The sources said those demands were accompanied by Israeli claims that the Lebanese army was not fulfilling the role expected of it.

“Taken together, these signs point to an Israeli tendency to obstruct.”

Washington is at the center of talks

Asked what options Lebanon had in the face of the deadlock, the sources said Beirut was consulting Washington because the United States also bore responsibility for the process.

“When the negotiating framework was established, the American role was central to it. The process is therefore not limited to Lebanon and Israel.”

The sources said there was practically no alternative to engaging with Washington.

“The Americans are the party capable of communicating with the Israeli side and influencing the process. Contacts with them are therefore continuing.”

Israel’s account of the pilot zones

Israeli leaks suggest the dispute goes beyond the identity of any international party involved in future arrangements. It also covers the scope of that party’s powers and duties, its relationship with the Lebanese army and the mechanisms for verifying implementation.

Israeli news website Walla reported that Israel had told the United States it was dissatisfied with the results of the pilot zones project and had criticized the Lebanese army’s performance in those areas.

An Israeli security official said the Lebanese army was not carrying out the required measures from Israel’s perspective, according to the website. The official linked that assessment to Tel Aviv’s current refusal to move to additional zones.

Those statements remain part of Israel’s account of how the understandings are being implemented. Lebanese sources, for their part, say contacts are continuing, with neither the arrangements nor a final formula settled.

Israeli veto of Italian force

A separate dispute centers on who could help monitor the implementation of the arrangements.

Israel’s Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper reported that Israel opposed deploying an Italian military force in southern Lebanon to monitor the pilot zones.

It cited Israeli officials as saying they feared any new international presence could restrict the Israeli military’s ability to operate in Lebanon.

The newspaper also quoted Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz as rejecting the proposal and voicing concern that it could replicate the UNIFIL model.

Arab World

Can Mazloum Abdi’s Appointment as President's Adviser Bolster Security in Northern Syria?

Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, right, meets with the commander of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, Mazloum Abdi, center left, at the presidential palace in Damascus, Syria, Tuesday, Aug. 25, 2026. (AP)
Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, right, meets with the commander of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, Mazloum Abdi, center left, at the presidential palace in Damascus, Syria, Tuesday, Aug. 25, 2026. (AP)
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Can Mazloum Abdi’s Appointment as President's Adviser Bolster Security in Northern Syria?

Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, right, meets with the commander of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, Mazloum Abdi, center left, at the presidential palace in Damascus, Syria, Tuesday, Aug. 25, 2026. (AP)
Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, right, meets with the commander of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, Mazloum Abdi, center left, at the presidential palace in Damascus, Syria, Tuesday, Aug. 25, 2026. (AP)

Syrian Kurdish political figures and a senior Arab official in Syria’s Hasakeh region welcomed the appointment of Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) commander Mazloum Abdi as an adviser to the Syrian president, saying the move could speed up the integration process of Kurdish forces and help stabilize northern and eastern Syria.

A Kurdish politician who served in the former Autonomous Administration said the appointment could help “consolidate stability and security in northern and eastern Syria and across the country.”

An independent Kurdish politician also backed the decision, but said its impact on stability would depend on Abdi’s ability to influence armed groups formerly under his command.

A senior Arab dignitary in Hasakeh hoped that “the integration process will proceed quickly to strengthen security, safety and stability in the region, because that will have a positive impact on Syria as a whole.”

Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa issued a decree on Thursday appointing Abdi as a presidential adviser. The move came three days after Abdi announced the SDF's dissolution following the “completion of its mission.”

The decision closes a significant chapter in the history of the Kurds, who fought ISIS with US support during Syria’s civil war.

“We view this appointment positively and consider it an important step that could open the way to a new phase of dialogue and understanding,” said Abdul Karim Omar, a Syrian Kurdish politician who served as the Autonomous Administration’s representative in Damascus.

Omar told Asharq Al-Awsat that “placing a figure such as Abdi, who has a presence and a role in northern and eastern Syria, in an advisory position at the presidency could help bring views closer together, build trust and open broader channels of communication on national issues.”

He added that “genuine understandings between the two sides could lay the groundwork for gradual, mutually agreed institutional integration that preserves the particular character of the Kurdish regions and the rights of all their communities, while strengthening Syria’s unity and sovereignty.”

If backed by political will and serious dialogue, such steps could “help consolidate stability and security in northern and eastern Syria and across the country, and open a new chapter based on national partnership,” he stressed.

Abdi’s appointment and the dissolution of the SDF came as implementation of the January 29 agreement signed by al-Sharaa and Abdi.

The agreement provides for the integration of the military, security, and civilian institutions of the Kurdish Autonomous Administration, which the Kurds established during the conflict, into Syrian state structures. It also calls for handing over border crossings and oil and gas fields and for foreign fighters to leave the region.

Abdelaziz Tammo, President of the Independent Syrian Kurds Association, said the appointment “was expected” and sent a message that “the SDF and the other Kurdish military groups affiliated with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) have come to an end and become part of the Syrian state, since their commander is now an adviser to the presidency.”

Tammo told Asharq Al-Awsat that the Syrian government “succeeded in resolving the issue of the SDF and the remaining PKK militias without bloodshed and gave them everything they requested.”

Mazloum Abdi (C), leader of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), arrives with Syria's interim Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani (R) before a televised speech at the People's Palace in Damascus on August 25, 2026. (AFP)

Through the January agreement, the Syrian government sought to reunify the country, strengthen security and stability in northern and eastern Syria, restore full state sovereignty and authority over its territory, unify the military and security sectors, integrate institutions, enforce the rule of law, and recover economic resources.

Tammo said security and stability in northern and eastern Syria would depend on Abdi’s influence over armed groups affiliated with the PKK that operated under the SDF umbrella, such as the People’s Protection Units (YPG) and Women’s Protection Units.

Following the dissolution of the SDF and Abdi’s appointment, Tammo said: “Anyone who does not comply with the decision is now outside the law, and the state can enforce the law against them.”

“There is no longer any reason for those militias to exist, particularly since PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan announced the dissolution of the party and all its affiliated formations,” he said.

“Since the parent party dissolved itself, the other formations linked to it should naturally dissolve themselves,” Tammo added.

Tammo said integrating the SDF into state institutions would not, by itself, have a major impact on the region because it also required social integration and a return to coexistence.

“The PKK and the SDF committed many violations against Kurds, Arabs and other citizens,” he noted. “To end this crisis, we need to activate the role of social capital, represented by community leaders and independent political figures, to heal wounds and address the consequences of those violations.”

He described the dissolution of the SDF as “a step in the right direction”, hoping it would be implemented on the ground.

In July, residents of Hasakeh mobilized for several days to demand that the state extend its control and authority across the province, allow displaced people to return to their cities and villages, and end the SDF’s dominance over the region and its abuses against residents.

Sheikh Mudar Hammad al-Asaad, director of the Association of Syria Refugees, said Abdi’s appointment “will open the way to accelerating the integration of the SDF and the Autonomous Administration into the Syrian state.”

Al-Asaad told Asharq Al-Awsat that he hoped integration would be implemented on the ground through the release of hundreds of detainees from SDF prisons, disclosure of the fate of missing people and the submission of lists identifying foreign fighters who fought alongside the SDF as a step toward removing them from Syria.

He also called for all government offices to be handed over to the state and for an end to military gatherings organized by some groups in the SDF’s name. Those groups continued to make arrests and operate checkpoints, provoking residents and stoking tensions.

“We hope the integration process will proceed quickly to strengthen security, safety and stability in Hasakeh, because that will have a positive impact on Syria as a whole,” al-Asaad said.

He stressed that Hasakeh “is the country’s breadbasket” and that restoring security and stability would allow the province’s infrastructure to be rehabilitated, agricultural and industrial projects to be established, and oil and gas projects to resume, benefiting all Syrians.

Restoring security and stability would also allow refugees and displaced people to return and halt the current wave of displacement, he said.