Gaza City is now a dangerous combat zone, Israel says, adding that it is in the “initial stages” of a planned offensive that has drawn international condemnation. Israel also said it had recovered the body of a hostage and the remains of another, and vowed its military offensive would return more.
Israel’s military said it suspended midday pauses to fighting, which had allowed food and aid supplies to enter from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. in Gaza’s largest city. The shift comes weeks after Israel first announced plans to widen its offensive in Gaza City, where hundreds of thousands of displaced people are sheltering and enduring famine.
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The sun sets behind buildings destroyed during Israeli ground and air operations in the Gaza Strip, as seen from southern Israel, Friday, Aug. 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Maya Levin)
Displaced Palestinians fleeing northern Gaza Strip move with their belongings on a street in Gaza City, Friday, Aug. 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
A displaced Palestinian man stands on a damaged balcony of a school used as a shelter, in Gaza City, Wednesday, Aug. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
An Israeli armored vehicle moves in an area in the Gaza Strip, as seen from southern Israel, Friday, Aug. 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Maya Levin)
Displaced Palestinians fleeing northern Gaza Strip move with their belongings on a street in Gaza City, Thursday, Aug. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Displaced Palestinians fleeing northern Gaza Strip move with their belongings on a street in Gaza City, Thursday, Aug. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Displaced Palestinians fleeing northern Gaza Strip move with their belongings on a street in Gaza City, Thursday, Aug. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Many Palestinians in Gaza City say they're exhausted after multiple displacements and question leaving when nowhere in Gaza is safe and any journey is costly. Israel's war against Hamas in Gaza has killed more than 63,000 people, the territory’s Health Ministry said Friday.
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Abu Obeida, a spokesman for Hamas’ armed wing, said its fighters were on high alert and prepared to confront Israeli troops in Gaza City. He said the group would try to keep its hostages alive but that they are being held in areas where fighting is expected.
Hundred of people who fled Gaza City were putting together tents Friday in the central Gaza Strip, west of Nuseirat refugee camp.
The displaced Palestinians spoke about the lack of water or food and the miserable conditions they endured as they tried to find a tent to stay in.
“We are thrown in the streets like- what would I say? Like dogs? We are not like dogs. Dogs are better than us,” said Mohammed Maarouf standing in front of a shelter for him and his family of nine.
“Do you want me to tell you about suffering?” asked Ahmad Saadeh, another displaced man. “We suffer from many things. We suffer that our children are ill. ... We have to survive by any means, so we can continue for the sake of our children, not for ourselves.”
The U.N. said Thursday that an estimated 23,000 people evacuated Gaza City over the past week.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio has revoked the visas of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and 80 other officials ahead of next month’s annual high-level meeting of the U.N. General Assembly, where the Palestinians previously have been represented.
A State Department official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss visa issues that are normally confidential, disclosed Friday that Abbas and other officials from the Palestinian Authority were among those affected.
The Palestinian Authority denounced the visa withdrawals as a violation of U.S. commitments as the host country of the U.N. and urged the State Department to reverse its decision.
Since early Friday morning, hundreds of Gaza City residents have begun the journey south, piling their few remaining possessions such as mattresses onto pickup trucks or donkey carts.
Residents complained about the latest displacement after many were forced to leave their homes more than once during the 22-month conflict.
“We cannot find any place in the west nor in the south. Conditions are difficult. Where are we going? We don’t know,” said Saddam Yazigi as he prepared to leave Gaza City.
“My daughter told me, ‘I don’t want to see tanks like last time,’” he added.
Raeda Auda said she is being forcibly displaced again. “I can’t express the feeling of pain that I’m going through.”
The Health Ministry in Gaza said five people have died from starvation and malnutrition over the past 24 hours.
That raises the total number of deaths from such causes to 322, including 121 children.
The Health Ministry said that 44 people – included six children – have died since Aug. 22 when the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification declared a famine in Gaza.
Gaza's Health Ministry said Friday that the death toll has risen to 63,025 people in the 22-month war between Israel and Hamas. Another 159,490 have been wounded.
As Palestinians face the start of Israel’s latest offensive in Gaza City, the ministry said 59 people were killed in Israeli strikes and another 244 wounded over the past 24 hours. Some 23 of the dead were killed trying to gather humanitarian aid.
The number of dead since Israel resumed its offensive in March reached 11,178. Another 47,449 were wounded. The overall number of people killed trying to gather aid reached 2,203 while 16,228 were wounded.
The Health Ministry's count does not distinguish between fighters and civilians. The ministry is part of the Hamas-run government and staffed by medical professionals.
The U.N. and independent experts consider it the most reliable source on war casualties. Israel disputes its figures but has not provided its own.
Israel’s recovery of more hostages Friday felt like a “stab in the stomach” for Rubi Chen, who believes his son is still in captivity in Gaza.
Israel said it had returned the body of one captive and the remains of another from Gaza Friday. It identified one as Ilan Weiss, a man killed in the initial Hamas attack.
“It’s a bittersweet moment that the Weiss family is reunited with their loved one, even though he’s coming back not as they would have wanted,” said Chen. “But at least they have closure ... there are still 49 families waiting to have that closure.”
Chen said his family has received intelligence that his son did not survive the Oct. 7 attack but Hamas has not provided any information about his son’s whereabouts.
The Israeli prime minister said the body of a dead Israeli and the remains of another were recovered following an operation in the Gaza Strip by Israeli forces and the country’s internal security service Shin Bet.
Netanyahu said Friday one set of remains belongs to Ilan Weiss who was killed on Oct. 7, 2023 while defending Kibbutz Be’eri against attacking Hamas gunmen.
The remains of the second Israeli are now being examined for positive identification at the Institute of Forensic Medicine.
Weiss’ wife Shiri and daughter Noga, also kidnapped in the Hamas attack, were released from captivity in November 2023. He has two other daughters.
The Israeli Hostages and Missing Families Forum said the return of all hostages remains the “highest national priority” and urged the Israeli government to enter into negotiations “and stay at the table until every last hostage comes home.”
A spokesman for the Israeli military says the country’s forces have started their attack on Gaza City which are operating “with great force” on the city’s outskirts.
Avichay Adraee, the Arabic-speaking spokesman for the Israel Defense Forces, posted on X Friday that the military operation is in its initial phase, but that the Israeli military will “intensify our strikes” and “will not hesitate” until all Israeli hostages are returned and Hamas is dismantled “militarily and politically.”
Adraee said Israel is “not waiting” and is moving ahead with its attack against Hamas which has “transformed from a military organization into a defeated organization waging guerrilla warfare.”
The U.N.’s humanitarian agency said they were “deeply concerned” by the military’s statement that it would intensify its operation in Gaza City.
It predicted that the offensive would have a “horrific impact on people already exhausted, malnourished, bereaved, displaced, and deprived of basics needed for survival.”
It said UN and NGO teams would remain on the ground in Gaza City to provide lifesaving support but maintained that its work would need to be facilitated.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said in a statement that the body of Ilan Weiss of Kibbutz Be’eri and the remains of another unnamed hostage were returned to Israel.
“The campaign to return the hostages continues continuously. We will not rest or be silent until we return all of our hostages home — both the living and the dead,” Netanyahu said.
Israel on Friday said its military had recovered the bodies of two hostages, including an Israeli man who was killed in the Oct. 7, 2023, attack that sparked the war.
Of the 251 hostages taken by Hamas-led militants almost 22 months ago, roughly 50 remain in Gaza including 20 that Israel believes to be alive.
Israel declared Gaza’s largest city a dangerous combat zone and said it was in the ″initial stages″ of a planned offensive that has drawn international condemnation.
The suspension comes weeks after Israel first announced plans to widen its offensive in Gaza City, where hundreds of thousands of displaced people are sheltering and enduring famine.
A spokesman for Gaza’s only Catholic church said some 440 people who have taken shelter there had unanimously agreed to stay, despite word that Israel was preparing to mount a new military offensive in the Palestinian territory.
Farid Jubran told The Associated Press Friday that their decision to stay in Gaza City's Holy Family Catholic Church was made of their own free will and “wasn’t imposed on the people.”
He said five clergy have also stayed in the church to assist those sheltering that include women, children and older people.
But Jubran, who is currently outside of Gaza, said it’s “up to them” if they want to leave the church at some point later.
The spokesman said there are no additional measures that have been taken inside the church to bolster the safety of the people.
He said “when we feel danger, people get closer to the walls or whatever, it’s more protected” but that the church “doesn’t have any specific defenses.”
The sun sets behind buildings destroyed during Israeli ground and air operations in the Gaza Strip, as seen from southern Israel, Friday, Aug. 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Maya Levin)
Displaced Palestinians fleeing northern Gaza Strip move with their belongings on a street in Gaza City, Friday, Aug. 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
A displaced Palestinian man stands on a damaged balcony of a school used as a shelter, in Gaza City, Wednesday, Aug. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
An Israeli armored vehicle moves in an area in the Gaza Strip, as seen from southern Israel, Friday, Aug. 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Maya Levin)
Displaced Palestinians fleeing northern Gaza Strip move with their belongings on a street in Gaza City, Thursday, Aug. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Displaced Palestinians fleeing northern Gaza Strip move with their belongings on a street in Gaza City, Thursday, Aug. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Displaced Palestinians fleeing northern Gaza Strip move with their belongings on a street in Gaza City, Thursday, Aug. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Republicans have gathered in Dallas for the closing day of the party’s midterm convention that aims to highlight President Donald Trump ’s influence and boost enthusiasm among GOP voters ahead of November’s midterm election. Speakers at the two-day event have derided Democratic candidates as extremists and offered defenses of Trump’s war in Iran.
Trump and Vice President JD Vance were among those to address the crowd.
Trump pledged Wednesday during the convention to send every American adult $5,000 if Republicans retain control of the House and Senate in the midterm elections. The dubious promise would likely cost more than $1 trillion and require congressional approval, and would further fan inflation concerns and exacerbate the country’s nearly $1.8 trillion annual budget deficit.
Missouri’s Republican secretary of state has ordered local election authorities to use its 2022 congressional map instead of a congressional map backed by Trump after the Supreme Court struck it down earlier today. The decision means Missouri will run the general election with a different congressional map than was used in the primary.
An appeals court on Thursday upheld a block on Trump’s executive order limiting mail voting.
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Trump closed out the Republican convention by claiming the stock market had hit 80 highs, the job market is strong and he’s delivering on all of his promises to voters.
The happy talk in Dallas is a contrast to the bleak mood on Wall Street.
The S&P 500 is on a four-day losing streak, instead of setting new records. U.S. oil futures topped $100 a barrel as worries about the Iran war persist. And the inflation and high interest rates that Trump pledged to fix are causing new financial jitters.
The interest rate on 10-year U.S. Treasury notes on Thursday rose above 4.9%, meaning that the expense for mortgages, auto loans and other forms of debt has increased in ways that could slow growth.
The president said he didn’t plan to speak much Thursday at the Republican convention after his keynote address on Wednesday.
But he went on to riff anyway.
“We were a laughingstock all over the world,” Trump said, referring to his predecessor. “But we took that dark age of America and turned it into the golden age of America.”
Lee Greenwood was on stage to sing “God Bless the USA” as Vance left the stage and Trump walked out.
Vance and Trump shook hands as the vice president walked off.
The vice president said that Democrats have evolved into a group that stands against America, saying that the country should belong “to those that love it, not those that hate it.”
Vance touched a series of culturally loaded issues on race and immigration.
He took offense at the suggestion by Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic Senate nominee in Michigan, that Vance’s own grandfather would object to his marriage to a woman of Indian descent.
Vance said that Democrats now find sympathy with the terrorists responsible for the 9/11 attacks in 2001 but not people like his grandfather.
“The Democrats are the party of hatred,” Vance said. “They’re the party that despises America and the people who built it.”
Vance implored undecided voters to recognize the Trump administration’s record and not hand control of Congress to Democrats.
“Don’t give the country over to a bunch of crazy people because you happen to disagree with us on a policy issue here or there. Look, I’m not asking anybody to agree with me on every single issue. I’m not asking anybody to agree on every single policy,” Vance said at the GOP midterm convention. “What I am asking you to do is to recognize the contrast with the radicals and recognize the achievements of the last 18 months.”
Without explicitly mentioning the Iran war, the vice president invoked conservative activist Charlie Kirk, who “hated war,” according to Vance.
“That was his view. Now, of course, there are people who love what we’ve done and people who don’t. I’m not here to litigate the disagreements between Charlie and some of the people that he disagreed with,” he said.
Vance claimed that “we actually took on big pharma and lowered drug costs for all of our citizens.”
Federal data shows that U.S. prescription drug prices fell 0.9% in July and are down 3.1% from a year ago, the steepest year-over-year drop since 1963. The White House said these plunging prices resulted from Trump’s “most favored nation” drug deal with pharmaceutical firms and the TrumpRx website.
But drug pricing experts say the real picture is more complicated, noting that other factors, including a law from former President Joe Biden’s time in office that allowed Medicare to negotiate with pharmaceutical companies, are potentially more significant contributors to the latest consumer price index figures.
Vance took a swipe at James Talarico, the Democratic Senate candidate.
He praised Trump for coining a nickname: Talafreako.
For his part, Talarico and his supporters have embraced that nickname, printing it on shirts and adopting it as a badge of honor.
Like many speakers across the two-day convention, Vance pointed to comments Talarico has made about religion and transgender Americans, including saying God is nonbinary.
“I got to say, a guy that age who is so obsessed and focused on transgender children, I don’t know about you, but I never want to see that guy’s web browser history,” Vance said.
Vance addressed speculation about his presidential ambitions.
“JD 48!” a woman yelled loudly from the stands, a reference to the next president, who will be the 48th. That prompted chants of “JD!” and “48!”
Vance responded by saying his focus for now is the midterms.
“We gotta take care of business this November and then we’ll worry about what comes next,” he said.
Vance invoked his family as he credited the president with building a bright future, while attacking the “far left” for working against their “birthright.”
Vance, the father of four including a six-week-old son, defended the nuclear family, which he said was being attacked by Democrats. He said he wants the same thing for American families as he does for his own.
“I want them to keep what they’ve earned when they work hard. And that is the birthright that I’m talking about. That is the country that Donald J. Trump is fighting every single day to defend and to build upon,” he said.
Vance opened his speech with an apparent defense of administration efforts to reduce immigration in the U.S.
Vance said voters were tired by factory closures, drug overdoses and crime and then pivoted to immigration.
“And we were tired of being called racists for noticing that our country was becoming dirtier and poorer and less safe and less prosperous,” Vance said.
The statement revealed the delicate politics at play on immigration. Vance falsely claimed during the 2024 election that Haitian immigrants in his home state of Ohio were abducting and eating pets, a falsehood that Trump repeated.
“History will record that your father was a great man,” Vance said.
He recalled being nervous to give his speech at the 2024 Republican National Convention less than two years after being elected to his first role in politics as an Ohio senator.
“As I addressed the country on the biggest stage of my life in the front row, right about there,” he said, pointing in front of him, “my dear friend Charlie Kirk was smiling and cheering me and reminding me that I had a good friend right here in the convention hall.”
Kirk’s widow, Erika Kirk, who took over as the leader of the Turning Point organization he founded, “has carried on his mission with more courage and resolve than most of us will ever be asked to show,” Vance said.
Vance opened his speech with an apparent defense of administration efforts to reduce immigration in the U.S.
Vance said voters were tired by factory closures, drug overdoses and crime and then pivoted to immigration.
“And we were tired of being called racists for noticing that our country was becoming dirtier and poorer and less safe and less prosperous,” Vance said.
The statement revealed the delicate politics at play on immigration. Vance falsely claimed during the 2024 election that Haitian immigrants in his home state of Ohio were abducting and eating pets, a falsehood that Trump repeated.
The vice president walked onto the stage after a secret riser behind the podium was revealed with a curtain raise, showing people waving American flags.
The crowd in the arena rose to their feet to welcome Vance as a hype video about him played on screens.
While Vance was met with cheers, the reception did not seem quite as loud as the welcome Kennedy and former White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt got as they took the stage.
The president’s son said followers of the “Make America Great Again” movement will keep Kirk’s fight for conservatism alive.
Trump Jr. said that Kirk had inspired a movement to stand up to leftists.
“We will not back down,” Trump Jr. said. “We will not fold. We will honor Charlie by carrying his torch to save this nation that we all love so dearly.”
Trump Jr. said that Democrats wanted to “shove down our throats” a “hellscape.”
As Republicans gather in Dallas, the president is also deploying his cash in key midterm races.
No Going Back PAC Inc., which a person with knowledge of the situation said is connected to Trump’s MAGA Inc., has been buying up airtime during the convention. So far it has reserved more than $68 million in advertising.
The person was not authorized to speak publicly about the funding arrangement.
— By Thomas Beaumont
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. lamented what he cast as the transformation of the Democratic Party of his father and uncle at the midterm GOP convention.
The son of a former U.S. attorney general and nephew of President John F. Kennedy, the secretary said the “irony of my presence here is inescapable.”
He enumerated his view that the party had abandoned working Americans for elites and said he found a new home in the Republican Party, eliciting loud cheers and applause.
“The Democratic Party, in short, lost its way,” he said.
A video marking the Sept. 11 attacks included images from the devastation and clips of then-President George W. Bush’s visit to ground zero and triumphant first pitch in the 2001 World Series.
It also included images of then-New York real estate figure Donald Trump striding into Manhattan and talking to media about employees for his business who were working at the time of the attack.
The video later turned to images of some Democratic figures who have been critical of U.S. foreign policy and offered more callous statements of the calamity.
The segment wrapped with images of Trump as president, suggesting he had shielded the U.S. from further similar attacks, as presidents since Bush have also done.
In the end, quiet, respectful applause lightly fluttered across the arena.
Christopher Macchio’s soaring tenor spiraled through the American Airlines Center, the strains of “Ave Maria” in an almost silent convention center.
It was the most solemn and poignant moment of the convention, a tribute to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on New York, Washington, D.C., and Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
As Macchio’s voice filled the arena, the floor was darkened, though two beams of light stretched upward, reminiscent of the Twin Towers. Convention goers illuminated their mobile phone flashlights, giving the fitting illusion of candlelight.
The basketball arena’s screens fluttered with images of passenger aircraft striking the World Trade Center towers in New York, footage of frantic Manhattanites and debris-covered police, fire and rescue workers.
A narrator intoned “2,977 innocent people lost their lives,” as familiar videos transitioned to home videos of families.
“Always remember who they are,” the narrator said solemnly. “Say their names. Honor their sacrifice. Defend Freedom. Never forget September 11.”
Lawler, facing reelection in a battleground district this year, appealed to “common sense Democrats and independents” from the GOP midterm convention stage.
It was a different tone compared with the near constant attacks on Democrats.
“While I’m honored to be in this arena with so many fellow Republicans tonight, my message is really aimed at common sense Democrats and independents across the country tuning in and still undecided about their vote in November,” he said.
In an emotional presentation, Lawler appeared on stage with the family of Sheridan Gorman, who was fatally shot this year in Chicago. Officials have charged a man they say was illegally in the country with her slaying.
Ross Ulbricht, the founder of the underground website used for selling drugs, thanked Trump for pardoning him last year after being sentenced to life in prison in 2015.
“You gave me my life back, sir,” Ulbricht said while choking back tears.
Some in the crowd at the Republican midterm convention shouted that his plight was similar to that of those imprisoned for participating in the Jan. 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol. He said Trump was also a “target of weaponized government” after the indictments and investigations after his first term.
Ulbricht said there are hundreds of “decent Americans” who Trump freed from prison.
“I’ll be a block,” Trump said on Fox News’ “The Ingraham Angle.” “I’ll end up being a blocker.”
The president suggested he still might be able to strike deals with Congress.
He also defended his promise to give $5,000 payments to each American if Republicans preserve their congressional majorities and said he might not need congressional approval.
He also said that faster economic growth would help to pay down the $40 trillion national debt over time. Growth so far is running lower under Trump than his predecessor, Democrat Joe Biden.
GOP nominee Mike Rogers said his opponent is being funded by “terrorist groups like the Muslim Brotherhood,” but offered no proof to back up his claim.
Rogers sought to portray Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic nominee and an epidemiologist, as a terrorist sympathizer because of his relationship with the podcaster Hasan Piker, a liberal online commentator and critic of Israel.
“They treat our country like it’s the villain,” Rogers said of his opponent and Piker.
El-Sayed distanced himself from Piker last month.
The normally festive and rowdy crowd inside the American Airlines Center quickly hushed. On the screen was a face known to many of the thousands in the basketball arena, as his voice, just as familiar, came back to life for just a few minutes.
During a five-minute homage to Kirk, the conservative organizer and former President of Turning Point USA shot to death a year ago, the Republican midterm convention sat uncharacteristically quiet.
Video of Kirk speaking and working with young adults, for which he became known as a speaker on college campuses, rolled on the huge screen, while his voice echoed through the silence.
At the short program’s end, a polite round of applause rippled through the seats.
Lucas Miles, a pastor and a Turning Point vice president, kicked off a tribute to Charlie Kirk on the one year anniversary of his death.
“They could take the man,” Miles said. “They could not take the mission.”
He ticked off a list of Turning Point’s accomplishments: thousands of chapters, more than a billion social media views.
“Turning Point is not dead,” Miles said. “The organization Charlie founded is still growing.”
Mike Johnson suggested that differences with Democrats have become irreconcilable, saying “next year the communists will be in Congress.”
“It now falls to us to fight to preserve the country that we love,” Johnson said. “It’s being attacked from within.”
The Trump presidency has been defined by a broader radicalization among Republicans and Democrats alike.
Democrats portray Trump as a corrupt actor who has violated the norms and constitutional standards governing the country, whereas Johnson and others at the GOP midterm convention have said that Democrats are now beholden to political radicals that should be rejected.
The House speaker claimed he has led “the most productive Congress in 80 years.”
Since the start of 2025, Congress has passed 105 laws, down from 274 laws passed in the prior Congress during the final two years of President Joe Biden’s term when Republicans held a majority in the House, according to Govtrack.us.
Underscoring the open 2028 Republican presidential field, several midterm convention attendees named preferred candidates from outside Trump’s Cabinet.
Kimberly Moyers, from Houston, is the national vet force director for Veterans for America First. Her pick to be the party’s next nominee: Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie, who lost his primary to a Trump-backed challenger.
“The reason why I choose Thomas Massie is mainly because of his policies, the things that he’s done for our veterans and our defense,” she said
Self-described “political junkies” Dina and Kevin Myers, from nearby Grand Prairie, Texas, are independents, though they typically vote Republican these days. Their 2028 choice: Republican Rep. Brandon Gill.
“I want it cleaned out. On both sides. I want fresh. And I like young,” Dina Meyers said.
Vice President JD Vance speaks at the Republican convention, Thursday, Sept. 10, 2026, in Dallas. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
Vice President JD Vance speaks at the Republican convention Thursday, Sept. 10, 2026, in Dallas. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Vice President JD Vance points to President Donald Trump at the Republican convention Thursday, Sept. 10, 2026, in Dallas. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
President Donald Trump leaves the RNC Midterm Convention, Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2026, in Dallas. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
President Donald Trump attends the RNC Midterm Convention, Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2026, at the American Airlines Center in Dallas. (Eric Lee/Pool photo via AP)
President Donald Trump speaks at the Republican convention, Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2026, in Dallas. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
