Israel Escalates Campaign to Flatten Gaza City as Invasion Continues | Palestine Policy Roundup 09.08.25
Welcome to the Palestine Policy Roundup, a weekly publication of the IMEU Policy Project.
👀 ICYMI: MEMBERS OF CONGRESS SPEAK OUT
Rep. Jim McGovern in response to Israel’s invasion of Gaza City: “Netanyahu is bombing one of the last places where Palestinians can shelter. Where are these refugees supposed to go? This is ethnic cleansing—plain and simple. @SecRubio & @SecDef: do you care that kids are going to sleep unsure if they’ll wake up? Stop arming war criminals!”
DC DEVELOPMENTS
✂️ SENATORS DEMAND END TO US FUNDING OF SHADOWY GAZA HUMANITARIAN FOUNDATION
Senators Elizabeth Warren, Peter Welch, and Chris Van Hollen called on Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Acting USAID Administrator Russell Vought, and Ambassador Mike Huckabee to stop funding the shadowy Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) after Trump administration officials failed to answer oversight questions asked by more than two dozen senators in July.
Earlier this year, the Trump administration announced that it would give $30 million to the GHF despite 58 objections raised by USAID staff. Israel has used the organization in its weaponization of food scheme, which is aimed at forcing Palestinians to move out of northern Gaza and toward a small area in southern Gaza. The senators note that numerous massacres have been carried out by the Israeli military and US contractors working for the GHF at distribution sites. Nearly 1,000 Palestinians have been killed while seeking food at the sites as of August 15.
The senators also raised questions about the GHF’s role in Israel’s deliberate and manufactured starvation of Palestinians in Gaza. Since the sites began to operate at the end of May, the UN-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification hunger monitor has found that famine is occurring in areas in and near Gaza City and that it is spreading to the rest of the area. Recent reports criticized the inequitable distribution of food at the sites and inability of the meager rations to meet the needs of Palestinians.
As the senators correctly highlight, the GHF’s weaponization of food violates humanitarian principles of independence, neutrality, and impartiality through its coordination with the Israeli military. In particular, the senators highlight reports that US contractors are conducting intelligence operations for the Israeli military at the sites.
While the letter does not explicitly make the point, Palestinians have been abducted from GHF sites while seeking food. In June, Omar Nizar Mahmoud Asfour–a 16-year-old Palestinian child–was reportedly abducted by the Israeli military while seeking food at a distribution point. Omar was reportedly tortured at the notorious Sde Teiman military detention camp, which has been described as a torture camp by the Israeli human rights NGO B’Tselem and many others.
IN THE NEWS
🔊 LEADING GENOCIDE SCHOLARS ECHO VOICES OF PALESTINIANS, SAY ISRAEL IS COMMITTING GENOCIDE IN GAZA
Just over a week ago, the International Association of Genocide Scholars–an academic group of leading genocide scholars–determined that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, echoing what Palestinians have said from the very beginning of Israel’s assault on Gaza. The academic group is the one of the latest to join a growing list of organizations, scholars, politicians, and more who have uplifted the voices of Palestinians by correctly identifying this as genocide.
The resolution, which was approved by 86% of members who voted, said that Israel was committing “indiscriminate and deliberate attacks against the civilians and civilian infrastructure” of Gaza. It lists the destruction of Palestinian homes, killing of entire families, and deliberate starvation of Palestinians as just some of the genocidal crimes allegedly committed by Israel. The resolution calls on Israel to end its genocide in Gaza and for all countries to fulfill their obligations under the Genocide Convention.
As more organizations and individuals across the world continue to recognize Israel’s assault as a genocide, US support for the genocide remains inexcusable. As it has committed this genocide, Israel has also violated US laws–including the Arms Export Control Act and Section 620I of the Foreign Assistance Act.
To bring the US into compliance with its own laws and to the obligations of the Genocide Convention, members of Congress should immediately exercise their oversight authority over weapons transfers and end all weapons deliveries to Israel.
⛵ LARGEST FLOTILLA YET SAILING TO BREAK ISRAEL’S VIOLENT SIEGE OF GAZA
Hundreds of people from 44 countries have set sail on the Global Sumud Flotilla in the latest attempt to break Israel’s violent and illegal siege of Gaza. Among the hundreds who have joined the flotilla are climate activist Greta Thunberg, who was also aboard the previous flotilla ship Madleen, and Mandla Mandela, who is the grandson of Nelson Mandela.
Organizers of the flotilla have described it as the largest mission to Gaza yet, consisting of more than 50 ships carrying activists, journalists, artists, lawyers, doctors, and more. The goal of the flotilla is to deliver aid to Palestinians in Gaza, who are suffering from widespread catastrophic hunger and famine caused by Israel’s near-total blockade on the entry of humanitarian aid.
During the month of August, nearly 200 Palestinians were starved to death–representing half of all deaths caused by Israel’s deliberate starvation since October 2023.
Participants in the Global Sumud Flotilla–which refers to the Arabic word for steadfastness–are doing so after Israel’s repeated and sometimes deadly attacks on attempts to break its illegal siege of Gaza. Additionally, Israeli Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has threatened to detain activists.
Earlier this year, Israeli naval commandos illegally boarded the Madleen and the Handala, which were both missions of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition. On the Handala, Israeli authorities allegedly beat and choked American labor activist Chris Smalls and detained him the longest of all activists that were detained on that mission.
Another mission of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, the Conscience, was reportedly attacked by a drone and left stranded in international waters off the coast of Malta. The coalition accused Israel of carrying out the attack and demanded that European authorities conduct an independent investigation of the incident, but no such investigation has occurred.
In 2010, Israel killed 10 activists in a raid on the Mavi Marmara, which was a part of the Gaza Freedom Flotilla. Furkan Doğan, a US citizen, was reportedly murdered execution-style, according to a fact-finding mission of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.
🌻 ONE YEAR SINCE AYŞENUR EYGI KILLED BY ISRAELI MILITARY IN THE WEST BANK
Last Saturday marked the first anniversary of the killing of Ayşenur Eygi, a US citizen who was shot by an Israeli soldier in the West Bank. Ayşenur was killed after she attended a protest against settlement expansion in the West Bank as part of a trip to stand in solidarity with Palestinians. She was a recent graduate of the University of Washington and was involved with activism in support of Palestinian rights as a student.
🔑 KEY TAKEAWAY: Ayşenur’s husband Hamid Ali described the way that she lived by her values to Al Jazeera: “She was someone who had to live by her values and her beliefs, and she had to say how she felt. So that’s the kind of person she was, and that’s exactly why she felt like doing the activism that she did in the [United] States wasn’t enough. She felt like going to the West Bank was the next thing that she was able to do.”
In the days following her killing, an independent investigation published by The Washington Post cast doubt on Israel’s narrative and indicated that she was shot by an Israeli sniper long after the protest had ended.
In the year since her killing, both the Biden and Trump administrations have refused to pursue an independent investigation into Ayşenur’s killing despite advocacy by her family. Since she was killed, at least four more US citizens have been killed by Israeli violence in the West Bank: Tawfic Abdel Jabbar, Mohammad Khdour, and Amer Rabee were killed by Israeli soldiers, while Sayfollah Musallet was beaten to death by Israeli settlers.
The US must hold Israel accountable for the killing of Ayşenur, US citizens killed by Israeli violence, and Palestinians killed by Israeli violence. Members of Congress should demand an independent investigation into the killing of Ayşenur while also working to end US complicity in Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
PALESTINE/ISRAEL DEVELOPMENTS
🏠 ISRAEL TARGETS HIGH RISES IN LATEST ATTEMPT TO FLATTEN GAZA CITY
As Israel continues its invasion of Gaza City, it has begun to target high rises as part of its attempts to flatten Gaza City. Last Friday, Israel attacked and destroyed the 12-story Mushtaha tower and issued displacement orders for Palestinians who live in high rises across Gaza City. Palestinians who have been displaced by earlier Israeli attacks were sheltering in the tower.
Israel continued its destruction of Gaza City over the weekend with additional attacks on the al-Ruya tower and the Soussi tower. Israel’s attacks on these high rises have followed displacement orders issued with as little as 15 minutes before the strike, giving Palestinians who live there very little time to collect their belongings and leave.
The destruction of these buildings is a part of Israel’s campaign to flatten and violently occupy Gaza City, which is a part of its broader goal of the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from Gaza. Residents of the buildings that were attacked report that they were told to move to the so-called humanitarian zone in Al Mawasi, which is in southern Gaza. The so-called humanitarian zone has repeatedly been attacked by Israel.
These attacks also follow weeks of other attacks and systematic demolition of infrastructure in neighborhoods surrounding Gaza City. According to an analysis published by the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, 85% of all buildings in Shuja’iya and Tuffah have been destroyed, and 70% of all buildings in Zeitoun have been demolished. Much of this destruction has been carried out over just the last few weeks. This destruction displaces Palestinians and forces them into tents in makeshift camps around Gaza City, which are then also bombed.
The deliberate targeting and destruction of civilian infrastructure is a war crime. By destroying infrastructure, including homes, across Gaza, Israel is clearly attempting to force Palestinians to leave Gaza by giving them no homes to which they can return.
Photo: tayifmukta, via Shutterstock. Stock Photo ID: 2582572161