GAZA CITY, Palestine: Palestinians reported the heaviest bombardments in weeks on Monday in areas east of Gaza City, hours after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he expected to complete a newly expanded offensive in the Palestinian territory “fairly quickly”.
An air strike at the Al Shifa Hospital compound killed six journalists, including Al Jazeera correspondent Anas Al Sharif, according to Gaza’s health authorities.
Witnesses, cited by Reuters, said Israeli tanks and aircraft pounded the eastern suburbs of Sabra, Zeitoun and Shejaia, forcing families to flee westwards.
Hamas said Gaza City is now sheltering about one million people displaced from northern Gaza.
The Israeli military said its forces had fired artillery at Hamas positions in the area and said they dismantled a rocket launch site east of the city on Sunday.
Netanyahu announced on Sunday that he had ordered the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) to accelerate plans for the new operation, focusing on Gaza City, which he described as Hamas’s “capital of terrorism”.
The Israeli Prime Minister also indicated that parts of central Gaza may be targeted next.
International reaction
The planned Israeli escalation has drawn worldwide criticism.
Germany on Friday announced it would halt exports of military equipment to Israel that could be used in Gaza.
Britain and other European allies urged Israel to reconsider the plan to takeover Gaza.
French President Emmanuel Macron warned the plan was a “disaster waiting to happen” and proposed an international coalition under a United Nations mandate to stabilise Gaza.
Italy’s Defence Minister Guido Crosetto said Israel had “lost its reason and humanity” over Gaza and suggested possible sanctions, telling La Stampa that the situation was “not a military operation with collateral damage, but the pure denial of the law”.
Killing of journalists
The UN human rights office condemned the killing of the six journalists as a “grave breach of international humanitarian law” and called on Israel to protect civilians, including members of the press.
#Gaza: We condemn the killing by Israeli military of 6 Palestinian journalists by targeting their tent, in grave breach of international humanitarian law. #Israel must respect & protect all civilians, including journalists. At least 242 Palestinian journalists were killed in Gaza… pic.twitter.com/Y6nTHcHQ2B
— UN Human Rights (@UNHumanRights) August 11, 2025
Gaza’s media office said at least 242 Palestinian journalists have been killed since the conflict began in October 2023.
Qatar’s Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani described the strike as “crimes beyond imagination”.
The deliberate targeting of journalists by Israel in the Gaza Strip reveals how these crimes are beyond imagination, amid the inability of the int'l community & its laws to stop this tragedy. May God have mercy on journalists Anas Al-Sharif, Mohammed Qraiqea, & their colleagues.
— محمد بن عبدالرحمن (@MBA_AlThani_) August 11, 2025
Iran’s foreign ministry urged the world to hold Israel to account. Reporters Without Borders accused the Israeli army of “acknowledged murder” after it labelled Al Sharif a Hamas “terrorist”.
Former UK Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn called the killings “sickening beyond words” and “a desperate attempt to silence the truth”.
The deliberate and relentless killing of Palestinian journalists is sickening beyond words — and is a desperate attempt to silence the truth about Israel’s ongoing crimes against humanity.
Shame on all those who empowered Israel to murder with impunity.
— Jeremy Corbyn (@jeremycorbyn) August 11, 2025
Hunger crisis
Gaza’s Health Ministry reported that five more people, including a child, died of malnutrition in the past 24 hours, bringing the total to 222 deaths from hunger-related causes during the war, 101 of them children.
Most of these deaths have occurred in the past three weeks.
The UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) warned that children in Gaza are “dying from starvation and bombardments” and called for an immediate ceasefire.
Children in #Gaza are dying from starvation and bombardments.
Entire families, neighbourhoods, and a generation are being wiped out.
Inaction and silence are complicity. It’s time for statements to turn into action and for an immediate #Ceasefire. pic.twitter.com/OyBy2f0bmX
— UNRWA (@UNRWA) August 11, 2025
Doctors Without Borders (MSF) condemned Israel- and US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation food sites as an “orchestrated killing” and demanded the restoration of UN-led aid coordination.
What we think about GHF-run food sites in Gaza:
• This is not aid. This is orchestrated killing.
• GHF must be dismantled immediately.
• No state donor should fund GHF.
• The UN-led coordination system must be restored.
• The siege on Gaza must be lifted to allow safe,… pic.twitter.com/TPfBs1d7aY— MSF International (@MSF) August 11, 2025
Recognition of Palestinian state
New Zealand is considering recognising a Palestinian state, with a formal decision expected in September, Foreign Minister Winston Peters said.
He stressed that the move was a matter of “when, not if”, but would be weighed against whether the Palestinian territories could become a viable and legitimate state.
On Sunday, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said that Australia will recognise a Palestinian state at the UN General Assembly in September.
“A two-state solution is humanity’s best hope to break the cycle of violence in the Middle East and to bring an end to the conflict, suffering and starvation in Gaza,” he said on Monday.
