Israel's Netanyahu to convene cabinet on Gaza war goals
"We must continue to stand together and fight together to achieve all our war objectives: the defeat of the enemy, the release of our hostages, and the assurance that Gaza will no longer pose a threat to Israel," Netanyahu said at the outset of a regular cabinet meeting.
Israel's Channel 12 cited an official from his office as saying that Netanyahu was inclining towards expanding the offensive and seizing the entire Palestinian enclave.
Israeli media reported that the cabinet would meet on Tuesday to make a decision on that.
Netanyahu's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Gaza war began when Hamas killed 1,200 people and took 251 hostage in an attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, according to Israeli figures. Israel's offensive has since killed more than 60,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health officials.
According to Israeli officials, 50 hostages now remain in Gaza, only 20 of whom are believed to be alive.
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Newsweek
18 minutes ago
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Rare Aerial Footage Reveals Destruction in Gaza
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. New footage captured from an aid drop over the Gaza Strip offers a glimpse at the destruction in the war-torn territory as international pressure mounts on the Israeli government to allow more supplies into Gaza. Why It Matters Israeli aerial and ground attacks have destroyed large parts of the densely populated Gaza Strip since the start of the war, sparked by Palestinian militant group Hamas' October 7, 2023, attacks on Israel. More than 1,200 people died, and 251 more were taken hostage in Gaza. In the just under 22 months since the attack, more than 61,000 people have been killed in Gaza, the Hamas-run Health Ministry said on Tuesday. This number does not differentiate between combatants and civilians. Israel's government is under increased pressure to end the war and to facilitate aid supplies into Gaza, as images and reports of Palestinians dying from starvation or malnutrition reverberate around the world. Smoke rises amid destroyed buildings following an Israeli shelling in the Gaza Strip, as seen from southern Israel on August 1, 2025. Smoke rises amid destroyed buildings following an Israeli shelling in the Gaza Strip, as seen from southern Israel on August 1, 2025. AP Photo/Leo Correa Israeli officials have denied that Palestinians are starving, while accusing Hamas of looting aid. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday that Israel has allowed two million tons of food into Gaza since the start of the war. Hamas said it gives the hostages in Gaza the same food and drink that civilians in the Strip receive. U.S. President Donald Trump, who has pushed for a ceasefire, disagreed with Israel's assessment in late July, telling reporters: "Those children look very hungry." What To Know Footage captured by a journalist from British outlet ITV News on board a Jordanian flight carrying aid to drop into Gaza, published late on Monday, showed swathes of rubble with few buildings left standing. Newsweek could not independently verify the footage and has reached out to the Israeli military for comment. Aerial footage filmed by ITV News shows scale of Gaza's destructionhttps:// — ITV News (@itvnews) August 4, 2025 The BBC reported in mid-July that Israel had demolished "thousands of buildings" in Gaza since March this year, including "entire towns and suburbs" within a few weeks. A United States-brokered ceasefire deal fell apart in March when Israel restarted operations in Gaza. The United Nations' agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, said at the start of August that 92 percent of housing units in Gaza were destroyed or damaged. The agency quoted figures from another U.N. branch. There were more than 53 million tons of debris in Gaza as of April 2025, according to the U.N.'s Environment Program. This is a rise of 133 percent over the 15 months to April 2025, the U.N.'s report said. The "most significant" increase in debris was recorded in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, according to the figures. Rafah has felt the brunt of Israeli operations in Gaza, along with the cities of Khan Younis, just north of Rafah, and large chunks of northern Gaza. Several militaries have flown over the Strip to distribute aid in recent days, although aerial aid drops are criticized by humanitarian groups as often dangerous and less effective than road convoys. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said on Monday that six nations—the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Egypt, Germany, Belgium and Canada—had dropped 120 food aid packages over in an effort "led" by Israeli authorities. Israel prevents international journalists from entering Gaza, with the exception of tightly controlled trips organized by the Israeli military. Israel, in late July, started a daily pause in fighting in three of Gaza's heavily populated areas to allow aid into Gaza, although Netanyahu said humanitarian supplies entering the strip would be "minimal." Israel accuses Hamas and Islamic Jihad, another group that has operated in Gaza, of "using the starvation and torture of hostages as part of a deliberate and well-planned sadistic propaganda campaign." Hamas, in recent days, released footage showing two of the remaining Israeli hostages, Evyatar David and Rom Braslavski, emaciated in captivity in Gaza. Fifty hostages remain in the Strip of the 251 people taken by Hamas in October 2023. Osama Hamden, a senior Hamas official, said in remarks from a news conference shared with Newsweek that "enemy prisoners eat what our besieged and starved people eat, and drink what they drink." Hamden said he called on the U.N. Security Council to leverage Israel into opening up all aid crossings into Gaza, "urgently delivering food, water and medicine." The Hamas official said the U.N. should "compel" Israel to stop the "destruction of civilian life in Gaza" and to withdraw from the Strip. The U.N. Security Council will meet in New York on Tuesday afternoon. The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a U.S.-backed aid distribution initiative supported by Israel, is currently the primary method for Palestinians to access supplies in designated spots after Israel lifted its aid blockade in mid-May. The organization has been heavily criticized. The system has "generated a bloodbath in distribution lines in Gaza, which is a scandal, which is shameful, and has to stop," French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said on Thursday. COGAT, the Israeli authority for distributing aid in Gaza, said on Tuesday that a "limited number of local merchants" had been approved to bring supplies into the Strip, so the private sector supplies could reduce a reliance on aid. Israeli media reported on Tuesday that Netanyahu had indicated his desire to take military control of all of Gaza, despite U.S.-led efforts to reach a new ceasefire agreement. "It is still necessary to complete the defeat of the enemy in Gaza, release our hostages and ensure that Gaza never again constitutes a threat to Israel," Netanyahu's office said on Tuesday. What People Are Saying Several hundred former Israeli security officials appealed in a joint letter to Trump on Monday for the Republican to use his sway with Netanyahu to pressure the Israeli leader to "end the war, return the hostages, stop the suffering." The U.K. said last month it would recognize Palestine as a state in September if Israel did not take "substantive steps to end the appalling situation in Gaza." Canada and France have signaled similar intentions. UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini said on Tuesday: "Hunger has become the latest killer in Gaza."
CNN
18 minutes ago
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Hungarian Foreign Minister on his Country's Agenda and Ukraine's Bid to Join the E.U.
"Hungarian people have been paying the price of this war for too long time now, although we don't have any kind of responsibility." Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó on Hungary's agenda, and Ukraine's bid to join the E.U.
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‘Sheepdogs' is a thriller that unravels some of the genre's tropes
What are we most concerned about when it comes to the U.S. military? How have those concerns shifted in the past decade? You can glimpse an answer to those questions by looking at the novels of Elliot Ackerman. A decorated former Marine who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, Ackerman was part of the wave of American fiction writers who emerged from battle in the early 2010s with clutches of somber tales soaked in death and command mismanagement: Books such as Kevin Powers's 'The Yellow Birds,' Benjamin Percy's 'Refresh, Refresh' and Phil Klay's 'Redeployment' were joined by Ackerman's own acclaimed books, 'Green on Blue' and 'Dark at the Crossing.'
