September 17, 2025
Dave DeCamp
Gaza’s Health Ministry said on
Wednesday that Israeli forces killed at least 98 Palestinians and wounded 385
over the previous 24-hour period as the IDF continues its assault aimed at
conquering Gaza City and launching attacks elsewhere in the Strip.
On top of the violent deaths, the Health Ministry said that it recorded another four starvation deaths amid the ongoing famine caused by the Israeli siege, bringing the total number of malnutrition deaths it has recorded to 432, including 146 children.
Medical sources told Al Jazeera that a total of 53 Palestinians were killed by Israeli attacks throughout the day on Wednesday in Gaza City. It’s unclear if the death toll includes the full scope of killing, as Israeli strikes on Wednesday cut off phone and internet services in parts of Gaza City.
According to the Palestinian news agency WAFA, one attack targeted a group of civilians as they were attempting to flee to the south, which the Israeli military has ordered them to do. The strike, which hit the civilians near the al-Shifa Hospital, killed at least 13 people.
The IDF’s goals for Gaza City involve the forced displacement of the entire civilian population, which was estimated to be more than 1 million people before the offensive began in early August. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have fled so far, although many are reluctant to leave for multiple reasons, including the fact that central and southern Gaza are still being bombed by the IDF.
According to The Associated Press, an Israeli strike on Wednesday hit a home in the central Nuseirat refugee camp, killing three, including a pregnant woman. A strike on a tent in the al-Mawasi tent camp in southern Gaza, where the IDF is telling the Palestinians in Gaza City to flee to, killed two parents and their child.
The Health Ministry said that its violent death toll since October 7, 2023, has reached 65,062, and the number of wounded has climbed to 165,697. Studies have found that the ministry’s numbers are likely a significant undercount.
Kyle Anzalone
Dave DeCamp
Palestinians
continue to flee Gaza City, where the IDF is conducting a major assault aimed
at conquering the city
On top of the violent deaths, the Health Ministry said that it recorded another four starvation deaths amid the ongoing famine caused by the Israeli siege, bringing the total number of malnutrition deaths it has recorded to 432, including 146 children.
Medical sources told Al Jazeera that a total of 53 Palestinians were killed by Israeli attacks throughout the day on Wednesday in Gaza City. It’s unclear if the death toll includes the full scope of killing, as Israeli strikes on Wednesday cut off phone and internet services in parts of Gaza City.
According to the Palestinian news agency WAFA, one attack targeted a group of civilians as they were attempting to flee to the south, which the Israeli military has ordered them to do. The strike, which hit the civilians near the al-Shifa Hospital, killed at least 13 people.
The IDF’s goals for Gaza City involve the forced displacement of the entire civilian population, which was estimated to be more than 1 million people before the offensive began in early August. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have fled so far, although many are reluctant to leave for multiple reasons, including the fact that central and southern Gaza are still being bombed by the IDF.
According to The Associated Press, an Israeli strike on Wednesday hit a home in the central Nuseirat refugee camp, killing three, including a pregnant woman. A strike on a tent in the al-Mawasi tent camp in southern Gaza, where the IDF is telling the Palestinians in Gaza City to flee to, killed two parents and their child.
The Health Ministry said that its violent death toll since October 7, 2023, has reached 65,062, and the number of wounded has climbed to 165,697. Studies have found that the ministry’s numbers are likely a significant undercount.
Wall News reported Wednesday that Major General Asor’s battle plans for Gaza City are broken into three stages that include destroying the infrastructure. “The first stage, dubbed the ‘fire phase,’ focuses on the massive destruction of terrorist infrastructure — mostly at night — using a variety of means, including above- and below-ground robots,” the outlet explains.
A military source told Walla that the scale of destruction is unprecedented. “The scale is unprecedented,” the source said. “Gaza has never been hit like this before.”
Israel has conducted a massive bombing campaign in Gaza using airstrikes, robots, and drones. Israel used Armoured Personnel Carriers (APC) as car bombs. Israel equips the APC with explosives and uses a remote system to drive the vehicle to its target. Tel Aviv has dubbed the weapon “suicide APCs.”
At least 100,000 Palestinians have fled the Israeli bombardment of Gaza City. Israel estimates that the number is higher, over 300,000. However, a significant civilian population remains in the city, as at least one million Palestinians were sheltering in the area before Israel launched the attack.
Some Palestinians are hesitant to leave Gaza City. Israel has ordered the Palestinians into the Mawasi tent city. The IDF has frequently bombed Mawasi and Palestinians attempting to flee the city.
It appears Israel is moving into phase two of its operations in Gaza City, which calls for a ground invasion. One source said that Israel will continue to bombard the city through phase two while IDF soldiers “slowly” advance.
An Israeli military source said that once the IDF captures Gaza City, it plans to continue the occupation indefinitely. Multiple Israeli ministers have called for the expulsion of Palestinians from the Strip and annexing the territory once the ethnic cleansing is complete.
Walla reported that phase three of the assault is still classified but will include “military capabilities that we have not yet seen in the Israeli war repertoire.”
An associate of Asor said he views this assault as “the battle of his life.”
The Israeli attack on Gaza City has killed hundreds of Palestinians this month. IDF strikes have targeted residential buildings, medical facilities, and other civilian infrastructure.
Smotrich
said that he was involved in negotiations with the US on how they will 'share
percentages' of the land in Gaza
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel
Smotrich on Wednesday described Gaza as a “real estate bonanza” and said that
the US and Israel are in talks about dividing the land, the Israeli news site
Ynet has reported.Smotrich referenced what he called a “business plan” that Ynet said was similar to a plan being circulated within the Trump administration. According to a recent report from The Washington Post, the plan involves removing the Palestinian population and placing Gaza under the control of a US-administered trusteeship for 10 years as it is turned into a tourist resort and advanced technology manufacturing hub. The plan is modeled on Trump’s calls for a US takeover of Gaza.
The Post report said the removal of Palestinians from Gaza could be “temporary,” but Smotrich, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and other Israeli officials have made clear that their vision for Gaza involves the ethnic cleansing, or permanent removal, of the Palestinian population.
“This plan was built by the most professional people there are,” Smotrich said on Wednesday, adding that it’s currently on President Trump’s desk. “We are checking how this becomes a real estate bonanza—I’m not joking—and pays for itself,” he said.
Smotrich said that he was personally involved in the negotiations with the US on dividing up the Palestinian territory. “I’ve begun negotiations with the Americans, and I’m saying this seriously, because we paid a lot of money for this war. We need to work out how we share percentages on the land. The demolition phase, the first stage of urban renewal, we’ve already done. Now we need to build,” he said.
Smotrich’s comments come as Israel is conducting a major offensive in Gaza City with the goal of forcibly displacing the entire civilian population to southern Gaza and razing every building in the city to the ground. Earlier this year, Smotrich said that Gaza’s civilian population will soon be “concentrated” in southern Gaza and forced to leave the territory.
“The Gazan citizens will be concentrated in the south. They will be totally despairing, understanding that there is no hope and nothing to look for in Gaza, and will be looking for relocation to begin a new life in other places,” Smotrich said in May.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has attempted to justify the Israeli bombing of Qatar by pointing to the country’s previous funding of Hamas, despite the fact that he facilitated and encouraged the payments.
“Qatar is connected to Hamas, it bolsters Hamas, it harbors Hamas, it funds Hamas… It has strong levers (that it could pull), but it chose not to,” Netanyahu said on Tuesday, according to AFP. “Therefore our action was entirely justified.”
In the wake of the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, Netanyahu came under harsh criticism by Israeli media for his previous policy of propping up Hamas, which was done to divide Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza to prevent a Palestinian state. The policy involved facilitating cash payments to Hamas from Qatar.
According to a 2019 report from the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, Qatar gave $1.1 billion to Hamas in Gaza from 2012 to 2018 with the approval of the Israeli government, which was led by Netanyahu at the time. The report said that approximately 44% of the funds provided by Qatar during this period were invested in infrastructure, about 40% was allocated to education and healthcare, and the remainder was used to support Hamas and other groups in Gaza.
In 2020, Avigdor Liberman, an Israeli opposition leader, said that then-Mossad chief Yossi Cohen traveled to Qatar and “begged” for the country to continue providing funds to Hamas. “On Wednesday two weeks ago the head of Mossad… and the head of [IDF] Southern Command visit Qatar on an errand from Netanyahu, and they simply beg the Qataris to keep sending money to Hamas after March 30. The Qataris have said they will stop sending money on March 30,” Liberman said.
“Both Egypt and Qatar are angry with Hamas and planned to cut ties with them. Suddenly Netanyahu appears as the defender of Hamas, as though it was an environmental organization. This is a policy of submission to terror,” Liberman added.
Netanyahu has also cited the fact that Qatar hosts a Hamas office to justify the bombing of Doha. But, according to Qatari officials, the Hamas office opened in Qatar in 2012 at the request of the US, which sought a diplomatic line to the Palestinian group.
A new
bill would allow unlimited US weapons transfers to Israel with little oversight
The House is poised to expand the
use of a secretive mechanism for funneling weapons to Israel.Hidden deep in a must-pass State Department funding bill is a provision that would allow for unlimited transfers of U.S. weapons to a special Israel-based stockpile in the next fiscal year, strengthening a pathway for giving American weapons to Israel with reduced public scrutiny. The House Foreign Affairs Committee is set to discuss the bill Wednesday morning.
The stockpile — known as War Reserve Stock for Allies-Israel, or WRSA-I — is “the least transparent mechanism of providing arms to Israel,” former State Department official Josh Paul told Responsible Statecraft. Since Oct. 7, Israel has quietly purchased huge numbers of American weapons from WRSA-I, facilitating a wave of airstrikes that many analysts consider the most intense bombing campaign of the 21st century.
The transfer process is simple. When Israel asks for weapons from WRSA-I, the secretary of defense can approve the request without having to go through typical steps like notifying Congress or even the White House in advance. Then “Israel can just drive in, pull whatever it requires, and drive out,” said Paul, who now runs a lobbying firm called A New Policy, adding that payments for the weapons are “worked out or provided in the future.”
The legislation, crafted by committee Chairman Brian Mast (R-Fla.), would build on a 2024 law that temporarily waived restrictions on the value and type of U.S. weapons transferred to WRSA-I each year. (U.S. law previously limited such transfers to $200 million annually.) That law also gave the secretary of defense the authority to assess the value of arms transfers rather than relying on the fair market value of the article.
Even before these changes, the U.S. had already started taking advantage of WRSA-I to quietly fuel Israel’s war in Gaza. In the early days of the conflict, Biden administration officials appeared to dodge transparency rules by cutting up larger transfers from WRSA-I into smaller weapons packages that fell under the $25 million threshold for notifying Congress of the sale. This helps to explain how Israel has managed to prosecute the war in Gaza despite receiving few publicly acknowledged weapons sales from the U.S.
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