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CAIRO: Israeli forces pushed toward the heart of Gaza City on Wednesday, risking the lives of Palestinians who had stayed put in hopes that growing pressure on Israel for a ceasefire would mean they would not lose their homes.
US President Donald Trump met leaders of Muslim countries at the United Nations in New York on Tuesday for talks which focused on an end to the war.
Trump, who earlier condemned moves by a string of countries to put pressure on Israel by recognizing a Palestinian state, said a meeting with Israel would be next.
The Israeli government has urged the population of Gaza City to move south but many people hesitated, citing the lack of security and widespread hunger there. “We moved to the western area near the beach, but many families didn’t have the time, tanks took them by surprise,” said Thaer, a 35-year-old father of one from Tel Al-Hawa.
Airstrikes hit shelter
Israeli forces, which began closing in on the city of more than a million in August, have ignored calls to stop an offensive that the government says aims to destroy the last stronghold of Hamas militants whose 2023 attack on Israel and seizure of hostages triggered the war.
Medics said at least 20 people were killed and many others wounded when Israeli airstrikes hit a shelter housing displaced families near a market in the middle of the city. Two other people were killed in a house nearby, they said.
The Israeli military said it was looking into the reported attack on the shelter, where footage obtained by Reuters showed people sifting through the rubble.
“We were sleeping in God’s care, there was nothing — they did not inform us, or not even give us a sign — it was a surprise,” said Sami Hajjaj. “There are children and women, around 200 people maybe, six-seven families, this square is full of families,” he said.
In the city’s Tel Al-Hawa suburb tanks entered populated areas trapping people in their homes, while more tanks were seen stationed close to Al-Quds Hospital. The Palestinian Red Crescent Society said an oxygen station had been damaged.
Tanks have also advanced closer to Gaza’s largest hospital, Al-Shifa, witnesses and Hamas media said.
On Monday, Palestinian authorities said tank shelling had damaged the Rantissi Hospital and put the nearby Al-Naser eye hospital at risk, forcing them to close. Jordan, which runs a third hospital in the area, said it had moved it further south due to repeated bombardment.
The Israeli military said it would continue to enable the provision of medical services and functioning of health care facilities in Gaza and that staff and patients from Al-Naser and Rantissi had voluntarily evacuated.
Hundreds of thousands of people have fled Gaza City in northern Gaza, further south over the past few weeks, but many more remain, saying there is nowhere safe for them to go.
Seven people were killed in Nuseirat and near Rafah in Gaza’s south, medics said. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military, which insists its attacks are aimed at ending Hamas rule of the enclave.
Israel has drawn widespread condemnation over its military conduct in Gaza, where more than 65,000 Palestinians, most of them civilians, have been killed, according to local health authorities, and famine has spread.
International frustration over the war in Gaza prompted some Israeli and US allies to recognize a Palestinian state this week. Support for the war in Israel has also wavered, with 48 hostages, 20 of whom are believed to be alive, still held by Hamas in Gaza and 465 soldiers killed in combat.
Hamas has acknowledged the death of some of its military leaders but has not disclosed the number of its fighters killed. The war began when Hamas stormed into Israel on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking 251 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.

DUBAI: Iran has begun rebuilding missile-production sites targeted by Israel during its 12-day war in June, satellite images analyzed by The Associated Press show, but a key component is likely still missing — the large mixers needed to produce solid fuel for the weapons.
Reconstituting the missile program is crucial for the Islamic Republic, which believes another round of war with Israel may happen. The missiles are one of Iran’s few military deterrents after the war decimated its air defense systems — something that Tehran long has insisted will never be included in negotiations with the West.
Missile experts told AP that obtaining the mixers is a goal for Tehran, particularly as it prepares for possible United Nations sanctions to be reimposed on the country later this month. The sanctions would penalize any development of the missile program, among other measures. Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian is due to address the United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday.
Known as planetary mixers, the machines feature blades that revolve around a central point, like orbiting planets, and offer better mixing action than other types of equipment. Iran could purchase them from China, where experts and US officials say they’ve purchased missile fuel ingredients and other components in the past.
“If they’re able to reacquire some key things like planetary mixers, then that infrastructure is still there and ready to get rolling again,” said Sam Lair, a research associate at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies who studied Iranian missile sites.
Iran’s mission to the United Nations did not respond to questions about the country’s efforts to rebuild its missile program.
Israeli war targeted solid-fuel missile sites
Solid-fuel missiles can be fired faster than those using liquid fuel, which must be loaded just before launch. That speed can make the difference between launching a missile and having it destroyed in a launcher — something that happened during the war with Israel.
Iran has solid-fuel missile manufacturing bases at Khojir and Parchin, two sites just outside Tehran, as well as at Shahroud, some 350 kilometers (215 miles) northeast of the capital. Even before the most recent war, all of those sites came under Israeli attack in October 2024 during hostilities between the countries.
Attacks during the war in June appeared aimed at destroying buildings that housed the mixers, which are needed to ensure the missile fuel is evenly combined, according to experts. Other sites struck by Israel included manufacturing facilities that likely could be used to make the mixers.
Satellite images from Planet Labs PBC taken this month and analyzed by AP show construction at both the Parchin and Shahroud facilities.
At Parchin, mixing buildings appear to be under repair, Lair said, and similar rebuilding is happening at Shahroud involving mixing buildings and other structures.
The speed at which Iran is rebuilding shows the importance Tehran puts on its missile program. Iran’s bombed nuclear sites so far have not seen the same level of activity.
During the war, Iran fired 574 ballistic missiles at Israel, according to the Washington-based Jewish Institute for National Security of America, which has a close relationship with the Israeli military. In two exchanges of fire before the war, Iran launched another 330 missiles, the think tank said.
The Israeli military had estimated Iran’s total arsenal at around 2,500 missiles, meaning that over a third of its missiles were fired.
Before the war, Iran was on track to be able to produce more than 200 solid-fuel missiles a month, said Carl Parkin, a summer fellow at the James Martin Center. That drew Israeli strikes to missile-building facilities.
“Israel’s targeting indicates that they believed mixing was a bottleneck in Iran’s missile production,” he said. “If Iran is able to overcome their mixing limitations, they’ll have all the casting capacity that they need to start producing at high volumes again.”
The Israeli military declined to respond to questions over its strategy. Iran’s defense minister, Gen. Aziz Nasirzadeh, recently claimed Tehran now has new missiles with more advanced warheads.
“The 12-day war with Israel has altered some of our priorities,” he said on Aug. 22. “We are now focused on producing military equipment with higher precision and greater operational capabilities.”
Chinese mixers seen at Syria missile site affiliated with Iran
Iran may choose to rely on China to obtain mixers and the chemicals to make solid fuel.
Such chemicals may have caused a massive explosion in April that killed at least 70 people at a port in Iran. Iran still has not explained the blast, which happened as its diplomats met with Americans in Oman over its nuclear program.
Just days after the explosion, the US State Department sanctioned Chinese firms it said provided the Islamic Republic with “ballistic missile propellant ingredients.”
Meanwhile, Iran’s Revolutionary Guard likely supplied a planetary mixer to an underground ballistic missile construction facility in Syria near the town of Masyaf, some 170 kilometers (105 miles) north of the capital, Damascus, near the Lebanese border. Footage released by the Israeli military months after the September 2024 raid on the facility showed the mixer, which bore a resemblance to others sold online by Chinese firms.
Iran’s president and military officials visited Beijing earlier this month for China’s Victory Day parade. Iran’s government has provided no detailed readout on what Pezeshkian said to Chinese President Xi Jinping, and China’s state-run media offered no indications that Tehran asked for help.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry, asked about possibly supplying Tehran mixers and fuel ingredients, told AP that Beijing is “willing to continue leveraging its influence to contribute to peace and stability in the Middle East.”
“China supports Iran in safeguarding its national sovereignty, security and national dignity,” the ministry said. “At the same time, China is deeply concerned about the continued escalation of tensions in the Middle East.”
Can Kasapoğlu, a senior fellow with the Washington-based Hudson Institute, said Beijing could supply guidance systems and microprocessors as well for Iran’s ballistic missiles.
“If Iran uses its relationship with China to bolster its disruptive military capabilities, the 12-day war could be a mere speed bump for the Iranian regime, rather than a decisive defeat,” he wrote.
Lair, the analyst, said if Iran restarts its production at prewar levels, the sheer number of missiles produced will make it harder for the Israelis to preemptively destroy them or shoot them down.
“They are clearly very invested in their missile program, and I don’t think that they’re going to negotiate it away, ever,” he said.