TRANSCRIPT
Israeli tanks have advanced into a new area on the edge of Gaza City, shelling homes and forcing residents to flee ahead of a war meeting to be chaired by U-S President Donald Trump.
Residents report that tanks entered the Ebad-Alrahman neighbourhood, wounding several people and driving many deeper into the city.
Israel says it's launching a new offensive in Gaza City, which it calls Hamas’ last stronghold.
Around half of Gaza’s two million residents are sheltering there, with Israel insisting they will be ordered to evacuate again.
Meanwhile, at the United Nations headquarters in New York, officials have laid out the devastating scale of hunger in Gaza.
Joyce Msuya, the Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator for the U-N, says the outlook is grim.
“Over half a million people currently face starvation, destitution and death. By the end of September, that number could exceed 640,000. Approximately 1 million people are in Emergency IPC Phase 4 And over 390,000 are in Crisis IPC Phase 3. Virtually no one in Gaza is untouched by hunger.”
Aid groups have described the impact on Gaza’s youngest residents.
Inger Ashing of Save the Children International shares what children told her organisation.
“Mr. President, at our Child Friendly Spaces, children draw what we call ‘wishing clouds’ so that they can imagine a better future. In Gaza, children used to wish for school, or peace, or to see their friends again. Once the total siege began in March, children would increasingly tell us they wish for food, that they wish for bread. These past few weeks, more and more children have shared that they wish to be dead. One child wrote ‘I wish I was in in heaven where my mother is, in heaven there is love, there is food and water.’”
Those testimonies prompted a strong response from Council members, and all but one country lined up to express their alarm.
Outside the chamber, diplomats representing fourteen of the Council’s fifteen nations read a joint statement.
Guyana’s deputy U-N ambassador, Trishala Simantini Persaud, speaking for the group.
"We stand in front of you, especially disturbed by the levels of acute malnutrition among children in Gaza. We note that at least 41,000 children are at heightened risk of death from malnutrition between now and June 2026. This is a man-made crisis. The use of starvation as a weapon of war is clearly prohibited under international humanitarian law. Famine in Gaza must be stopped immediately. International humanitarian law must be respected. And Security Council resolution 2417 of 2018 must be implemented."
Slovenia’s envoy also demanded a ceasefire and unrestricted humanitarian access.
The United States, however, withheld support, saying the famine report lacked credibility.
And while most of the Council condemned the humanitarian crisis, Israel pushed back forcefully, accusing its critics of distortion.
Israel’s U-N ambassador, Danny Danon, dismissing the famine declaration outright.
“Instead of focusing your attention on the hostages, on the crimes of the Hamas terror organisation, a campaign of diversion from these issues continues. An echo chamber that swaps facts for slogans. Look no further for evidence than the IPC report, maybe we should call it the fabricated report. The IPC lowered its own threshold to manufacture a so-called famine. It cuts the global standard from 30 per cent to 15 per cent for this report only and ignored its second criteria altogether.”
Israel maintains it has allowed sufficient aid into Gaza, though the U-N says deliveries remain far below the 600 trucks that entered daily before the war.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has dismissed famine warnings as an outright lie.
Meanwhile, in Washington, U-S Secretary of State Marco Rubio met Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar amid outrage over Israeli strikes on Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, which killed at least 20 people, including journalists and medics.
Ramiz Alakbarov, the U-N’s Deputy Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, highlighting the deadly toll of recent airstrikes.
“On August 10, an Israeli airstrike hit a tent used by journalists in Gaza City, killing six journalists. The IDF (Israel Defence Forces) said they were targeting Al Jazeera correspondent Anas al-Sharif, who they said was the head of a Hamas cell. On 25 August, Israeli strikes on Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis killed at least 20 Palestinian civilians, including medical personnel and journalists. I reiterate the Secretary-General’s call for an independent and impartial investigation into these killings.”
Aid agencies warn a broader offensive will worsen Gaza’s humanitarian crisis, and the Israeli military has told Gaza City residents to prepare to leave ahead of what it calls inevitable operations.
The U-S is now looking to the future.
U-S President Donald Trump will chair a meeting to outline a post-war strategy for Gaza, with his envoy Steve Witkoff describing the plan as comprehensive and humanitarian.
“Yes. Where we've got a large meeting in the White House tomorrow, chaired by the president. And, it's a very comprehensive, a plan we're putting together on the next day that I think, many people are going to be, they're going to see how robust it is and how it's how well-meaning it is. And it reflects, President Trump's humanitarian motives here.”
The U-S says the plan will balance humanitarian needs with Israel’s security, but critics argue Washington risks downplaying warnings from the very agencies sounding the alarm on famine.
