Middle East updates: EU proposes Israel sanctions over Gaza

Israeli troops and tanks moved even further into Gaza City on Wednesday, as the Hamas-run health ministry reported that the Palestinian death toll surpassed 65,000.

The Israeli military said air force and artillery units have struck the city more than 150 times, as ground troops prepared to move in.

Those strikes have cut off phone and internet services, making it harder for Palestinians to summon ambulances during the military’s new offensive.

Israel opened another corridor south of Gaza City for two days beginning Wednesday to allow more people to evacuate.

High-rise buildings brought down

The strikes toppled high-rise towers in areas that housed tent camps, with Israel saying the towers were used by Hamas to watch troops. 

Local regulators said the severed phone and internet services hindered the ability of Palestinians to call for help. 

Israeli bombardment has destroyed vast areas of Gaza and has displaced around 90% of the population. Experts say Gaza City is currently experiencing famine too.

Over 65,000 Palestinians said to have been killed

The death count in Gaza climbed to 65,062, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which is part of the Hamas-run government.

As Israel moves forward with its offensive in Gaza City, it has estimated that some 400,000 people, or 40% of those who were in Gaza City on August 10, when the offensive was announced, have already fled.

Gaza's media office says 190,000 people have headed south and 350,000 have moved to central and western areas of the city.

Israel still expects around 100,000 civilians to remain in the city.

UNICEF spokesperson in Gaza, Tess Ingram, told DW that Palestinians on the ground say fear they are unsafe whether they stay in Gaza City or leave.

"This so-called humanitarian zone, Al Mawasi, is not a safe place because there aren't the essential services and supplies people need to survive in sufficient quantities. And also there have been strikes on this area as recently as as two weeks ago, eight children were killed while trying to access safe drinking water and the youngest was three years old," Ingram said.

Gaza residents have seen bombardments around them intensify, fearing that it will get worse, Ingram said.

"Families were exhausted, they're traumatized. There were children walking six hours on shattered rubble and tarmac with no shoes and their feet were bleeding. And these families are walking into the unknown," she added.

Although UNICEF is present in both Gaza City and in the south of the territory, Ingram warned that the current humanitarian response isn't meeting the needs of the existing population, "let alone if hundreds of thousands more people descend on this area."

""We absolutely need now more than ever for all of the crossings into the Gaza Strip to open, for the Gaza Strip to be flooded with the aid that we've been calling for for many, many months now," she urged. 

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar warned the EU that any measures against Israel would "harm Europe's own interests" after the European Commission proposed trade restrictions and sanctions on two far-right ministers. 

"The recommendations of the college of Commissioners led by President [Usrula] von der Leyen are morally and politically distorted," Saar wrote on X. 

Israel's top diplomat said his country will continue the "existential war" with the "help of its friends in Europe." 

"Any action against Israel will receive an appropriate response, and we hope we will not have to use them," he wrote.

EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said earlier while announcing the proposed measures that they were not meant to "punish Israel" but rather improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza. 

Human Rights Watch (HRW) accused Israel of forcibly displacing residents in southern Syria, which Israel has demanded be demilitarized as part of a new security pact.

Citing interviews with locals, and satellite images, the rights group said Israeli forces have "seized and demolished homes, blocked residents from their property and livelihoods, and arbitrarily detained residents and transferred them to Israel" since December 2024. 

Israel has stepped up attacks in Syria after longtime Syrian ruler Bashar Assad was ousted in December. 

HRW said "Israel has pushed deep into the UN-monitored demilitarized zone separating the Golan Heights."

Israel also "intensified airstrikes on military infrastructure," the group said, noting statements by Israeli officials who have said that they intend to "completely demilitarize" the south of Syria.

A buffer zone between Syria and Israel on the Golan Heights was initially established after a disengagement pact in 1974, but Israel's occupation of the Golan Heights continues, with only the US and Israel officially recognizing the Syrian territory as part of Israel. 

The European Union's foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, has put forward a proposal to curb trade with Israel and impose restrictions on far-right Israeli ministers, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich. 

"I want to be very clear, the aim is not to punish Israel. The aim is to improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza," Kallas said. "The war needs to end. The suffering must stop, and all hostages must be released."

It's questionable whether there will be a majority of states in the 27-member bloc in favor of the measures Kallas proposed, although the EU has come under criticism for failing to pressure Israel to end the war.

A German government spokesperson earlier said that Berlin is aware of but "has not yet formed a final opinion" on the proposed measures. 

Last week, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced that the EU would halt payments to Israel, and that the bloc's executive was working on further measures. 

On Tuesday, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said the EU's suspension of certain trade advantages was "disproportionate" and "unprecedented." 

Palestinian news agency WAFA reported that at least 33 people were killed on Wednesday across the Gaza Strip, including 21 in Gaza City, the enclave's biggest city.

The figure is reported to include a pregnant woman and several children, according to hospital officials. 

It comes as Israel presses on with its ground offensive in Gaza City, where it called on hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to evacuate to the southern Gaza Strip.

The Israeli army said Wednesday it had attacked more than 150 targets in Gaza City over 48 hours, including what it said was a Hamas weapons facility. 

Pope Leo XVI called for a ceasefire and the release of Israeli hostages as he condemned the displacement of Palestinians forced to leave their homes in Gaza.

"I express my deep solidarity with the Palestinian people in Gaza who continue to live in fear and survive in unacceptable conditions, being forcibly displaced once again from their lands," said the 70-year-old pope after his weekly general audience.

He urged a negotiated diplomatic solution and "the full respect of international humanitarian law."

"I invite everyone to join my heartfelt prayer that soon a dawn of peace and justice will rise," he said. 

Pope Leo met with Israeli President Isaac Herzog at the Vatican earlier this month. The Vatican said Leo had lamented the "tragic situation in Gaza" with Herzog.

 The UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry (COI) has said Israel has been committing genocide in the Gaza Strip for two years. 

Investigators said four of the five genocidal acts listed in the 1948 UN Genocide Convention have been carried out in Gaza. 

The commission named Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Isaac Herzog and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant as inciters of genocide.

The report echoed conclusions by the world's leading association of genocide scholars and several international rights groups.

Legal consequences 

These findings could be used by two UN courts: the International Criminal Court (ICC), which had issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant on charges of war crimes, or the International Court of Justice, where South Africa filed a genocide case against Israel. 

The cases at both world courts are likely to take years, and Netanyahu's allies, including the United States and Germany, have signalled that they would not arrest him on the ICC warrant.

Political consequences 

The UN report urged the international community to end the genocide and take steps to hold Israel's leadership accountable.

The latest investigation is likely to further fuel growing opposition to Israel's war in Gaza, both domestically and internationally.

Several European countries have announced that they would formally recognize Palestinian statehood during next week's UN General Assembly in a push toward a two-state solution. 

Earlier this week, Netanyahu said that Israel should prepare for international isolation. 

Iran has executed Babak Shahbazi after convicting him of spying for Israel's Mossad intelligence agency, according to the judiciary's Mizan Online news agency.

Mizan said Wednesday that Shahbazi was sentenced to death for "corruption on earth" and "waging war against God," and that the Supreme Court upheld the verdict. He had worked on industrial cooling systems for companies tied to military, security and telecommunications facilities, giving him access to sensitive sites.

Authorities said he passed information to Mossad for money and foreign residency. Iran has vowed swift punishment for anyone accused of collaborating with Israel since its June war with the country.

Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam of the Oslo-based group Iran Human Rights said the verdict was delivered "without a fair trial and on the basis of confessions extracted under torture."

The Israeli army has said it will open a second road through the Gaza Strip on Wednesday to allow civilians to move south.

Starting at noon local time (0900 GMT/UTC), the Salah al-Din road — running along Gaza's eastern side — will remain open for 48 hours, military spokesperson Avichay Adraee announced on X.

Salah al-Din parallels the Israeli border, while the alternative Rashid Road similarly runs north to south but closer to the coast.

In the north of the Palestinian territory, the Israeli military has launched its long-awaited ground offensive in Gaza City.

Troops have been operating on the city's outskirts for weeks and began moving towards the center on Monday evening.

More than 20 humanitarian organizations have called for urgent international action to halt the war between Israel and Hamas ahead of next week's UN General Assembly.

"States must use every available political, economic, and legal tool at their disposal to intervene," the groups said in a joint statement released by Save the Children. "World leaders fail to act. Facts are ignored. Testimony is cast aside. And more people are killed as a direct consequence."

The appeal followed a UN-appointed commission report accusing Israel of genocide in Gaza, a charge Israel rejected as "scandalous," saying its military campaign targets Hamas, not civilians.

The aid groups warned Wednesday that UN member states are treating their obligations under international law as optional.

"History will undoubtedly judge this moment as a test of humanity. And we are failing," they wrote, citing families surviving on animal food and children eating boiled leaves amid relentless airstrikes.

The statement's signatories include Doctors Without Borders, Care International, the Norwegian Refugee Council and Oxfam International.

Welcome to DW's coverage of Gaza, Israel and the wider Middle East.

You join us as major aid groups sound the alarm ahead of next week's UN General Assembly, pleading with world leaders to step up efforts to end the war between Israel and Hamas.

In a joint statement released by Save the Children on behalf of more than 20 major aid agencies working in Gaza, the groups said governments must use every political, economic and legal tool to halt the fighting.

The agencies accused UN member states of treating their obligations under international law as optional.

Follow along as DW brings you the latest reports, explainers and analysis on developments across the Middle East.