The Israeli military began a ground offensive in Gaza City, the Israel Defense Forces said on Tuesday, with two IDF divisions moving toward the city. A third was expected to join them.
In images taken from the Israel-Gaza border, plumes of smoke could be seen rising above the city, which is the largest in the Gaza Strip. Large explosions were reported across the city.
About 450,000 people had evacuated Gaza City as of Thursday, according to the IDF.
Qatari minister visits International Criminal Court after Israeli strike on Doha
Qatar’s minister of state visited the International Criminal Court in the Hague “as part of the work of the team tasked with exploring legal avenues to respond,” to Israel’s strike on Doha, Qatar, earlier this month, the minister said in a post on X Wednesday.
“During the two meetings, I reaffirmed Qatar’s commitment to supporting the path of international justice and to ensuring accountability for perpetrators of crimes under international law—including wars crimes and acts of aggression —so as to prevent them from escaping punishment within the framework of international criminal law,” the minister said in the post.
-ABC News' Ellie Kaufman
Sep 17, 2025, 5:01 PM EDT
'If this ground offensive lasts months, it’s going to be horrible,' says New York doctor working in Gaza
The number of casualties in Gaza has already increased since Israel began its ground offensive on Gaza City, according to New York doctor and trauma specialist Dr. Michael Falk, who is providing care in Gaza for charity MedGlobal.
There have been "two mass casualty incidents" due to the IDF offensive in the last three days alone, Falk said. He has been based at Nasser Hospital in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis for three weeks.
Smoke rises from Gaza after an explosion, as seen from Israel September 17, 2025.
Amir Cohen/Reuters
"If this ground offensive lasts months, it's going to be horrible," Falk said. "As soon as winter sets in you'll see more waterborne diseases, more respiratory illnesses, and people are already chronically malnourished. They can't heal. Post-operative wound infections are horrendous, and mortality is far higher than in the U.S."
Falk said there simply isn't enough room for the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who fled Gaza City to live.
An Israeli tank manoeuvres on the Israeli side of the border with Gaza, in Israel September 17, 2025.
Amir Cohen/Reuters
"There's literally no place for 350,000 refugees to go," he said.
"Mid-Gaza is a tent city from the Mediterranean to the eastern border. You can buy a tent for $400, rent the land, and then somehow feed your family -- but that's all while the war is going on around you," he added.
On Wednesday, he said he treated someone who had been "blown up" in an area of Gaza considered as the "green zone," whereas he says the area he works in is considered to be a more dangerous "yellow zone."
Palestinians search for wood to sell or use for cooking amid the rubble of a building from which thousands of artifacts were removed before being destroyed in an Israeli military strike in Gaza City, Sept. 14, 2025.
Yousef Al Zanoun/AP
"One of my residents went home last night and his wife's entire family, aside from his father, were killed in the so-called safe zone. We had an ambulance driver shot outside the hospital this week. He died," he said.
"There really is no safe space in Gaza," he said.
Nasser Hospital is supposed to hold 300 patients. The hospital currently has more than a thousand, he said.
Falk has worked on multiple occasions in three conflict zones: Iraq in 2017, Ukraine after Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022 and in Gaza.
An Israeli armored vehicle moves along the Israeli-Gaza border as seen from southern Israel, Tuesday, Sept. 16, 2025.
Leo Correa/AP
"Gaza is the worst I've ever seen," he said. "This feels indiscriminate. There is no reprieve, no calm place to go. It's constant and everywhere."
-ABC News' Tom Soufi Burridge
Sep 17, 2025, 1:06 PM EDT
Over 400,000 Palestinians evacuate as 25 towers destroyed in Gaza City, Israel says
More than 400,000 Palestinians have evacuated Gaza City as Israel continues to expand its ground operation, according to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). This leaves an estimated 600,000 people still in the city.
The IDF said 25 towers were destroyed in Gaza City on Tuesday after the expanded ground offensive began, Israel Defense Minister Israel Katz said in a post on X.
According to Katz, they were "terror towers" destroyed "in order to remove any threat of sniping from the maneuvering forces."
"If Hamas does not release the hostages and disarm, Gaza will be destroyed and become a monument to the atrocities and murderers of Hamas," Katz said.
-ABC News' Jordana Miller
Sep 17, 2025, 1:03 PM EDT
European Commission proposes suspending trade concessions with Israel
The European Commission has proposed suspending "trade concessions" with Israel and sanctioning "extremist ministers" in Israel and "violent settlers," European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in a post on X Wednesday.
While the move proposes putting "bilateral support to Israel on hold," Von der Leyen said, this would not impact Europe's work with "Israeli civil society or Yad Vashem," referring to Israel's memorial institution to Holocaust victims.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz responded to the recommendation, calling the move "morally and politically distorted," in a post on X.
