Updates: Israel kills 61 in Gaza City, cuts off supplies to northern Gaza

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Far-right and internationally sanctioned Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich says there’s a “business plan” to turn Gaza into a “real estate bonanza”. Watch this to learn more.

Bernie Sanders becomes the first US senator to use the word “genocide” to describe Israel’s actions in Gaza. Read this to learn more.

And, for all our coverage of Israel’s war on Gaza, click this.

This live page will close soon. But before we go, here’s a recap of the day’s events:

• The Israeli military killed at least 83 Palestinians across Gaza, including 61 people in Gaza City, where it is pressing ahead with a brutal offensive that has drawn widespread international condemnation.
• In one attack near al-Shifa Hospital, at least 13 people were killed, according to medical sources. Hamas described the attack as a “full-fledged war crime”.
• The Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor said the Israeli military has intensified its use of booby-trapped armoured vehicles loaded with explosives to demolish residential neighbourhoods in Gaza City.
• The European Commission presented a much-anticipated proposal to suspend trade-related provisions of the Association Agreement between the European Union and Israel in response to Israel’s war on Gaza.
• The Israeli military killed at least two people in a strike on a car in Baalbek, Lebanon, the Lebanese Health Ministry said.
• Campaigners issued a call for European football federations to boycott the Israeli national team and ban Israeli players from domestic competitions in response to its actions in Gaza.
• United States Senator Bernie Sanders described Israel’s assault on Gaza as a genocide, becoming the first US senator to do so.

London’s mayor has said that he believes that “what’s happening in Gaza is a genocide”.

The leader of the British capital shared his views on the subject in a video post on X.

“When I see the images of the children starving … when I see the health system in Gaza collapsed; when I see the lack of supplies reaching people in need; when I see the famine that is man-made; when I read the … interim judgement of the ICJ, and then see a UN commission report this week, I think it’s inescapable to draw the conclusion in Gaza we’re seeing, before our very eyes, a genocide,” he said.

What’s happening in Gaza is a genocide. pic.twitter.com/N4rQw83hEl

— Sadiq Khan (@SadiqKhan) September 17, 2025

One of the vast numbers of Palestinians being forcibly displaced from Gaza City by the Israeli invasion has described his desperate situation to Al Jazeera.

“Death is better than displacement,” said Abu Mohammed. “We accept the war but not the displacement.”

To flee the city requires money, something in short supply, he said.

“There is no money for us to flee,” he said. “Where should I go?”

Qatar’s minister of state at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs says he has travelled to the International Criminal Court in The Hague as he explores a response under international law over Israel’s attack on Doha.

In a post on X, Mohammed bin Abdulaziz al-Khulaifi said he had had two meetings during his trip to The Hague, during which he “reaffirmed Qatar’s commitment to supporting the path of international justice and to ensuring accountability for perpetrators of crimes under international law – including wars [sic] crimes and acts of aggression – so as to prevent them from escaping punishment.”

Today, I visited the International Criminal Court in The Hague, the Netherlands, as part of the work of the team tasked with exploring legal avenues to respond to the illegal Israeli armed attack against the State of Qatar. During the two meetings, I reaffirmed Qatar’s commitment… pic.twitter.com/EOaoyAFymL

— د. محمد الخليفي (@Dr_Al_Khulaifi) September 17, 2025

Palestinians in northern Gaza are packing up their belongings under the forced evacuation orders.

But many cannot afford to move and are fearful of being attacked by Israeli forces while trying to find somewhere safe.

Al Jazeera’s Ibrahim al-Khalili reports from the west of Gaza City:

The UK’s minister for the Middle East and North Africa, Hamish Falconer, says he is “horrified” by last night’s Israeli strike on the al-Rantisi Children’s Hospital in Gaza City.

“Babies in incubators and children on dialysis should not be under bombardment,” he said in a post on X.

The Health Ministry in Gaza said the medical facility was struck three consecutive times, but no casualties were reported. At least 40 patients are believed to have fled the hospital, while 40 stayed behind with some staff.

Horrified by reports that Gaza City’s children’s hospital was struck multiple times last night. Babies in incubators and children on dialysis should not be under bombardment.

— Hamish Falconer MP (@HFalconerMP) September 17, 2025

Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa says ongoing negotiations with Israel to reach a security pact could lead to results “in the coming days”.

He described the security pact as a “necessity” and said it would need to respect Syria’s airspace and territorial unity and be monitored by the United Nations.

He was speaking to reporters in Damascus.

Campaigners have issued a call for European football federations to boycott the Israeli national team and ban Israeli players from domestic competitions in response to its actions in Gaza.

The #GameOverIsrael campaign, which is directing its appeal to football federations in Belgium, England, France, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Norway, Scotland and Spain, launched its campaign with a billboard in New York’s Times Square that reads: “Soccer federations: Boycott Israel. No genocide on the pitch”.

Norwegian media reported that a huge banner was unfurled over Oslo’s Ullevaal Stadium, the home ground of the national football team, that read: “Your pitch, your choice: Boycott Israel”.

Asked by the Reuters news agency for comment, the Israel Football Association called the campaign “pathetic” and said the “group of hypocrites” behind it should condemn the October 7 attack by Hamas and call for the release of Israeli captives.

Israel’s Culture Minister Miki Zohar says the government has decided to freeze funding of the Ophir Awards, the Israeli film industry’s top awards, after it awarded its top prize to a film he dubbed “pro-Palestinian”.

The award for best film, as well as five other prizes, was given to “Hayam”, a film about a 12-year-old Palestinian boy from the occupied West Bank who wants to travel to Tel Aviv to see the sea for the first time.

Winning best film means it will now automatically become Israel’s entry for the Academy Awards in the international film category next year.

“After the pro-Palestinian film ‘Hayam’, which discredits our heroic soldiers as they fight to protect us, won the Best Film award at the shameful Ophir 2025 ceremony, I decided to stop funding the ceremony with Israeli citizens’ money,” Zohar announced in a statement, saying the funds would be cut off from next year.

As well as best picture, the film directed by Shai Carmeli-Pollak also picked up the prize for best actor, awarded to Mohammad Ghazaoui, who plays the lead role, making him the youngest-ever winner.

The Israeli Academy of Film and Television, which organises the Ophir Awards, responded, saying it reaffirmed its “commitment to cinematic excellence, artistic freedom and freedom of expression”.

An independent United Nations commission says Israel has committed genocide in Gaza.

Mass killing and injuries, destruction of infrastructure and the creation of unliveable conditions are all part of the acts that make up the crime.

And Israeli ministers have clearly demonstrated their intent through their statements, says the report.

The commission has called upon Israel to stop and called on the rest of the world to stop aiding Israel’s genocide by selling it weapons.

Watch Al Jazeera’s Inside Story below:

Prominent United States Senator Bernie Sanders has described Israel’s assault on Gaza as a genocide, renewing his call for ending Washington’s “complicity in the slaughter of the Palestinian people”.

Sanders’ statement comes a day after a United Nations Commission of Inquiry released an extensive report that concluded that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.

“The intent is clear. The conclusion is inescapable: Israel is committing genocide in Gaza,” Sanders said.

The former presidential candidate, who remains a leading figure in the progressive movement, is the first US senator to call the Israeli offensive a genocide. Several members of the House of Representatives have previously done so.

Read more here.

Hundreds of protesters, including family members of Israeli captives held by Hamas, are demonstrating outside the Jerusalem residence of Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu, whom they accuse of refusing a ceasefire in favour of ramping up an offensive on the territory.

The protesters have rallied in the same location in recent nights in response to the intensified attacks on Gaza City that they fear endanger the lives of their loved ones.

Families of hostages and many supporters are holding another night of protests outside Prime Minister Netanyahu's residence. pic.twitter.com/F8bRAz6NgX

— Bring Them Home Now (@bringhomenow) September 17, 2025

Israeli forces have launched a new wave of attacks in Gaza City, targeting Palestinians near two hospitals.

At least 13 people have been killed in the attack near al-Shifa Hospital, one of the few medical facilities still partially functioning in the north.

Elsewhere in Gaza City, another Israeli strike killed at least four people near al-Ahli Hospital.

These attacks are part of a military offensive to seize control of the area.

Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud reports from central Gaza:

Abed Alaleem Wahdan, a displaced Palestinian due to Israel’s latest operation on Gaza City, tells Al Jazeera that there is no safety anywhere in Gaza.

“As you can see, I’ve packed up my belongings,” he said, adding that the costs are high in the enclave and people do not know where to go.

“The future feels destroyed – no one knows what to do,” the Palestinian also said.

Wahdan stressed that people are fed up with the situation.

“It’s overcrowded, all the land is rented, and the bombing is everywhere, even in the south,” he said.

Four Palestinians have been injured in an attack by Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank, Wafa is reporting.

The attack targeted a Bedouin community east of the town of Rammun, 12km (7.5 miles) east of Ramallah, leaving residents with injuries and bruises and resulting in them being taken to hospital.

The settlers also stole a flock of sheep during the attack, the agency reported.

The Israeli ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon, says the war will not end with the Israeli captives in Gaza left behind.

Danon made the remarks as he spoke about the upcoming UN General Assembly gathering in New York scheduled for next week.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu – wanted by the International Criminal Court over alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza – was due to speak at the meeting.

“We will remind the world once again that this war will not end with the hostages left behind in Gaza,” Danon was quoted as saying by Reuters.

Hamas says at least 15 people were killed in an Israeli attack on civilians near Gaza City’s al-Shifa Hospital, in a massacre it said constituted “a full-fledged war crime”.

In a statement on Telegram, Hamas said that the attack came “less than 24 hours after the release of a new UN report documenting the occupation’s commission of the crime of genocide against our people”.

“It thus represents a blatant message of defiance and blatant contempt for the international community, and a grave disregard for international laws and conventions,” said the statement.

It said it called on the international community to “take immediate and serious action to stop these heinous crimes, to restrain the war criminal Netanyahu from continuing his aggression and terrorism against our people, and to take the necessary legal measures to hold the occupation leaders accountable”.