Press Release: Veritas Press C.I.C. Author: Kamran Faqir Article Date Published: 30 Aug 2025 at 13:37 GMT Category: Middle East | Palestine-Gaza | US-Israel At War Source(s): Veritas Press C.I.C. | Multi News Agencies
As Israel escalates its Gaza City offensive, a near-total news blackout hides reports of heavy Israeli losses in Zeitoun. Meanwhile, Palestinians endure famine, mass displacement, and hospital bombings that rights groups say amount to genocide.
A “Difficult Security Incident”, And Total Silence:
In the early hours of August 30, intense clashes erupted in Gaza City’s Zeitoun and Sabra districts, marking Israel’s most aggressive push in months. Behind the artillery barrages and helicopter fire, something happened that Israel does not want reported.
Multiple outlets, including Anadolu Agency, Palestine Chronicle, and regional reporters, say an Israeli armoured column walked into a deadly ambush. According to these reports:
- One soldier was killed,
- At least 11 were wounded,
- Up to four were captured.
Palestinian fighters allegedly detonated IEDs under tanks, disabled armoured vehicles, and engaged in close-quarter firefights. Reports suggest Israeli helicopters came under heavy fire while evacuating casualties, and reinforcements were forced to pull back.
Some sources allege the army invoked the Hannibal Protocol, a controversial directive allowing the use of deadly force to prevent the capture of soldiers, even at the risk of killing them.
The IDF refuses to comment, citing operational security. Israeli media have only referred to a “difficult security incident”, a phrase often signalling troop losses or captures under wartime censorship.
“We saw helicopters circling low, gunfire everywhere, then tanks retreating,” said Ahmad Salim, a Gaza resident reached by phone. “After that, the street was quiet, but it wasn’t victory.”
Nasser Hospital Strike: Five Journalists Killed.
While Israel censors battlefield news, its assault on Gaza’s hospitals is on record. On August 25, two tank shells hit Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, killing at least 20 people, including five journalists.
The Times of Israel acknowledged a tank fired two shells, one at a camera on the roof, the second at rescuers. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called it a “tragic mishap,” while the IDF claimed:
“The IDF… does not target journalists as such.”
But the dead tell a different story. Among them:
- Hussam al-Masri, Reuters contractor,
- Mariam Abu Dagga, AP freelancer,
- Mohammed Salama, Al Jazeera cameraman.
“Blood everywhere. Emergency wards are overflowing. When the second strike hit, even the rescuers died,” said Dr. Lina Ashour, a surgeon at Nasser.
Famine As Policy: Children Starving To Death.
The UN-backed IPC declared famine in parts of Gaza last week. Gaza’s Health Ministry says:
- 10 people, including three children, died of hunger in 24 hours,
- 332 starvation-related deaths since October,
- 124 of them are children.
At Al-Helou Hospital, skeletal newborns share incubators.
“We are not treating patients, we are watching them starve,” said Dr. Mahmoud Qudaih, a paediatrician.
The UN warns that Israel’s Gaza City operation will forcibly displace up to 1 million people and further block humanitarian aid.
Genocide Allegations: “If This Isn’t Genocide, What Is?”.
On January 26, 2024, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) said it was plausible that Israel is committing genocide. In May, it ordered Israel to halt its Rafah assault, an order Israel ignored.
The International Criminal Court has since issued arrest warrants for Israeli and Hamas leaders.
Human rights experts cite overwhelming evidence:
- Starvation as a weapon,
- Systematic targeting of hospitals,
- Mass forced displacement,
- Over 100,000 Palestinians killed, per the Gaza Health Ministry.
“If this is not genocide, what is?” asked Raji Sourani, director of the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights.
Journalists Silenced, Truth Buried:
The Committee to Protect Journalists calls Gaza the deadliest war for media in modern history, with nearly 200 journalists killed. Israel bans foreign press, shuts down outlets like Al Jazeera, and enforces military gag orders.
“This blackout doesn’t just hide the war, it enables its worst crimes,” said Sherif Mansour, CPJ’s Middle East coordinator.
“We can’t keep moving; we have nowhere left to go.” — Manal Sahweil, displaced Gaza resident.
Confirmed vs. Alleged:
| Claims | Status | Source |
| Israeli soldier killed, 11 wounded | Unverified | Anadolu, MEMO, Palestine Chronicle |
| 4 soldiers captured | Unverified | Same as above |
| Hannibal Protocol used | Alleged | Same as above |
| 21 Palestinians killed since dawn | Confirmed | Gaza Health Ministry / Al Jazeera |
| 10 died of hunger in 24 hrs | Confirmed | Gaza Health Ministry / UN IPC |
| The Nasser Hospital strike killed 5 journalists | Confirmed | Reuters, Times of Israel, CPJ |
In Summary: Silence As A Weapon, Famine As A Strategy.
What unfolded in Zeitoun may never be fully acknowledged by Israel, but the pattern behind the secrecy is undeniable: battlefield losses are hidden while civilians starve in plain sight. The blackout over Gaza is not a byproduct of war; it is a deliberate tool of domination.
Israel’s refusal to confirm or deny the alleged ambush coincides with a broader strategy of information control, from banning foreign journalists to striking media crews and hospitals. This is not chaos; it is policy. As Sherif Mansour of CPJ put it:
“Killing reporters and blocking access ensures that only one narrative survives, the one Israel authorises.”
Meanwhile, famine is not a humanitarian failure; it is engineered scarcity. By blocking aid, bombing bakeries, and razing farmlands, Israel turns food into a weapon. As the UN famine report warned, “Starvation is being systematically induced.”
International law calls this a war crime. The ICJ calls it plausibly genocide.
The Nasser Hospital strike, targeting journalists, medics, and patients, symbolises the collapse of even the most basic norms of war. If hospitals are battlefields and children are acceptable collateral, then the moral floor has given way.
Finally, the Zeitoun incident, whether covered up or simply censored, raises an uncomfortable question:
If Israel is willing to invoke the Hannibal Protocol, killing its own soldiers to avoid capture, what does that reveal about its view of Palestinian life?
The international community’s paralysis has enabled this trajectory. Every UN resolution ignored, every ICJ order flouted, every Western government shielding Israel from accountability reinforces a precedent: impunity breeds atrocity.
The world may not know the full truth of what happened in Zeitoun. But the truth of Gaza’s suffering is already written in the bodies of starving children, the rubble of hospitals, and the graves of journalists who tried to tell their story.
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