Israel is turning Gaza City into a ‘mass graveyard’, Palestinian foreign ministry says
In another update to X, the Palestinian foreign ministry wrote that the “failure” of international diplomacy to end the war is “suspicious and unjustified” and said Israel’s plans to occupy Gaza City involves the “deliberate targeting of civilians” and is turning the territory’s largest city into “a mass graveyard”.
The post reads:
The ministry views with utmost gravity the boasting of the occupation government’s officials about initiating the invasion of Gaza City, endangering the lives of hundreds of thousands of Palestinian civilians with death and displacement.
It considers this a deliberate targeting of civilians, turning Gaza City into a mass graveyard and an uninhabitable land, as is the case with the broader area of the sector, and pushing nearly a million Palestinians into displacement and movement within a tight circle of death.
The ministry demands exceptional international intervention to stop this major crime and to maximize political and diplomatic solutions that ensure an immediate cessation of the war and aggression, the protection of civilians, the prevention of their displacement from the sector, the immediate release of hostages and prisoners, and the sustainable delivery of aid in line with the implementation of the New York Declaration.
Smoke rises after an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City. Photograph: Mohammed Saber/EPAShare
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UN rights chief says ‘evidence mounting’ of Israel committing genocide in Gaza
The UN human rights chief Volker Türk has been reacting to Israel’s ground offensive in Gaza City, which has already been devasted by famine and relentless bombardments.
Türk says it is “absolutely clear that this carnage must stop” as he condemned the expanded assault as “totally and utterly unacceptable”.
“We see the piling up of war crime after war crime after war crime, of crime against humanity, and potentially even more,” Volker Turk told AFP and Reuters, adding: “It’s for the court to decide whether it’s genocide or not, and we see the evidence mounting.”
Türk has been under pressure from employees at the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), the agency he leads, to go further and declare Israel’s war on Gaza a genocide.
Critics say his failure to do so undermines the credibility of the UN and the human rights system itself.
Volker Türk delivers a statement at the United Nations Offices in Geneva on 16 September 2025. Photograph: Fabrice Coffrini/AFP/Getty ImagesShare
The Guardian’s political correspondent Eleni Courea has done an explainer with a section looking at what recognising Palestine would look like. Here is an extract:
Recognition is a symbolic step but one that would infuriate the Israeli government, which argues that it would encourage Hamas and reward terrorism.
It is in effect a formal, political acknowledgment of Palestinian self-determination – without the need to engage in thorny practicalities such as the location of its borders or capital city.
It also allows the establishment of full diplomatic relations that would result in a Palestinian ambassador (rather than a head of mission) being stationed in London and a British ambassador in Palestine. Advocates say it is a way of kickstarting a political process towards an eventual two-state solution.
Out of the 193 UN member states, nearly 150 already recognise Palestine as a state. These include China, India and Russia, as well as a majority of European countries such as Cyprus, Ireland, Norway, Spain and Sweden.
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Luxembourg to recognise Palestinian state – reports
Luxembourg said it will join a number of countries in recognising the state of Palestine at a UN summit in New York next week, adding to international pressure on Israel after similar moves by Australia, Britain, Canada and France.
“A movement is now emerging in Europe and around the world to demonstrate that the two-state solution is still relevant,” the country’s prime minister, Luc Frieden, was quoted by Al Jazeera as having told reporters.
“That is why the Luxembourg government intends to join those who recognise the State of Palestine at next week’s conference on the two-state solution.”
The Israeli government says that recognition rewards Hamas’ terrorism. The State of Palestine is currently recognised by 147 of the UN’s 193 member states.
Israel has become increasingly isolated on the international stage as it faces credible accusations of genocide, ethnic cleansing, war crimes and the collective punishment of the civilian population of Gaza.
The UN special rapporteur for the occupied territories, Francesca Albanese, told the Guardian last month that the renewed push for Palestinian statehood, although welcomed, should not “distract the attention from where it should be: the genocide”.
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Updated at 13.22 CEST
Israel is turning Gaza City into a ‘mass graveyard’, Palestinian foreign ministry says
In another update to X, the Palestinian foreign ministry wrote that the “failure” of international diplomacy to end the war is “suspicious and unjustified” and said Israel’s plans to occupy Gaza City involves the “deliberate targeting of civilians” and is turning the territory’s largest city into “a mass graveyard”.
The post reads:
The ministry views with utmost gravity the boasting of the occupation government’s officials about initiating the invasion of Gaza City, endangering the lives of hundreds of thousands of Palestinian civilians with death and displacement.
It considers this a deliberate targeting of civilians, turning Gaza City into a mass graveyard and an uninhabitable land, as is the case with the broader area of the sector, and pushing nearly a million Palestinians into displacement and movement within a tight circle of death.
The ministry demands exceptional international intervention to stop this major crime and to maximize political and diplomatic solutions that ensure an immediate cessation of the war and aggression, the protection of civilians, the prevention of their displacement from the sector, the immediate release of hostages and prisoners, and the sustainable delivery of aid in line with the implementation of the New York Declaration.
Smoke rises after an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City. Photograph: Mohammed Saber/EPAShare
The Palestinian foreign ministry has just demanded “urgent international intervention” after Israel’s installation of “additional iron gates” at the “remaining entrances” to Palestinian towns, villages and camps in the occupied West Bank.
In an update on X, the foreign ministry, part of the Palestinian Authority, which is based in the occupied West Bank, wrote:
The latest of these was the installation of an iron gate at the entrance to the towns of Al-Eizariya and Ar-Ram, among others, bringing the number of gates that sever the West Bank to nearly a thousand.
These gates violate the unity of the occupied Palestinian territories and the geographical integrity of the State of Palestine, blatantly infringing on the rights of Palestinian citizens to freedom of movement, access to their livelihoods, healthcare and educational facilities, fulfillment of their needs, and visits to their relatives.
The ministry considers the occupation’s checkpoints, iron gates, and military towers as an extension of settlement activity and outposts, falling within the framework of dividing the occupied West Bank into fragmented, disconnected parts and turning Palestinian communities into veritable closed prisons, where entry or exit is prohibited without permission from the occupation.
The ministry warns the international community and all countries of the repercussions of installing these gates, viewing them as a prelude to imposing further colonial and settlement control over the West Bank. They are part of the crime of gradual, both overt and covert, annexation of the West Bank, in flagrant violation of international law.
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Updated at 12.58 CEST
In an update on X, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) wrote:
IDF troops have begun expanding ground operations in Gaza City as part of Operation Gideon’s Chariots II In the past day, IDF activity in Gaza City has began according to the operational plan, and is expected to expand in line with the current situational assessment.
Its aim is to achieve the war’s objectives in Gaza and to enhance the achievements made during combat.
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Some Israeli military commanders have expressed concern about the expanded assault on Gaza City, warning that it could endanger the remaining hostages held by Hamas, and may be a “death trap” for troops.
Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir, at a meeting Benjamin Netanyahu convened on Sunday evening with security chiefs, urged the prime minister to pursue a ceasefire deal, three Israeli officials told AFP.
About 1,200 people were killed and 251 hostages took in the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel in October 2023. Israeli authorities say 20 of the remaining 48 hostages in Gaza are alive.
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Updated at 12.33 CEST
In response to the genocide conclusion, Amnesty International UK’s crisis response manager, Kristyan Benedict, has also urged the British government to take much stronger action against Israel.
Benedict said:
We welcome the UN commission’s findings that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza – a significant and necessary moment. Now the UK government must change its position and take action without delay.
Its continued reluctance to officially acknowledge even the risk of the ongoing genocide in Gaza is increasingly untenable and stands in stark contrast to overwhelming legal evidence and the mounting consensus among international genocide scholars and human rights organisations.
Amnesty International UK is calling for the UK government to immediately take the following actions to help stop what is increasingly being recognised as a genocide being committed by Israel against Palestinian people in Gaza:
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End all UK arms exports to Israel
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Support the international criminal court and enforce its arrest warrants
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Implement international court of justice rulings in full
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Ban all trade with Israeli settlements
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Adopt targeted sanctions against those Israeli officials most implicated in international crimes
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Demand an end to Israel’s occupation in Palestinian territories
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UK will remain complicit in genocide in Gaza unless it halts all arms exports to Israel, charity warns British PM
We have some reaction to the United Nations commission of inquiry saying earlier today that Israel has been committing genocide against Palestinian people in Gaza (you can read more details contained within the report here).
Hannah Bond, co-CEO of ActionAid UK, said:
Today’s damning verdict by the UN commission of inquiry is unequivocal: Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. Our message to the prime minister is just as clear: unless you halt all arms exports to the Israeli government immediately, the UK remains complicit.
Our government has dithered for long enough. If this won’t spur it into action, what will? For the sake of Palestinians in Gaza and our collective humanity, we cannot let today’s finding fall on deaf ears, and as the Israeli army ramps up its operation to raze Gaza City to the ground, there is no more time to waste.
The UK must take decisive action now to bring about an immediate and permanent ceasefire, and it must ensure that there is full accountability for all war crimes, crimes against humanity and atrocities that have taken place throughout this long and devastating war.
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Updated at 12.34 CEST
Jason Burke
Jason Burke is our international security correspondent
UN officials have told the Guardian that they have recorded 142,387 people crossing from the north of Gaza to the south between 14 August and 14 September, with about half coming in the last four days of that period.
This contrasts with Israeli officials who yesterday told reporters that about 320,000 people had moved from northern Gaza to areas designated by the Israeli military in the centre and the south of Gaza.
Rosalie Bollen, from Unicef, said more than 800,000 people remained in Gaza City including 450,000 children.
Some – the elderly, very sick, very young, injured or handicapped – simply cannot move while many are reluctant to move to areas that they believe are unsafe, overcrowded and have little in the way of any services.
Unicef’s staff in Gaza City described a “very difficult night” with an “ever increasing pace of bombardment” but said Israeli tanks remained on the outskirts and had not advanced yet.
Palestinians leave the Rimal neighbourhood of Gaza City on Monday. Photograph: Anadolu/Getty ImagesShare
Updated at 12.05 CEST
My colleague William Christou explains in this analysis piece why the Israeli attack in Doha has shattered Qatar’s faith in US protection from such action. Here is an extract:
Qatar has been useful. It has facilitated peace talks between Israel and Hamas, did the same with the Taliban and the US during the war in Afghanistan, and hosts the Al Udeid air base, the largest American military base in the Middle East.
For decades the arrangement has held. The US supplied arms, parked its aircraft carrier in the Gulf and provided political cover internationally. The support has helped spare Gulf nations from the unrest that has consumed much of the Middle East, despite the rivalry with Iran.
That changed when the US failed to stop the strike on Qatar this week, despite Israel being one of its closest allies. Donald Trump said he tried to give warning, but Qatar said it was only notified after the strike.
Doha strongly condemned the strike, with al-Thani calling it “state terror” in an interview with CNN.
People attend a funeral held for those killed by the Israeli attack in Doha. Photograph: Qatar TV/ReutersShare
Updated at 12.37 CEST
Rubio arrives in Qatar to try to limit the damage to US relations in the Gulf caused by Israeli strike on Doha
The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, is visiting Qatar today to lobby the Gulf state to continue its mediation between Israel and Hamas after the Israeli attack on Doha targeting the Hamas leadership last week seriously strained relations between the US and Qatar.
Hamas said six people were killed in the attack but that its leaders survived. Despite pressure to rebuke Israel, Rubio offered the US’s unwavering support to Benjamin Netanyahu when he met the Israeli prime minister in Jerusalem yesterday.
He told reporters as he left Israel: “We think we have a very short window of time in which a deal can happen. We don’t have months anymore, and we probably have days and maybe a few weeks to go.”
Rubio said a diplomatic solution in which Hamas demilitarises remained the US preference, although he added: “Sometimes when you’re dealing with a group of savages like Hamas, that’s not possible, but we hope it can happen.”
Now visiting Doha just as Israel launched its ground offensive into Gaza City, Rubio was pessimistic about a ceasefire deal but said Qatar was in a unique position to help.
Marco Rubio meets Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani in Doha. Photograph: Nathan Howard/ReutersShare
Updated at 11.32 CEST
Here are some of the latest images being sent to us over the newswires from Gaza City:
Aftermath of an overnight Israeli airstrike on a house in Gaza City. Photograph: Ebrahim Hajjaj/ReutersSmoke rises after an Israeli airstrike on the outskirts of Gaza City, as seen from an undisclosed location on the Israeli side of the border. Photograph: Atef Safadi/EPAIsrael carried out a wave of heavy airstrikes overnight across Gaza City, causing widespread destruction. Photograph: Ebrahim Hajjaj/ReutersShare
Israel military official says troops have advanced towards the centre of Gaza City
Julian Borger
The military spokesperson pointed out that the IDF has been on the outskirts of Gaza City for several weeks, but the overnight operations involved a significant advance towards the centre.
“Last night we began deepening our operations deeper into Gaza City. It’s a gradual thing. It is not a black or white thing. But yesterday was a big step forward in deployment and also in operations on the ground,” the spokesperson said.
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