Updates: Israel kills 51 in Gaza, military seizure of Gaza City progresses

Thank you for joining us.

Read more about the story of a seven-year-old Palestinian girl in Gaza who is struggling to survive the Israeli-imposed famine here.

Check out more details about the Israeli air strikes on Yemen’s Sanaa, and the defiant response from the Houthis, here.

And you can always find our comprehensive coverage of Israel’s war on Gaza here.

This live page will close soon. But, before we go, here’s a look at some of the biggest recent developments:

• The Israeli army killed dozens more Palestinians, at least 51, in strikes across Gaza as it continued to destroy large parts of the Zeitoun and Sabra neighbourhoods of Gaza City and Jabalia to the north.
• Philippe Lazzarini, the head of the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), said that famine is the “last calamity” hitting Gaza, calling it “hell in all shapes”.
• The Houthis said that at least four people were killed and 67 others were wounded by Israel’s attacks on Yemen’s Sanaa, which hit the presidential palace and energy facilities.
• Iran and Hamas condemned the Israeli attacks on Yemen, as Arab and Islamic states gathered in Jeddah for an emergency meeting of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation on Gaza.
• Israeli soldiers arrested 14 Palestinians in the village of al-Mughayyir in the occupied West Bank’s Ramallah, amid ongoing military raids and violent settler attacks in Nablus and Hebron.
• Demonstrators marched for an end to the war on Gaza during rallies in European cities, including Brussels, Copenhagen and Malmo.

France’s Foreign Ministry has said it will summon the US ambassador on Monday after he criticised the government for what he said was insufficient action against anti-Semitism in a letter to President Emmanuel Macron.

The letter from Charles Kushner, dated August 25 but leaked to the media on Sunday, echoed Israel’s criticism of France days earlier, which provoked a sharp response from Paris.

“I write out of deep concern over the dramatic rise of antisemitism in France and the lack of sufficient action by your government to confront it…,” Kushner wrote.

“In France, not a day passes without Jews assaulted in the street, synagogues or schools defaced, or Jewish-owned businesses vandalised.”

The French Foreign Ministry’s response came hours after the letter’s contents were made public: “France firmly refutes these latest allegations. The Ambassador’s allegations are unacceptable.”

Israeli settlers, under the protection of the army, attacked Palestinian homes in Susya in Masafer Yatta, south of Hebron, in the occupied West Bank.

Resident Imran Ismail al-Nawaja’a told the Wafa news agency that an unspecified number of settlers from the illegal Susya settlement attacked his home and the home of Nasser Khalil al-Nawaja’a with stones.

The settlers also tried to break into several homes and assault their owners, saying the residents had confronted them.

Al-Nawaja’a added that Israeli forces stormed the village and tried to arrest several residents.

The Blue and White–National Unity alliance leader, Benny Gantz, has written a post on X, addressed to Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, after the far right strongly opposed his offer to rejoin Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition to reach a deal to bring back captives from Gaza.

“It’s time to admit the truth – you have failed in the mission to destroy Hamas,” Gantz wrote. “Your conception has failed again, and extremism has met reality.”

He said it is time for the government to “sober up and act to return the hostages”, while recruiting everyone into the military, including ultra-Orthodox Jews, backed by the far-right, who have been exempt from service.

This comes shortly after the Prime Minister’s Office assured Netanyahu’s coalition partners that he has no intention of breaking up their alliance to partner with Gantz.

Gadi Eisenkot, who was a former political partner of Gantz in the Netanyahu alliance before both left and fell out with each other, also rejected the notion of a national unity government, saying that Netanyahu must “make a tough but necessary decision” to reach an agreement on Gaza.

As we’ve been reporting, the Israeli air force struck Yemen’s presidential palace, an oil company facility, and a power station.

A spokesperson for the Houthis’ Health Ministry reported that four people had been killed in the raid, and 67 others were wounded, raising an earlier toll.

In a statement by the Israeli army, the strikes were “in response to repeated attacks by the Houthi terrorist regime against the State of Israel and its civilians”, including “in recent days”.

Israeli forces have stormed the town of Aqraba, located south of Nablus in the occupied West Bank.

Local sources told the Wafa news agency that Israeli soldiers fired tear gas and clashed with local Palestinians, but no injuries have been reported so far.

Another raid took place in the town of Sa’ir, located north of Hebron. Hours earlier, a young man and an elderly Palestinians were injured in the Khirbet al-Qat in northern Hebron when settlers attacked them with stones and batons while they were picking grapes.

Breaking | Israeli occupation forces open fire and launch flares while storming Sa’ir town, north of Hebron in the occupied West Bank pic.twitter.com/VnUtgAIwok

— Quds News Network (@QudsNen) August 24, 2025

Earlier this month, Slovenia joined Spain and Belgium in imposing an arms embargo on Israel. Germany followed suit, halting the sale of weapons to Israel that could be used in Gaza ‘until further notice’.

On Friday night, the resignation of the Dutch foreign minister after his government failed to sanction Israel raised questions: Will this action trigger a broader political fallout across the 27-nation bloc?

Al Jazeera’s Inside Story speaks to experts on the split forming in Europe.

Watch our video below:

More than 10,000 people took part in the pro-Palestinian demonstration in Copenhagen that we reported on earlier, and other European cities are seeing large protests as well.

Footage verified by Al Jazeera showed protesters raising Palestinian flags and chanting slogans calling for an end to the Israeli war on Gaza in the Belgian capital, Brussels.

Local platforms and activists showed scenes of another demonstration in the Swedish city of Malmo, condemning the war.

Protesters were seen raising Palestinian flags, chanting slogans against the starvation in the enclave, and holding banners that read “Freedom for Palestine”.

Bones and skin are all that is left of seven-year-old Mai Abu Arar.

The Palestinian girl is one of tens of thousands of children facing malnutrition in Gaza as Israel’s man-made famine deepens with the Israeli military stepping up its assault on Gaza City.

Mai’s mother, Nadia Abu Arar, says her child was once lively and joyous, but she is now fighting for her life after drastically losing weight.

“The doctors told me that she isn’t suffering from any disease or from any past condition. They’re saying it’s all due to malnutrition and I haven’t seen any improvement in her situation at all,” Nadia told Al Jazeera.

Hunger has weakened Mai to the point that she can now only consume liquid food through a syringe.

Read more here.

Irish rap group Kneecap, one of whose members faces a “terrorism” charge in the UK for allegedly supporting Hezbollah, have kept up their criticism of Israel’s war on Gaza during a performance outside Paris, despite objections from French Jewish groups and government officials.

“Free, free Palestine!” the trio shouted at the start of their show, rallying an enthusiastic crowd where keffiyehs and Irish jerseys were visible, before insisting they were not against Israel.

After organisers of the annual Rock en Seine festival kept the politically outspoken band on the programme, local authorities withdrew their subsidies for the music festival. Several thousand people in the Paris suburb of Saint-Cloud attended the concert.

The band also sent what they said was a message to the French government: “The French government is complicit; It sells and facilitates the trade of weapons to the Israeli army”.

A group of Zionists with flags and whistles tried to interrupt the start of our gig in Paris just now.

"We're not like them. We're not like Israel. We're not here to cause fights. It's all love it's all support for Palestine." pic.twitter.com/EYLB7ouwHo

— KNEECAP (@KNEECAPCEOL) August 24, 2025

Since dawn, Israeli attacks across Gaza have killed 51 people, including 27 in Gaza City, medical sources told our colleagues.

Among the dead, 24 were aid seekers.

Israeli forces have stormed the village of al-Arqa in the Jenin governorate in the occupied West Bank.

Local sources told Wafa news agency that the occupation forces stormed al-Arqa and raided and searched a house.

The sources added that Israeli forces set fire to lands in the Marj Ibn Amer plain, and columns of smoke were seen rising from the area.

So far, no arrests have been reported.

Here’s a quick look at the latest developments:

• Israeli leaders said they will keep bombing Yemen after their warplanes hit fuel stations, power plants and what Israel described as the presidential palace in Sanaa, killing at least two people and wounding others.
• The Houthis said the damage from the Israeli munitions was limited, and vowed to keep up missile and drone attacks on Israel in opposition to the war on Gaza.
• Iran and Hamas condemned Israel because the strikes affected civilian areas and infrastructure.
• Gaza authorities and United Nations officials warn that the humanitarian situation in Gaza is deteriorating and that famine and relentless Israeli air strikes and shelling are killing more Palestinians.
• The Israeli army is preparing for more deadly attacks from ground, air and sea on Gaza City, especially its two neighbourhoods of Zeitoun and Sabra, where over 1,000 buildings have been reported destroyed since August 6.
• Israeli soldiers arrested 14 Palestinians in the village of al-Mughayyir in the occupied West Bank’s Ramallah, amid ongoing raids and violent settler attacks.

Hamas says Israeli aggression against residential and civilian areas in Yemen “constitutes a blatant violation of the sovereignty of Arab states and of international laws”.

The Palestinian group said in a statement that Israel wants to deter the Houthis from backing Gaza, so a strong Arab and Islamic stance is required to stand up to Israel, particularly after Benjamin Netanyahu “openly declared his aspiration to achieve the illusion of a ‘Greater Israel’ at the expense of Arab lands”.

Esmaiel Baghaei, the spokesman of Iran’s Foreign Ministry, also condemned the air strikes on Sanaa and previous Israeli attacks targeting infrastructure across Yemen as war crimes.

The attacks are a clear indication of Israel’s “hostility toward the development and prosperity of the countries of the region”, he said in a statement, also calling on all Islamic countries to take urgent action “to stop the genocide in Gaza and to help the people in the face of the famine imposed by the Zionist regime”.

This comes as Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi arrived in Jeddah to participate in an emergency meeting of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation that is focused on the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza.

Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu says the entire region is learning “Israel’s strength and determination” following the attack on Sanaa.

In a video statement, Netanyahu warned that whoever plans to attack Israel, “we attack them”.

“The Houthi terrorist regime is learning the hard way that it will pay and is paying a very heavy price for its aggression against Israel,” Netanyahu said in a video statement.

As we reported earlier, Israel’s attack on Sanaa targeted the presidential palace and the Asar and Hizaz power plants, which left at least two people dead, according to reports.