Israel launched a ground offensive into Gaza City on September 16, 2025, after hours of air and artillery strikes that residents described as among the most intense of the war against Hamas. The Israel Defense Forces said troops were moving deeper into dense neighbourhoods, describing this as the main phase of a long-signalled campaign to dismantle remaining units and tunnel nodes.
Early accounts stated that armour and infantry entered multiple sectors, and that planners assessed up to 3,000 fighters remained embedded in urban terrain. The escalation followed a week of evacuation orders that directed civilians toward the coastal strip of Al-Mawasi, designated by the military as a humanitarian area, with instructions to use the coastal road and assurances of improved services in that zone. Those orders were issued city-wide on September 9, prompting panic movements from high-rise districts, and were paired with warnings to vacate specific buildings ahead of strikes. The advance, the movement of columns into the city, the launch of the ground assault, the September 9 evacuation push, and the route designation to Al-Mawasi anchor the opening sequence.
On the same day, a commission mandated by the UN Human Rights Council released findings that concluded Israel has committed genocide in the Gaza Strip, detailing patterns of killing, serious bodily harm and conditions of life calculated to bring about destruction, as well as instances of direct and public incitement by senior officials. The legal setting is shaped by the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which on January 26, 2024 indicated provisional measures requiring Israel to prevent genocidal acts, enable humanitarian assistance and punish incitement while the case on the merits proceeds. The Court maintains a provisional-measures docket, and on May 24, 2024 it reaffirmed and expanded its orders in light of conditions in Gaza. These judicial steps do not resolve the allegation itself; they impose immediate obligations that apply regardless of battlefield turns. Israel rejects the genocide characterisation and maintains that its campaign targets Hamas and seeks to free hostages.
The humanitarian context is severe. On August 22, 2025, UN agencies confirmed that famine exists in Gaza Governorate, which includes Gaza City. The same alert projected that by late September more than 640,000 people would face “Catastrophic” food insecurity (IPC Phase 5), with a further 1.14 million in “Emergency” (IPC Phase 4) and 396,000 in “Crisis” (IPC Phase 3). Technical materials published that month set out the statistically defined thresholds—extreme food deprivation, acute malnutrition and hunger-related mortality—that underpin a famine determination, and explained why data gaps in the north constrained formal grading despite indications of similarly severe conditions; those details appear in the IPC system’s special snapshot for July–September 2025. The broader picture has been consistent for months: the entire population is experiencing high levels of acute food insecurity, reflecting the collapse of market access, livelihoods and public services. An August update warned that at least 132,000 children under five risk acute malnutrition through mid-2026 without urgent changes in access and supply.
Funding has not kept pace with need. As of September 10, 2025, contributions to the 2025 response plan for the occupied Palestinian territory totalled roughly $985 million against $4 billion requested, forcing rationing of programmes as indicators deteriorate. The financing gap, sectoral impacts and rising malnutrition-related mortality are documented in the September 10 humanitarian situation update. That update also records a cumulative Palestinian death toll of 64,656 and 163,503 injuries since October 7, 2023, as reported by Gaza’s health ministry, along with 404 deaths attributed to malnutrition, including 141 children. These tallies cannot be independently verified under current access constraints and are contested by Israeli authorities, but they provide the baseline used by the coordination system to plan and advocate. The combination of underfunding and insecurity has driven a “hyper-prioritised” posture across operations, limiting surge capacity precisely as conditions breach famine thresholds.
Access and security remain the principal brakes on relief. Coordination snapshots show low approval and high cancellation rates for aid missions due to insecurity and denials, particularly around Gaza City. For the week of September 3–9, the system recorded that 42% of 120 planned movements were facilitated. Earlier in August, facilitation rates were similarly poor, with repeated displacements and looting pressures on convoys; field updates captured the operational environment and the limits of designated humanitarian areas along the coast, including Al-Mawasi, where services remain inadequate for mass arrivals. Kitchens and clinics have repeatedly shut or relocated under fire, and the volume of food entering the enclave remains below the 2,000 metric tons per day required to stabilise diets. Those conditions feature in the IPC analysis underlying the famine confirmation and in operational notes from UN field teams and partners.
Positions on intent and responsibility diverge sharply. Israeli officials state that the offensive aims to destroy military infrastructure and pressure for hostage releases while mitigating harm through evacuation corridors and targeted strikes. During the opening hours of the new push, a spokesperson insisted there would not be “a situation of starvation” in Gaza even as residents fled under shelling and aid organisers struggled to keep community kitchens open. The same morning, battlefield updates reported forces operating “deeper” in Gaza City and warned of intensifying urban combat. Humanitarian organisations counter that evacuation routes are unsafe, that designated areas lack water, sanitation and shelter, and that the combined effect of access restrictions and hostilities has made sustained large-scale delivery impossible. The famine confirmation described the crisis as “man-made” and linked outcomes directly to the collapse of public health, market systems and agricultural access.
The evacuation regime illustrates the strategic and humanitarian bind. In early September, the military issued city-wide orders and building-specific warnings ahead of strikes, and directed civilians to Al-Mawasi via the coastal road while promising improved services in that zone. Field teams and medical staff warned that a mass movement on short notice would overwhelm any existing infrastructure, citing a lack of potable water and sanitation in tented areas and the risk of air and artillery fire along the route. The September 9 public order to evacuate triggered panic in high-rise districts, while the route designation to Al-Mawasi set up predictable bottlenecks at checkpoints and choke points. The operational result has been serial displacement that erodes coping capacity, pushes families into areas without shelter or services, and complicates the logistics of food and health delivery.
Inside Gaza City, the new assault reopens battlefields devastated in late 2023 and early 2024. Commanders have identified tunnel nodes and command sites as priority targets, arguing that renewed pressure is necessary to degrade military capacity. Independent analysts have warned that urban clearing could endanger captives and impose heavy costs on troops while delivering uncertain strategic gains. For civilians who remained or returned in recent months, survival has depended on ad-hoc markets, informal kitchens and overstretched clinics. Coordination data show repeated closures and relocations of kitchens and medical points under fire, reflecting the difficulty of maintaining operations at the scale required by a population where a significant share has now crossed famine thresholds. The agencies responsible for food, nutrition and health laid out the quantitative thresholds behind the determination and their projection of spread beyond Gaza Governorate without a rapid, sustained increase in access; those benchmarks are detailed in the IPC technical materials and the famine confirmation.
The legal and diplomatic implications of the genocide finding will unfold over months. The commission’s conclusion carries political weight because it is the first such determination by a UN-mandated investigative mechanism during this war, but it does not replace court rulings. States will read it alongside the ICJ’s provisional measures, which require steps to prevent genocide and enable assistance now. Those measures, accessible on the Court’s case page and formalised in orders of January 26, 2024 and May 24, 2024, create obligations that can inform national export-control decisions, sanctions policy and judicial review. Whether governments condition military or political support will hinge on domestic politics, alliance management and interpretations of legal risk. The commission’s documentation of alleged incitement raises additional questions about individual criminal responsibility that sit within the remit of ongoing investigations by international and domestic prosecutors.
Funding and access will determine near-term outcomes more than legal argument. On current financing trends, agencies are triaging operations to protect the most vulnerable groups, particularly children under five and pregnant and breastfeeding women, where acute malnutrition is rising fastest. The September 10 update quantifies the shortfall and links it to programme suspensions and closures; it also records rising deaths attributed to malnutrition. Even if new money arrives, the facilitation rate for movements must increase sharply to meet baseline needs. Coordination teams calculate that food volumes entering the enclave remain well below the 2,000 metric tons per day required to stabilise diets; without predictability, planners cannot stand up the kitchens and mobile clinics necessary to absorb a large displacement from Gaza City.
For now, the facts are stark. A ground offensive began on September 16; a UN-mandated body has alleged genocide; the International Court of Justice’s binding interim obligations require preventing atrocities and enabling aid; and famine has been confirmed in the city’s governorate. The intersection of urban combat and a hunger emergency leaves little margin for error. Whether the assault reduces or heightens risks to civilians will be judged by measurable changes in access, nutrition and mortality in the coming weeks, as tracked by the IPC partners’ country analysis and the regular coordination updates. Without sustained safe passage for large-scale relief and a restoration of commercial flows, the agencies responsible for food security and health warn that the famine zone will expand and hunger-related deaths will rise—regardless of battlefield outcomes.
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