- The demonstrations, the latest of their kind to rock Israel, accuse Netanyahu’s cabinet of failing to broker a ceasefire.
- “There is no such thing as a state abandoning its citizens,” said protester Kuperman.
DEIR EL-BALAKH, Gaza Strip: Protesters took to the streets of Israel on Wednesday in what they called a “day of unrest”, denouncing the call-up of tens of thousands of reservists for an offensive that has drawn worldwide condemnation and heightened fears in Israel that it could endanger hostages still held in the Gaza Strip.
The demonstrations, the latest of their kind, have rocked Israel and blamed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his cabinet for failing to broker a ceasefire and instead escalating the incursion, which hospital officials in Gaza say is already accelerating the death toll in its initial stages.
“We have to go to extremes so that someone remembers. The state cannot abandon its citizens,” Yael Kuperman, a protester outside the Knesset, told Israel’s Kansas TV channel.
Protests in Israel have reached a new level of intensity after activists demanding a ceasefire set fire to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Jerusalem home. pic.twitter.com/wItOJ0IECl
— Shogri (@shogri786) September 3, 2025
Strikes Gaza, South Gaza, Israel Calls for Evacuation
Meanwhile, hospital officials told The Associated Press that at least 24 people were killed in strikes overnight Wednesday.
Nasser Hospital said it had received the bodies of 10 people, including one who sought treatment in Rafah and a child killed in an airstrike in southern Gaza. Shifa Hospital said it had received the bodies of 14 people on Wednesday, including two children and four women, and Al-Quds Hospital said it had received another person killed in Israeli airstrikes.
Israel says Gaza City, the largest Palestinian city in both the besieged Strip and the occupied West Bank, remains a Hamas stronghold despite what the military says is a vast network of underground tunnels, even after raids early in the war.
Israel has stepped up air and ground attacks on the outskirts of Gaza City, particularly in western areas where people have been forced to flee to the coast, according to aid agencies coordinating aid to displaced people.
Site Management Cluster, one such group, said Wednesday that families were trapped by prohibitive moving costs, logistical difficulties and a lack of places to move to.
“Palestinians are also reluctant to move out of fear of not returning or because of exhaustion from repeated displacement,” the report said.
Hospitals report dozens of deaths amid growing international outrage
The dual threat of fighting and hunger is becoming increasingly acute for families in Gaza City, the vast majority of whom have reported being forced to flee their homes multiple times during the 23 months of war, Palestinians and aid workers say.
Gaza hospital and health ministry officials said on Wednesday the death toll continued to rise, with people dying in airstrikes while trying to reach aid or from starvation.
The ministry said 113 Palestinians were killed in the last 24 hours on Tuesday, more than half of them in Gaza City.
The reported casualty figures have been recorded regularly in recent weeks and came a day after Netanyahu and Israeli commanders told reservists the offensive was entering what they hoped would be the “decisive stage” of the war.
On Wednesday, the ministry said five adults and one child had died of malnutrition in the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of deaths since the war to 367, including 131 children.
The ministry said on Tuesday that 63,633 Palestinians have been killed since the Hamas-led attack on Israel began on October 7, 2023, including more than 2,300 people seeking aid.
The Hamas-run section of the government, which employs medical specialists, does not differentiate between civilians and combatants when counting the dead, but says women and children make up about half of the dead.
UN agencies and many independent experts consider the ministry’s figures to be the most reliable estimate of military losses. Israel disputes them but does not provide data on its own losses.
In a letter sent as UK MPs returned to work, three NGOs said more than 3,700 Palestinians had been killed during the organisation’s 34-day summer break.
Amnesty International, Doctors Without Borders and Medical Aid for Palestinians have accused Israel of genocide, a charge Israel has previously denied. The groups have called on the British government to take action, citing famine, the collapse of the health system and the murder of Mariam Abu Dagga, a journalist who worked for the Associated Press and Doctors Without Borders.
“This is not just a humanitarian crisis – it is a full-scale, man-made human rights disaster,” the statement said. “Expressing ‘deep concern’ is not enough.”