 "People walk at the site of Israeli strikes on Nasser hospital where journalists and civilians were killed, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip in this still image taken from video, August 25, 2025. Reuters")
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered a new military offensive to seize Gaza City, Hamas’s last major stronghold. Israel has called up 60,000 reservists for the operation, which is likely to displace hundreds of thousands more Palestinians. Heavy Israeli bombardments across Gaza continue, with intense fighting reportedly happening in Gaza City’s outskirts.
Israeli tanks are reported to be rolling into Gaza City. The expansion of the military campaign into Gaza City, including plans for clearing civilian areas and seizing control, has sparked both international condemnation and domestic protests.
Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump is keeping his foreign policy focus on Russia and Ukraine as global outrage grows over Israel’s plans to launch a major new offensive in the Gaza Strip. According to the Israeli media, Trump has actually backed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s decision to launch a major offensive to take over Gaza City.
Throughout his current term, Trump has continued to show support for Netanyahu and has openly backed Israeli military operations in Gaza. In July 2025, Netanyahu reportedly informed his cabinet that the Trump administration supports his plan to annex parts of Gaza. Netanyahu indicated that the plan was communicated to US Secretary of State Marco Rubio by Israel’s Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer.
Earlier, in February 2025, Trump floated a controversial plan for the US to “take over” Gaza, build the “Riviera of the Middle East” there and permanently “resettle” Palestinians in neighbouring countries like Egypt and Jordan. These countries firmly rejected the idea, which was widely criticised as potentially amounting to ethnic cleansing. However, Trump’s proposals have emboldened far-right members of Netanyahu’s government who advocate
Impact Shorts
View Allannexing Gaza.The Israel-Palestine conflict is resulting in a deepening humanitarian catastrophe in the Gaza Strip, including a formal declaration of famine. The severity of the situation is brought out by a report by the IPC (the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification), a UN-backed food security assessment. It has declared in an analysis released on August 22 that ‘over half a million people in the Gaza Strip are facing catastrophic conditions characterised by starvation, destitution and death’. The IPC projects that famine conditions will spread to the governorates of Deir al-Balah and Khan Younis by the end of September 2025.On August 22, Tom Fletcher, UN Under-Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, said that the famine was entirely preventable, saying food could not get through to the Palestinian territory “because of systematic obstruction by Israel”. Reports indicate that hundreds of people have been killed while attempting to access aid at distribution sites, including incidents of shootings and stampedes.
The conflict has displaced more than 90 per cent of Gaza’s population—over 2 million people. Many have been forced to move multiple times in search of safety. Displaced people are sheltering in overcrowded schools, tents, and other makeshift structures that are deteriorating and unsuitable for extreme weather.
Israeli military operations continue to expand into areas previously designated as “safe”, reducing the total protected area to less than 12 per cent of the Gaza Strip. While a January 2025 ceasefire allowed some to return to northern Gaza, renewed hostilities caused more displacement and intensified humanitarian challenges.
Gaza’s healthcare system is almost completely shattered, with many hospitals destroyed or only partially functional. Field hospitals, like the Red Cross facility in Rafah, are operating beyond maximum capacity. Severe overcrowding, coupled with the near-total collapse of water and sanitation infrastructure, has led to a rapid spread of infectious diseases like cholera and hepatitis. The first case of polio in 25 years was reported in July 2024, signalling a public health emergency.
Critical medical supplies, including anaesthesia for surgery and equipment for dialysis, are scarce. Many health facilities have run out of fuel to operate generators, forcing the suspension of services. Repeated attacks on healthcare facilities and workers have further debilitated the system. The Palestine Red Crescent Society has said that it has lost 31 medics since October 2023.
Addressing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a complex and deeply challenging issue with no single, agreed-upon solution. Various proposals have been discussed by international bodies, regional powers, academics, and the public for decades, though recent events have created new obstacles to peace. The ongoing war in Gaza, triggered by Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, has further diminished trust and entrenched positions on both sides.
International efforts continue in support of the two-state solution, even while acknowledging its diminishing viability. For example, the UN conference in July 2025 emphasised “unwavering support” for a two-state solution. However, the realities on the ground, including Israeli settlement expansion and diminished support among both Israelis and Palestinians, make its implementation appear increasingly unfeasible.
While many analysts and officials declare the two-state solution effectively dead, it remains the formal goal of the United Nations due to a lack of viable alternatives. UN Secretary-General António Guterres has consistently stressed that the two-state solution, envisioning an independent Palestine and Israel coexisting in peace, is the only viable path to ending the conflict.
President Trump has expressed scepticism about the two-state solution. The US termed the July 2025 UN two-state solution conference an “ill-advised publicity stunt that will further embolden Hamas and undermine our serious diplomatic efforts to end the war”.
As the two-state solution loses viability, alternatives like a bi-national state or a confederation model are also beginning to get some attention. The bi-national approach involves creating a single, secular, democratic state in which Israelis and Palestinians would have equal rights. The confederation model involves creating two sovereign states, Israel and Palestine, that are linked by a joint governing framework.
However, the ground reality is that these approaches also depend on a level of trust that has been severely eroded by years of conflict and the ongoing war. Moreover, the profound power imbalance between Israel and the Palestinians presents an insurmountable challenge to establishing shared governance.
In conclusion, there seems to be no end in sight for the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza, marked by a high intensity of violence in an extremely dense urban area, devastating losses of life, and an ongoing crisis of hunger, displacement, and destroyed infrastructure. Netanyahu has continued to assert Israel’s military goals in Gaza while maintaining that a “total victory” against Hamas is essential for Israel’s security and for achieving lasting peace in the region.
Thus, the situation is poised to become even more desperate, with calls for a permanent ceasefire and unhindered aid access falling on deaf ears. As Guterres puts it, “Gaza is more than a humanitarian crisis—it is a moral crisis that challenges the global conscience.”
The writer is a retired Indian diplomat and had previously served as Ambassador in Kuwait and Morocco and as Consul General in New York. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect Firstpost’s views.