Belgium to recognise Palestinian state at UN and sanction Israel – as it happened
Foreign minister says move is not aimed at Israeli people but ‘ensuring their government respects international and humanitarian law’. This live blog is closed
Closing summary
Belgium’s foreign minister, Maxime Prévot, has said his country will recognise a Palestinian state at the UN general assembly later this month, adding to international pressure on Israel after similar moves by Australia, Britain, Canada and France. The decision comes “in light of the humanitarian tragedy unfolding in Palestine, particularly in Gaza, and in response to the violence perpetrated by Israel in violation of international law,” Prévot said in a post to social media.
Gaza’s civil defence agency spokesperson Mahmud Bassal told the Agence France-Presse news agency (AFP) that Israeli forces had struck the top floor of a residential building in southwestern Gaza City overnight, killing 10 people. Bassal said Israeli helicopters also struck an apartment in the west of the city, killing three and injuring several others.
At least nine people, including five children, have been killed in an Israeli strike while fetching water in al-Mawasi, an area of southern Gaza which Israel has designated as a safe zone, health officials said. A doctor from al-Nasser hospital shared a picture of the children’s bodies in the hospital, as well as a picture of water jugs left in a pool of blood at the site of the attack on Tuesday.
At least 73 Palestinian people have been killed in Israeli attacks across Gaza since dawn, including 42 people in Gaza City, Al Jazeera is reporting, citing hospital sources.
At least 63,633 Palestinian people have been killed and 160,914 others injured in Israeli attacks on Gaza since 7 October 2023, the Gaza health ministry said in a statement on Tuesday.
Gaza’s civil defence agency spokesperson Mahmud Bassal told the Agence France-Presse news agency (AFP) that Israeli forces had struck the top floor of a residential building in southwestern Gaza City overnight, killing 10 people. Bassal said Israeli helicopters also struck an apartment in the west of the city, killing three and injuring several others.
Israel has started mobilising tens of thousands of reservists and repeated evacuation warnings as part of its plan to widen its offensive in Gaza City, which has sparked opposition domestically and condemnation abroad. The beginning of September call-up, announced last month, comes as ground and air forces press forward and pursue more targets in northern and central Gaza, striking parts of Zeitoun and Shijaiyah — two western Gaza City neighborhoods that Israeli forces have repeatedly invaded, AP reported.
The Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, said the US should urgently revise its decision to revoke the visas of Palestinian officials and bar them from attending a gathering of world leaders at the United Nations this month in New York. Washington said last week it would not allow the Palestinian Authority president, Mahmoud Abbas, and others to travel to New York, where several US allies are set to recognise Palestine as a state, Reuters reports.
Israeli president Isaac Herzog will travel to the Vatican on Thursday to meet Pope Leo XIV, who recently demanded that Israel stop its “collective punishment” of the population in Gaza. The one-day visit is being made at the invitation of the pope, Herzog’s office said in a statement earlier today.
A plan circulating in the White House to develop the “Gaza Riviera” as a string of high-tech megacities has been dismissed as an “insane” attempt to provide cover for the large-scale ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian territory’s population. On Sunday, the Washington Post published a leaked prospectus for the plan, which would involve the forced displacement of Gaza’s entire population of 2 million people and put the territory into a US trusteeship for at least a decade.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) says it killed a Hamas commander and a deputy commander in its operations in the northern and central parts of the Gaza Strip in collaboration with the 99th Division and Israel’s internal intelligence agency, Shin Bet, over the last month. In a post on X, the IDF claimed it had killed Ahmed Abu Daif, who the military said had served as deputy company commander of the Zeitoun battalion since last year.
The world’s leading genocide scholars’ association has backed a resolution stating that Israel’s actions in Gaza meet the legal definition of the crime. Out of the International Association of Genocide Scholars’s (IAGS) 500 members, 28% took part in the vote. Of those who voted, 86% supported the resolution.
French judicial authorities have issued arrest warrants for ousted Syrian president Bashar al-Assad and six other top former officials over the bombardment of a rebel-held city in 2012 that killed two journalists, the Agence France-Presse (AFP) news agency has just cited lawyers as having said. Marie Colvin, 56, an American working for The Sunday Times, and French photographer Remi Ochlik, 28, were killed on 22 February 2012 by the explosion in the eastern city of Homs, which is being investigated by the French judiciary as a potential crime against humanity.
Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis said on Tuesday that they had attacked a ship in the northern Red Sea with two drones and a missile over its connection to Israel. The group did not say when the attack happened.
Five children in Gaza among those killed by Israeli strike while fetching water
At least nine people, including five children, have been killed in an Israeli strike while fetching water in al-Mawasi, an area of southern Gaza which Israel has designated as a safe zone, health officials said.
A doctor from al-Nasser hospital shared a picture of the children’s bodies in the hospital, as well as a picture of water jugs left in a pool of blood at the site of the attack on Tuesday.
The attack came shortly after the Israel Defense Forces encouraged people to leave Gaza City for al-Mawasi, before Israel’s looming invasion of Gaza City. The Israeli military has sought to displace people from the city before its offensive and has promised that southern Gaza would be able to accommodate them, despite experts disagreeing with the suggestion.
“We wish to remind you that in al-Mawasi, enhanced services will be provided with an emphasis on access to medical care, water and food,” the Israeli military’s Arabic-language spokesperson Avichay Adraee said in a post on X on Tuesday afternoon.
Israel continued to push ahead with its operation and began the mobilisation of tens of thousands of reservists on Tuesday.
Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis said on Tuesday that they had attacked a ship in the northern Red Sea with two drones and a missile over its connection to Israel.
The group did not say when the attack happened.
Iran and the US could reopen “rational negotiations”, the secretary of Iran’s supreme national security council, Ali Larijani, has said in a post on X.
“We indeed pursue rational negotiations. By raising unrealisable issues such as missile restrictions, they set a path that negates any talks,” Larijani added.
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Husam Zomlot, the head of the Palestinian mission to the United Kingdom, has said that recognition of the Palestinian state is the first step in “an international momentum to implement the two-state solution”.
Speaking at Chatham House today, he said:
We, and with us the region, and the rest of the international community are in desperate and real search for an alternative path.
Recognition is a first step. It’s not a final step. It’s just a first, meaningful, significant, step in an international momentum to implement the two-state solution rather than negotiate it.
Zomlot previously served as a strategic affairs adviser to the Palestinian president.
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“The issuing of the seven arrest warrants is a decisive step that paves the way for a trial in France for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by Bashar al-Assad’s regime,” said Clemence Bectarte, lawyer for the Paris-based International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and Remi Ochlik’s parents.
The FIDH said the journalists had clandestinely entered Homs to “document the crimes committed by Bashar al-Assad’s regime” and were victims of a “targeted bombing”.
“The investigation clearly established that the attack on the informal press centre was part of the Syrian regime’s explicit intention to target foreign journalists in order to limit media coverage of its crimes and force them to leave the city and the country,” said Mazen Darwish, lawyer and director of the Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression (SCM).
France issues arrest warrant for Syria’s Assad over 2012 journalist killings, lawyers say
French judicial authorities have issued arrest warrants for ousted Syrian president Bashar al-Assad an six other top former officials over the bombardment of a rebel-held city in 2012 that killed two journalists, the Agence France-Presse (AFP) news agency has just cited lawyers as having said.
Marie Colvin, 56, an American working for The Sunday Times, and French photographer Remi Ochlik, 28, were killed on 22 February 2012 by the explosion in the eastern city of Homs, which is being investigated by the French judiciary as a potential crime against humanity.
Since December 2024, Assad has been living in exile in Russia after rebels led by Turkish-backed forces took control of Syria.
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At least 73 Palestinian people have been killed in Israeli attacks across Gaza since dawn, including 42 people in Gaza City, Al Jazeera is reporting, citing hospital sources.
We have not yet been able to independently verify this figure.
Updated
Israel has started mobilising tens of thousands of reservists and repeated evacuation warnings as part of its plan to widen its offensive in Gaza City, which has sparked opposition domestically and condemnation abroad.
The beginning of September call-up, announced last month, comes as ground and air forces press forward and pursue more targets in northern and central Gaza, striking parts of Zeitoun and Shijaiyah — two western Gaza City neighborhoods that Israeli forces have repeatedly invaded, AP reported.
Zeitoun, once Gaza City’s largest neighbourhood, with markets, schools and clinics, has been transformed over the past month, with streets being emptied and buildings reduced to rubble as it becomes what Israel’s military last week called a “dangerous combat zone”.
Gaza City is Hamas’ political and military stronghold and, according to Israel, still home to a vast tunnel network, despite incursions throughout the war.
It is also one of the last refuges in northern Gaza, where hundreds of thousands of civilians are sheltering, facing the twin threats of combat and famine.
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The Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, said the US should urgently revise its decision to revoke the visas of Palestinian officials and bar them from attending a gathering of world leaders at the United Nations this month in New York.
Washington said last week it would not allow the Palestinian Authority president, Mahmoud Abbas, and others to travel to New York, where several US allies are set to recognise Palestine as a state, Reuters reports.
The move “does not fit the United Nations’ raison d’etre,” Erdogan told reporters on a flight home from China, according to a readout from his office on Tuesday. “The decision needs to be urgently revised. The United Nations general assembly exists for the issues of the world to be discussed and for solutions to be found.”
“The Palestinian delegation not being at the general assembly would only please Israel,” he added. “What is expected from the United States is to say ‘stop’ to Israel’s massacres, cruelty.”
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Palestinians carry pans and bowls forms a crowd to receive food aid provided by charity organisation in Gaza City, Gaza, on September 2, 2025.
Israeli president to meet Pope Leo XIV at the Vatican on Thursday
Israeli President Isaac Herzog will travel to the Vatican on Thursday to meet Pope Leo XIV, who recently demanded that Israel stop its “collective punishment” of the population in Gaza.
The one-day visit is being made at the invitation of the pope, Herzog’s office said in a statement earlier today.
The president will also meet secretary of state Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican’s chief diplomat, and tour the Vatican Archives and Library, it added.
“Central to their meetings will be the efforts to secure the release of the hostages, the fight against global antisemitism, and the safeguarding of Christian communities in the Middle East, alongside discussions on other political matters,” the presidency said.
The pope has previously condemned the “barbarity” of the war in Gaza and the “indiscriminate use of force”.
Leaked ‘Gaza Riviera’ plan dismissed as ‘insane’ attempt to cover ethnic cleansing
A plan circulating in the White House to develop the “Gaza Riviera” as a string of high-tech megacities has been dismissed as an “insane” attempt to provide cover for the large-scale ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian territory’s population.
On Sunday the Washington Post published a leaked prospectus for the plan, which would involve the forced displacement of Gaza’s entire population of 2 million people and put the territory into a US trusteeship for at least a decade.
Named the Gaza Reconstitution, Economic Acceleration and Transformation Trust – or Great – the proposal was reportedly developed by some of the same Israelis who created and set in motion the US- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation with financial planning contributed by Boston Consulting Group.
Most controversially, the 38-page plan suggests what it calls “temporary relocation of all of Gaza’s more than 2 million population” – a proposal that would amount to ethnic cleansing, potentially a genocidal act.
Palestinians would be encouraged into “voluntary” departure to another country or into restricted, secure zones during reconstruction. Those who own land would be offered “a digital token” by the trust in exchange for rights to redevelop their property, to be used to finance a new life elsewhere.
Those who stay would be housed in properties with a tiny footprint of 323 sq ft – minuscule even by the standards of many non-refugee camp homes in Gaza.
You can read the full story by my colleagues Peter Beaumont and Alice Speri here:
Death toll from Israeli attacks on Gaza reaches 63,633, says health ministry
At least 63,633 Palestinian people have been killed and 160,914 others injured in Israeli attacks on Gaza since 7 October 2023, the Gaza health ministry said in a statement on Tuesday.
At least 76 Palestinian people, including 12 aid seekers, were killed in the last 24 hours alone, the ministry said.
Despite the overwhelming evidence to the contrary, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly denied there is starvation in Gaza, and his government called the recent famine declaration by international food security experts “an outright lie”.
Gaza’s health ministry said in a post on Telegram that over the past day it recorded 13 new deaths, including three children, caused by “famine and malnutrition”.
This brings the total number of Palestinian people who have died from famine and malnutrition to 361, including 130 children.
Israel has been widely accused of using food as a political weapon and was accused of flagrantly breaking international law by collectively punishing the civilian population of Gaza by its total 11 week blockade of aid (which began in March), which was only slightly eased in response to international pressure, particularly from US senators.
Aid organisations were bringing somewhere between 500 and 600 aid trucks a day into Gaza during the ceasefire earlier this year, but now ongoing Israeli restrictions mean much less aid is being allowed into the territory and distributed.
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The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) says it killed a Hamas commander and a deputy commander in its operations in the northern and central parts of the Gaza Strip in collaboration with the 99th Division and Israel’s internal intelligence agency, Shin Bet, over the last month,
In a post on X, the IDF claimed it had killed Ahmed Abu Daif, who the military said had served as deputy company commander of the Zeitoun battalion since last year.
“As part of his role, he planned, directed, and carried out dozens of ambushes and attacks against IDF forces, and in addition, he acted to recruit additional terrorists to the Hamas terror organization,” the IDF wrote.
“In one of the operations, the terrorist Talab Sadki Talab Abu Itaywi, commander of a Nukhba team who infiltrated the territory of the State of Israel on October 7, was eliminated,” it added.
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Israel committing genocide in Gaza, world’s top scholars on the crime say
Lorenzo Tondo is an international correspondent for the Guardian
The world’s leading genocide scholars’ association has backed a resolution stating that Israel’s actions in Gaza meet the legal definition of the crime.
Out of the International Association of Genocide Scholars’s (IAGS) 500 members, 28% took part in the vote. Of those who voted, 86% supported the resolution.
The resolution states that “Israel’s policies and actions in Gaza meet the legal definition of genocide in article II of the United Nations convention for the prevention and punishment of the crime of genocide (1948).”
The three-page resolution passed by the body calls on Israel to “immediately cease all acts that constitute genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity against Palestinians in Gaza, including deliberate attacks against and killing of civilians including children; starvation; deprivation of humanitarian aid, water, fuel, and other items essential to the survival of the population; sexual and reproductive violence; and forced displacement of the population.”
You can read the full story here:
Israel continues deadly attacks on Gaza City as military seeks to forcibly displace Palestinian residents
Gaza’s civil defence agency spokesperson Mahmud Bassal told the Agence France-Presse news agency (AFP) that Israeli forces had struck the top floor of a residential building in southwestern Gaza City overnight, killing 10 people.
Bassal said Israeli helicopters also struck an apartment in the west of the city, killing three and injuring several others.
Israel has stepped up its destruction of Gaza City as it prepares for an assault on the shattered remains of the territory’s largest city.
Around 1 million Palestinian people, many of whom are too frail or old to keep moving, are expected to be displaced by Israel’s expanded assault in the area.
Gaza City residents are being told to move to the southern part of the territory to areas that are under frequent Israeli bombardment and are already overcrowded.
Israel declared Gaza City a “dangerous combat zone” on Friday, ending the daily humanitarian pauses that were meant to alleviate hunger and starvation there.
As my colleague William Christou notes in this story, Gaza City is in the throes of famine, a result of an Israeli blockade that despite the pauses has choked off food and medical supplies into the territory.
The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has said the assault is the best way to weaken Hamas and return hostages, a claim that is heavily disputed.
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My colleague Jennifer Rankin has given some political context to Belgium’s decision:
Belgium’s deputy prime minister Maxime Prévot indicated that Belgium would recognise Palestine at this month’s UN general assembly, after France announced such an intention in July in the hope of creating momentum for peace.
But the Belgian royal decree on recognition would not be issued until the last hostage is released.
The compromise averts a political crisis within the relatively new Belgian government.
Prévot, a centrist who is also foreign minister, had threatened to block government business if there was no agreement on recognition, or taking a stricter tone towards Israel.
Only last week prime minister Bart de Wever, a Flemish nationalist, described recognition as “counterproductive” and “pointless” without the full disarmament of Hamas.
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The Palestinian foreign ministry has said it welcomes Belgium’s announcement that it will recognise Palestinian statehood.
In a statement on X, the ministry said it considered the move “to be in line with international law and United Nations resolutions, and protective of the two-state solution and supportive of achieving peace”.
The statement added:
The ministry calls on the countries that have not yet recognized the state of Palestine to quickly take the initiative for this recognition, and to intensify practical efforts to stop the crimes of genocide, displacement, starvation, and annexation, and to open a real political path to resolve the conflict and end the Israeli occupation of the land of the State of Palestine.
What will recognising Palestine mean in practice?
The Guardian’s political correspondent Eleni Courea has done an explainer with a section looking at what recognising Palestine would look like. Here is an extract:
Recognition is a symbolic step but one that would infuriate the Israeli government, which argues that it would encourage Hamas and reward terrorism.
It is in effect a formal, political acknowledgment of Palestinian self-determination – without the need to engage in thorny practicalities such as the location of its borders or capital city.
It also allows the establishment of full diplomatic relations that would result in a Palestinian ambassador (rather than a head of mission) being stationed in London and a British ambassador in Palestine. Advocates say it is a way of kickstarting a political process towards an eventual two-state solution.
Out of the 193 UN member states, nearly 150 already recognise Palestine as a state. These include China, India and Russia, as well as a majority of European countries such as Cyprus, Ireland, Norway, Spain and Sweden.
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Belgium to recognise Palestinian state at UN general assembly
We are restarting our live coverage of Israel’s war on Gaza. Belgium’s foreign minister, Maxime Prévot, has said his country will recognise a Palestinian state at the UN general assembly later this month, adding to international pressure on Israel after similar moves by Australia, Britain, Canada and France.
The decision comes “in light of the humanitarian tragedy unfolding in Palestine, particularly in Gaza, and in response to the violence perpetrated by Israel in violation of international law,” Prévot said in a post to social media.
Israel has become increasingly isolated on the international stage as it faces credible accusations of genocide, ethnic cleansing, war crimes and the collective punishment of the civilian population of Gaza.
Israel’s assault has flattened large parts of Gaza, killing more than 63,000 people, mostly civilians, forcing nearly all of Gaza’s more than 2 million people from their homes and causing what the UN-backed hunger monitor, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), described last month as a “man-made famine” in and around Gaza City. Israel is still obstructing aid into the territory, despite widespread starvation.
In a lengthy post on X describing the Belgium government’s new position, Prévot wrote:
In light of the humanitarian tragedy unfolding in Palestine, particularly in Gaza, and in response to the violence perpetrated by Israel in violation of international law, given its international obligations, including the duty to prevent any risk of genocide, Belgium had to take strong decisions to increase pressure on the Israeli government and Hamas terrorists.
This is not about sanctioning the Israeli people but about ensuring that their government respects international and humanitarian law and taking action to try to change the situation on the ground.
The recognition of Palestine would only be formalised if Hamas releases all remaining Israeli hostages kidnapped in the Hamas-led 7 October attack on southern Israel in 2023 and the militant group “no longer has any role in managing Palestine,” Prévot added.
Prévot said Belgium, a member of the European Union, would levy 12 “firm” sanctions on Israel, such as a ban on importing products from its settlements and a review of public procurement policies with Israeli companies. It will also declare Hamas leaders persona non grata in Belgium.
The minister also said two “extremist” Israeli ministers and several “violent settlers” would be designated “persona non grata” in Belgium. While he didn’t name the ministers, they are likely to be Itamar Ben-Gvir, the far right security minister in Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition government, and Bezalel Smotrich, the far right finance minister.
Over the summer, the UK, alongside Australia, Canada, New Zealand and Norway sanctioned Ben-Gvir and Smotrich over “repeated incitements of violence against Palestinian communities” in the occupied West Bank.
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