Israeli strikes kill at least 17 Palestinians in Gaza as international
pressure for ceasefire grows
[September 26, 2025]
By WAFAA SHURAFA, DAVID RISING and KAREEM CHEHAYEB
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israel struck houses and tents in
central and southern Gaza Thursday, crushing families inside and killing
at least 17 people, including 10 children and three women, local health
officials said, as international pressure for a ceasefire continued to
grow.
On the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York,
French President Emmanuel Macron told France 24 his country had
recognized a Palestinian state on the conviction it “is the only way to
isolate Hamas,” which has proved itself able to regenerate even after
many of its leaders have been killed.
“Total war in Gaza is causing civilian casualties but can’t bring about
the end of Hamas,” Macron said in the interview Wednesday. “Factually,
it’s a failure.”
He said he had been lobbying U.S. President Donald Trump to press Israel
again for a ceasefire. “You cannot stop the war if there is no path to
peace,” Macron added.
Some Israeli ministers in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government
have pushed for annexing the occupied West Bank in response to
international recognition of Palestinian statehood — a move that could
effectively strip the Palestinian Authority of its civil and security
powers in parts of the territory.
Macron said such a move would be a red line for France, and “I think
it’s also a red line for the United States of America.”
Neither the White House nor the State Department responded to requests
for comment on Macron’s statement.
Netanyahu has said he won’t make any decisions until he returns from the
U.S., where he is to address the U.N. General Assembly on Friday and
then meet with Trump in Washington.
Deadly strikes hit central and southern Gaza
In the early hours Thursday, an Israeli strike hit a tent and a house in
the central town of Zawaida, killing at least 12 people, according to
the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the nearby city of Deir al-Balah.
Among the dead were a couple and their five of their children, along
with three other children. AP footage showed the building collapsed into
a pile of rubble – the lifeless arm of one child sticking out from under
a slab of concrete. Relatives said another child was still missing under
the wreckage.
Another strike hit a tent in Deir al-Balah, killing a girl and wounding
seven other people, the hospital said.
In the southern city of Khan Younis, an Israeli attack hit an apartment
building, killing a man, his pregnant wife and their 10-year-old child
as well as another female relative, according to Nasser Hospital, where
the bodies were taken.
Hunger crisis in northern Gaza worsens
Israel launched another major ground operation earlier this month in
Gaza City, which experts say is experiencing famine. More than 300,000
people have fled, but up to 700,000 are still there, many because they
can’t afford to relocate.
The food situation in the north has worsened the past two weeks, as
Israel has halted aid deliveries through its crossing into northern Gaza
since Sept. 12 and has increasingly rejected U.N. requests to bring
supplies from southern Gaza into the north, the U.N. Office for the
Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, known as OCHA, said.
Many charity kitchens in the north have been forced to shut down by
Israeli military operations, reducing by half the number of free meals
being provided to only 59,000 meals a day, according to OCHA, which
warned that Israel’s closure this week of the border crossing between
the occupied West Bank and Jordan threatens to “severely undermine” its
ability to deliver aid to Gaza.
[to top of second column]
|
An Israeli army flare drifts over buildings destroyed during Israeli
ground and air operations in the northern Gaza Strip, as seen from
southern Israel, Thursday, Sept. 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)
It said that last month a quarter of the aid destined for Gaza
through the U.N. humanitarian effort came through the Allenby Bridge
Crossing over the Jordan River, also known as the King Hussein
Bridge.
Israel announced the closure on Tuesday after an attack last week
that killed two Israelis.
Israel strikes Yemen after Houthi drone attack
The Israeli military said Thursday it carried out strikes in Yemen,
with dozens of aircraft targeting Houthi military command
headquarters, military camps and security and intelligence
facilities.
The strikes came a day after a drone launched by the Houthis rebels
wounded 22 people in the southern Israeli city of Eilat, a rare
breach of Israel’s air defenses.
The Houthi Health Ministry said two people were killed and dozens
wounded in the strike and that emergency workers were searching for
people under rubble. One strike hit a building believed to house a
leading Houthi figure in a residential area of the capital Sanaa,
killing a woman and child nearby, witnesses said. The blast damaged
a nearby school, causing injuries among children playing in the
courtyard, they said.
Netanyahu denounces leaders who have recognized a Palestinian
state
On Monday, France, Andorra, Belgium, Luxembourg, Malta, and Monaco
announced or confirmed their recognition of a Palestinian state in
the hopes of galvanizing support for a two-state solution to the
Mideast conflict.
Their announcements came a day after the United Kingdom, Canada,
Australia and Portugal did the same, in defiance of Israel and the
United States.
Netanyahu lashed out at the idea early Thursday before heading to
New York.
“At the U.N, General Assembly I will speak our truth,” he told
reporters. “I will denounce those leaders who, instead of denouncing
the murderers, the rapists, the child burners, want to give them a
state in the heart of the land of Israel. It will not happen.”
At separate events in New York on Wednesday, U.S. Secretary of State
Marco Rubio and Trump’s lead negotiator Steve Witkoff both offered
optimistic views about what Witkoff called a “Trump 21-point plan
for peace” that was presented to Arab leaders Tuesday.
The U.S. has not released details of the plan or said whether Israel
or Hamas accepts it.
The U.S., along with Egypt and Qatar, have spent months trying to
broker a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release. Those efforts suffered
a major setback earlier this month when Israel carried out an
airstrike targeting Hamas leaders in Qatar.
Israel’s campaign in Gaza has killed more than 65,000 people and
wounded more than 167,000 others, according to the Gaza Health
Ministry. It doesn’t say how many were civilians or combatants, but
says women and children make up around half the fatalities. The
ministry is part of the Hamas-run government. U.N. agencies and many
independent experts consider its figures to be the most reliable
estimate of wartime casualties.
Israel’s campaign was triggered when Hamas-led militants stormed
into Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing around 1,200 people and taking
251 hostage. Forty-eight captives remain in Gaza, around 20 of them
believed by Israel to be alive, after most of the rest were freed in
ceasefires or other deals.
___
Associated Press writer John Leicester in Le Pecq, France,
contributed reporting.
All contents © copyright 2025 Associated Press. All rights reserved |
