Israel-Gaza live updates: 'Gaza is burning,' Israel defense minister says
It was not immediately clear how many people remained on Tuesday in the city.
2:20
Israeli military begins new ground invasion of Gaza CityThe Israeli military began a ground offensive in Gaza City, the Israel Defense Forces said on Tuesday, with two IDF divisions moving toward the city.
ByKevin Shalvey, David Brennan, and Nadine El-Bawab
Last Updated: September 17, 2025, 6:37 AM ACST
The Israeli military began a ground offensive in Gaza City, the Israel Defense Forces said on Tuesday, with two IDF divisions moving toward the city. A third was expected to join them.
In images taken from the Israel-Gaza border on Tuesday, plumes of smoke could be seen rising above the city, which is the largest in the Gaza Strip. It was not immediately clear how many people remained on Tuesday in the city.
Latest headlines:Sep 16, 2025, 8:47 PM ACST
Israel committing genocide in Gaza, UN commission says, findings Israel says are 'fake'
Sep 16, 2025, 8:44 PM ACST
59 killed in Gaza as IDF offensive begins, health officials say
Sep 16, 2025, 8:06 PM ACST
'Gaza is burning,' Israel defense minister says
Sep 16, 2025, 7:36 PM ACST
IDF confirms that Gaza City offensive is underway
Here's how the news is developing.
6:36 AM ACST
Israel calls EU Commission's plans for sanctions 'disproportionate'
Israeli Minister of Foreign Affairs Gideon Sa'ar called the European Commission's proposal to suspend trade-related provisions in Israel's agreement with the European Union "disproportionate," in a letter Tuesday.
The European Union's College of Commissioners is set to hold a meeting on Wednesday regarding the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen's proposal to put political pressure on Israel by suspending trade-related provisions in the E.U.-Israel Association Agreement.
"This unprecedented proposal, that has never been implemented against any other country, constitutes a clear attempt to harm Israel while we are still fighting a war imposed on us by the October 7 terror attack -- the largest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust," Sa'ar said in the letter.
"Pressure through sanctions will not work. The State of Israel is a proud sovereign nation, and we will not be bent through threats while Israel's security is at stake. As has been clearly stated by U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, initiatives of this nature embolden Hamas, harden its stance, and undermine progress toward potential agreements. These kinds of measures will also harm European citizens as it will raise prices of commodities," he said.
-ABC News' Jordana Miller
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6:25 AM ACST
Palestinians flee Gaza City after Israeli forces expand ground offensive
Video shows Palestinians evacuating from northern Gaza and heading south on Tuesday, fleeing after Israeli forces expanded their ground offensive in Gaza City.
People can be seen in the footage fleeing by any means necessary -- by car, sitting on top of their belongings with others piled onto flat-bed trucks or walking.
Some were seen carrying belongings over their heads or on their shoulders.
People continued to make their way south as the sun went down on Tuesday evening and as it became dark.
The IDF said on Monday that about 300,000 people already left Gaza City in the past few weeks. That leaves an estimated 700,000 civilians still in the city who remain under heavy bombardment.
It is unclear how many people have left since the IDF began their expanded ground offensive Monday evening.
-ABC News' Diaa Ostaz
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5:19 AM ACST
Hostage families to set up permanent encampment in front of Netanyahu's house to protest war in Gaza
Hostage families plan to establish a "permanent encampment" outside of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's residence in Jerusalem, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum Headquarters said in a release Tuesday.
The families thanked President Donald Trump for his "ongoing support," but asked him to urge Netanyahu to make a deal and end the war.
"Our Prime Minister Netanyahu is not listening to our cries to save the hostages and end this war -- but he will listen to you! Bring him to the table for a deal that will bring everyone home!" the families said in a joint statement.
Protests outside Netanyahu's residence have begun.
-ABC News' Jordana Miller
2:02 AM ACST
Israeli operations in Gaza City will likely take a few months, IDF says
It will likely take "a few months" for Israeli forces to complete their mission in Gaza City, according to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).
"We estimate it will take a few months to take control of Gaza City and a few more months -- even more than that -- to clear the city of the infrastructure," IDF spokesperson Effie Defrin said in Hebrew during a briefing on Tuesday.
Overnight Tuesday, Israeli forces launched an intensified ground offensive in Gaza City. Before the operation began, about 300,000 people fled the city to head to southern Gaza, the IDF said Monday.
"Air, ground and intelligence forces" are working together to target Hamas military targets in Gaza City, Defrin said.
The Palestinian Authority called for "exceptional international intervention," to stop the IDF military campaign in Gaza City and across the Gaza Strip in a Tuesday statement from their Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
"It considers this an attempt to target civilians and transform Gaza City into a mass grave and an uninhabitable land, as is the case with the wider Gaza Strip. It also forces nearly one million Palestinians to flee and move amidst a vicious cycle of death," the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in the statement.
-ABC News' Jordana Miller and Tom Soufi Burridge
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Sep 16, 2025, 11:46 PM ACST
Trump reacts to Israel starting ground offensive in Gaza
President Donald Trump on Tuesday was asked by a reporter for his reaction to Israel beginning a ground offensive in Gaza City.
"We're going to see what happens because I hear Hamas is trying to use the old human shield deal, and if they do that, they're going to be in big trouble," Trump said as he left the White House ahead of a trip to the United Kingdom. "They're going to be in big trouble. They put it out two days ago that they're going to use the hostages as human shields."
Sep 16, 2025, 9:49 PM ACST
Gaza City push 'of decisive importance,' IDF chief says
The Chief of the General Staff of the Israel Defense Forces, Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, said Tuesday that expanding the ground operation in Gaza City "is a move of decisive importance for the continuation of the war."
A convoy of Israeli tanks is deployed at Israel's border with the Gaza Strip on Sept. 16, 2025.
Menahem Kahana/AFP via Getty Images
"Yesterday we expanded the ground operation into the center of Gaza City, which constitutes a vital area for Hamas," Zamir told ground troops, as quoted in an IDF readout.
"The mission rests on your shoulders: to decisively defeat the Gaza City brigade," Zamir said, referring to the local Hamas unit.
The maneuver in Gaza City is a significant step to carry out our highest moral and important duty -- to return all the hostages home and to dismantle the military and governing capabilities of the Hamas terrorist organization," he added.
"The threat has changed, but so have we; we come better prepared," Zamir said.
-ABC News' Morgan Winsor
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Sep 16, 2025, 8:58 PM ACST
Palestinian foreign ministry urges 'urgent international intervention'
The Palestinian Foreign Ministry urged "exceptional and urgent international intervention to protect civilians in Gaza City" as the Israel Defense Forces launched a major offensive operation there overnight.
Displaced Palestinians flee northern Gaza along the coastal road toward the south on Sept. 16, 2025.
Abdel Kareem Hana/AP
"The failure of international diplomacy to stop the war is suspicious and unjustified," the ministry said in a post to X on Tuesday morning.
The ministry accused the Israeli government of 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, which is based in the West Bank, called on foreign powers to "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."
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Sep 16, 2025, 8:47 PM ACST
Israel committing genocide in Gaza, UN commission says, findings Israel says are 'fake'
Israel's action in the Gaza Strip amount to a genocide, a United Nations commission said in a report released on Tuesday, a finding that an Israeli ministry rejected as "fake."
The Independent International Commission of Inquiry, which operates under the U.N Human Rights Council, also wrote in a 72-page report that it found that some "statements made by Israeli authorities are direct evidence of genocidal intent."
"Additionally, on the basis of circumstantial evidence, the Commission finds that genocidal intent was the only reasonable inference that could be drawn based on the pattern of conduct of the Israeli authorities," the report said.
Chair of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry South African judge Navi Pillay, right, speaks during a press conference in Geneva on Sept. 16, 2025.
Fabrice Coffrini/AFP via Getty Images
It added, "Thus, the Commission concludes that the Israeli authorities and Israeli security forces have the genocidal intent to destroy, in whole or in part, the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip."
The Israeli Foreign Ministry in a statement sought to reject the assertions, saying the authors of the report amounted to "Hamas proxies."
"The report relies entirely on Hamas falsehoods, laundered and repeated by others," the ministry said in part in a post on social media on Tuesday.
The report was researched and written by the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, which was formed by the Human Right Council in 2021, as an independent investigative body.
The commission's findings are independent of the proceedings at the International Court of Justice, which would be tasked with making "a final determination in the future on Israel's responsibility under the Genocide Convention," the report said.
-ABC News' Somayeh Malekian, Jordana Miller and Kevin Shalvey
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Sep 16, 2025, 8:44 PM ACST
59 killed in Gaza as IDF offensive begins, health officials say
The Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry said in a post to Telegram on Tuesday that at least 59 people were killed and 386 people injured in the previous 24 hours, during which time Israel Defense Forces units began their offensive on Gaza City.
Three of the deaths recorded in the previous 24 hours were a result of malnutrition, the ministry said. A total of 428 people have died from malnutrition, the ministry said.
The ministry did not specify where in the strip the recent deaths occurred.
At least 64,964 people have been killed and 165,312 people injured since the conflict began on Oct. 7, 2023, the ministry said.
Sep 16, 2025, 8:06 PM ACST
'Gaza is burning,' Israel defense minister says
"Gaza is burning," Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said in a post to X on Tuesday as the Israel Defense Forces began its offensive on the largest city in the Gaza Strip.
This picture taken from a position at Israel's border with the Gaza Strip shows smoke billowing amid Israeli bombardment of the besieged Palestinian territory on Sept. 16, 2025.
Menahem Kahana/AFP via Getty Images
"The IDF strikes with an iron fist at the terrorist infrastructure and IDF soldiers are fighting bravely to create the conditions for the release of the hostages and the defeat of Hamas," Katz wrote.
"We will not relent and we will not go back -- until the completion of the mission," he added.
Video footage from the area showed multiple large explosions in Gaza City on Tuesday as the IDF pressed its offensive.
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Sep 16, 2025, 7:36 PM ACST
IDF confirms that Gaza City offensive is underway
Israel's offensive on Gaza City began overnight, the Israel Defense Forces confirmed on Tuesday morning.
An Israeli military vehicle drives next to the Israel-Gaza border as Gaza City is seen in the distance, in Israel, Sept. 16, 2025.
Amir Cohen/Reuters
The IDF said that the maneuver to occupy the city began with two divisions. A third is expected to join the action.
"Its aim is to achieve the war's objectives in Gaza and to enhance the achievements made during combat," the IDF said in a post to X.
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