Israel announced on Monday, September 8, that it would escalate airstrikes on Gaza in what it called a “mighty hurricane,” warning Hamas to release all hostages and surrender or face the enclave’s destruction.
Residents described intense bombardments across Gaza City, including the detonation of decommissioned armored vehicles in residential areas. Hamas confirmed it was reviewing the latest U.S. ceasefire plan, presented Sunday with President Donald Trump’s warning that it represented the group’s “last chance.”
“A mighty hurricane will hit the skies of Gaza City today, and the roofs of the terror towers will shake,” Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz declared on X. “This is a final warning to the murderers and rapists of Hamas in Gaza and in the luxury hotels abroad: Release the hostages and lay down your weapons — or Gaza will be destroyed, and you will be annihilated.”
Shortly after Katz’s remarks, six people — including a Spanish citizen — were killed in a shooting at a Jerusalem bus stop. Hamas praised the attackers.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) later struck a 12-story apartment block in central Gaza City where displaced families had been sheltering. The military claimed Hamas fighters had been operating nearby and using the site to plan attacks.
A senior Israeli official said Washington’s latest proposal requires Hamas to release all 48 remaining hostages — both living and dead — on the first day of a ceasefire, during which negotiations to end the war would proceed. Hamas responded that while it is committed to releasing hostages, this must be tied to a clear declaration of war’s end and full Israeli withdrawal.
Israel launched its latest assault on Gaza City last month, as hundreds of thousands of residents returned to ruins left by the war’s fiercest battles nearly two years earlier.
On Monday alone, Israeli strikes and ground operations killed at least 40 Palestinians, medics reported. Among the dead was journalist Osama Balousha, raising the toll of media workers killed in the conflict to nearly 250 — making it the deadliest war for journalists in modern history, according to Palestinian authorities. Israel denies deliberately targeting reporters and continues to bar foreign journalists from entering Gaza.
The war began in 2023 with a Hamas-led assault on southern Israel that killed 1,200 people and saw more than 250 hostages taken. While most were freed in temporary ceasefires in late 2023 and early 2025, dozens remain in captivity.
Gaza has since been devastated. Health officials report over 64,000 Palestinian deaths, with nearly 400 — many of them children — succumbing to starvation and malnutrition amid severe shortages of food and medicine. Israel disputes these figures, accusing Hamas of inflating hunger-related deaths.
Diplomatic initiatives have repeatedly collapsed over Israel’s demand that Hamas surrender and release all hostages, while Hamas maintains it will not disarm until Palestinians achieve an independent state.
