Israeli gunfire kills at least 25 in Gaza as Netanyahu says he will
allow Palestinians to leave
[August 14, 2025]
By MELANIE LIDMAN and SAMY MAGDY
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Israeli gunfire killed at least 25 people
seeking aid in Gaza on Wednesday, health officials and witnesses said,
while Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu again called for what he refers
to as the voluntary migration of Palestinians from the war-ravaged
territory.
Netanyahu wants to realize U.S. President Donald Trump’s vision of
relocating much of Gaza’s population of over 2 million people through
what he refers to as “voluntary migration" — and what critics have
warned could be ethnic cleansing.
“Give them the opportunity to leave! First, from combat zones, and also
from the strip if they want," Netanyahu said in an interview aired
Tuesday with Israeli TV station i24 to discuss the planned offensive in
areas that include Gaza City, where hundreds of thousands of displaced
people shelter. “We are not pushing them out but allowing them to
leave.”
Witnesses and staff at Nasser and Awda hospitals, which received the
bodies, said people were shot on their way to aid distribution sites or
while awaiting convoys entering Gaza.
Efforts to revive ceasefire talks
Efforts to revive ceasefire talks have resumed after apparently breaking
down last month. Hamas and Egyptian officials met Wednesday in Cairo,
according to Hamas official Taher al-Nounou.
Israel has no plans to send its negotiating team to talks in Cairo,
Netanyahu's office said.
Israel's plans to widen its military offensive against Hamas to parts of
Gaza it does not yet control have sparked condemnation at home and
abroad, and could be intended to raise pressure on Hamas to reach a
ceasefire.
The militants still hold 50 hostages taken in the Oct. 7, 2023 attack
that sparked the war. Israel believes around 20 are still alive.
Families fear a new offensive endangers them.
When asked by i24 News if the window had closed on a partial ceasefire
deal, Netanyahu responded that he wanted all hostages back, alive and
dead.
Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty told reporters that Cairo is
still trying to advance an earlier proposal for an initial 60-day
ceasefire, the release of some hostages and an influx of humanitarian
aid before further talks on a lasting truce.
Hamas says it will only release the remaining hostages in return for the
release of Palestinians imprisoned by Israel, a lasting ceasefire and an
Israeli withdrawal from Gaza. The militant group has refused to disarm.
Meanwhile, the Palestinian Authority and Arab countries condemned
Netanyahu's remark to i24 News that he was “very” attached to the vision
of a Greater Israel. He did not elaborate, but supporters of the idea
believe that Israel should control not only the occupied West Bank but
parts of Arab countries.
South Sudan calls reports of resettlement talks baseless
Israel and South Sudan are in talks about relocating Palestinians to the
war-torn East African nation, The Associated Press reported Tuesday.
The office of Israel’s deputy foreign minister, Sharren Haskel, said she
was arriving in South Sudan for meetings in the first visit there by a
senior Israeli government official, but she did not plan to broach the
subject of moving Palestinians.
South Sudan’s ministry of foreign affairs in a statement called reports
that it was engaging in discussions with Israel about resettling
Palestinians baseless.
The AP previously reported that the United States and Israel have
reached out to officials of three East African governments to discuss
using their territories as potential destinations for Palestinians
uprooted from Gaza.
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Trucks carrying humanitarian aid for Palestinians in Gaza move along
the border with Gaza Strip in southern Israel, Wednesday, Aug. 13,
2025. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)
Killed while seeking aid
Among those killed while seeking aid were 14 Palestinians in the
Teina area approximately 3 kilometers (1.8 miles) from a food
distribution site run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, according
to staff at Nasser hospital.
Hashim Shamalah said Israeli troops fired toward them as people
tried to get through. Many were shot and fell while fleeing, he
said.
Israeli gunfire killed five other Palestinians while trying to reach
another GHF distribution site in the Netzarim corridor area,
according to Awda hospital and witnesses. The Israeli military said
it wasn't aware of any casualties from Israeli fire in that area.
GHF said there were no incidents at or near its sites Wednesday.
The U.S. and Israel support GHF, an American contractor, as an
alternative to the United Nations, which they claim allows Hamas to
siphon off aid. The U.N., which has delivered aid throughout Gaza
for decades when conditions allow, denies the allegations.
Aid convoys from other groups travel within 100 meters (328 feet) of
GHF sites and draw crowds. An overwhelming majority of violent
incidents over the past few weeks have been related to those
convoys, the GHF said.
Israeli fire killed at least six other people waiting for aid trucks
close to the Morag corridor, which separates parts of southern Gaza,
Nasser hospital said.
Israel says it killed a Hamas militant who took hostages
The Israeli military said Wednesday that it killed last week a Hamas
militant who took part in the 2023 attack that started the war. It
blamed Abdullah Saeed Abd al-Baqin for participating in the
abduction of three Israeli hostages.
The Hamas-led attack abducted 251 people and killed around 1,200
people, mostly civilians. Israel’s air and ground offensive has
since displaced most of Gaza’s population, destroyed vast areas and
pushed the territory toward famine. The offensive has killed more
than 61,700 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which
does not say how many were fighters or civilians but says around
half were women and children.
The ministry is part of the Hamas-run government and staffed by
medical professionals. The U.N. and independent experts consider it
the most reliable source on war casualties. Israel disputes its
figures but has not provided its own.
Palestinian fatally shot in West Bank violence
An Israeli settler shot dead a Palestinian on Wednesday in the
occupied West Bank, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.
The Israeli military said dozens of Palestinians hurled rocks toward
an off-duty soldier and another person carrying out “engineering
works” near the village of Duma, lightly wounding them. It said the
soldier initially fired warning shots, then opened fire in
self-defense.
The Health Ministry identified the deceased as Thamin Dawabshe, 35,
a distant relative of a family targeted in a 2015 firebombing in the
village by a settler. That attack killed a toddler and his parents.
The attacker was convicted and handed three life sentences.
The West Bank has seen a rise in settler violence as well as
Palestinian attacks since the start of the war in Gaza, and the
Israeli military has carried out major military operations there.
Rights groups and Palestinians say the military often turns a blind
eye to violent settlers or intervenes to protect them.
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