Palestinians were gripped by fear and anxiety on Sunday after the Israeli military said it was preparing for the forcible displacement of 1 million people from Gaza City.
The announcement came days after Israel said it intended to launch a new offensive to seize control of the territory’s largest urban centre, in a plan that raised international alarm, and ahead of the IDF’s latest attacks in the Palestinian territory which Gaza’s health officials said had killed at least 40 people on Saturday including a baby in a tent and people seeking aid.
“Based on the directives of the political leadership, and as part of the Israel Defense Forces’ preparations to transfer civilians from combat zones to the southern Gaza Strip for their safety, starting tomorrow [Sunday], the provision of tents and shelter equipment for Gaza residents will resume,” read a statement by the Israeli Coordination of Government Activities in the Palestinian Territories (COGAT).
“The equipment will be transferred through the Kerem Shalom crossing by the United Nations and international relief organisations, after undergoing thorough inspection by the Land Crossings Authority of the Ministry of Defense,” it added.
Meanwhile, new recordings broadcast by an Israeli TV station showed the Israeli general who headed military intelligence on 7 October 2023 saying that 50 Palestinians “must die” for every person killed that day, and “it does not matter now if they are children”. The channel said the undated conversations were recorded “in recent months”.
And in the US the state department announced that it would stop issuing visas to children from Gaza in desperate need of medical care after an online pressure campaign from Laura Loomer, a far-right influencer close to Donald Trump who has described herself as “a proud Islamophobe”.
A Palestinian woman, displaced by the Israeli offensive, shelters in a tent camp in Gaza City. Photograph: Dawoud Abu Alkas/Reuters
After Israel’s announcement, Palestinians in Gaza – displaced repeatedly, forced to live in tent camps or amid the ruins of their homes, stricken by hunger and deprived of medical supplies – are bracing for another humanitarian disaster as a new offensive would force them toward the south of the territory and an uncertain future.
“We are already destroyed and exhausted, physically and psychologically, from repeated displacement, from the lack of food and water,” Akram Shlabia, 85, told the Guardian from the Shuja’iyya neighbourhood of Gaza City. “And now they want us to go to the south. Into nothingness, into the unknown, into a place without shelter or the basic means of life, even safety.”
“We will face many problems in displacement,” said Mazen Hasaneh, 40, from al-Tuffah neighbourhood, who has been displaced six times during the war. “First, securing a way to transport the necessary items like a tent and other basics, and of course many drivers will exploit people’s desperation and raise prices, while people have no money to pay.
“The second problem is finding a place to set up the tent and settle, along with the difficulty of finding and providing water and food. Everything about displacement is suffering, especially in our current conditions.”
Some families have already begun moving south to secure shelter in anticipation of possible evacuation, while others are contacting relatives to ask about available space should the relocation plan proceed. Yet many say they will remain in Gaza City, declaring they would rather stay than face the hardships of displacement.
“If the plan is carried out, I will look for a safe place for myself and my children within Gaza, and I will not consider moving to the south of the Strip,” said Asma Al-Barawi, 34, from al-Tuffah, the mother of seven children. “I didn’t leave the first time, and I won’t leave this time. The experiences and suffering I heard from the displaced who went south were harsh and unbearable.”
“I lost everything because of this war,” she added. “I lost two of my brothers, two of my maternal aunts with their families, my cousin, and my father-in-law. And, I lost my new home, which I only left with some clothes.”
In recent days, heavy explosions have echoed from areas east of Gaza, where Israeli forces have intensified operations, including artillery barrages and the start of an incursion on the outskirts of the Sabra neighbourhood.
On Saturday a baby girl and her parents were killed when an Israeli airstrike hit a tent in al-Muwasi, previously designated a humanitarian zone by Israel, in southern Gaza, Nasser hospital officials and witnesses said.
“Two and a half months old, what has she done?” a neighbour, Fathi Shubeir, asked. “They are civilians in an area designated safe.”
Israel’s military said it could not comment on the strike without more details.
Displaced Palestinians make their way towards the site of a humanitarian aid airdrop at the Bureij camp in Gaza on Sunday. Photograph: Eyad Baba/AFP/Getty Images
Al-Muwasi is now one of the most heavily populated areas in Gaza after Israel pushed people into the desolate area. But the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said last week that Israel planned to widen its coming military offensive to include the area, along with Gaza City and “central camps” – an apparent reference to the built-up Nuseirat and Bureij refugee camps in central Gaza.
According to the civil defence agency, at least 13 of the Palestinians killed on Saturday were shot by troops as they were waiting to collect food aid near distribution sites in the north and the south.
There were also another 11 malnutrition-related deaths in Gaza over the past 24 hours, the health ministry said on Saturday, including at least one child. That brought malnutrition-related deaths due to the Israeli blockade on aid to 251.
Meanwhile in Israel police blasted crowds with water cannons and made dozens of arrests on Sunday as thousands of protesters in Jerusalem demanded a deal to free hostages in Gaza. The demonstrators aimed to shut down the country with a one-day strike that blocked roads and closed businesses.
Groups representing families of hostages organised the demonstrations as frustration grows in Israel over plans for the new military offensive, which many fear could further endanger the remaining hostages, about 20 of whom are believed to still be alive.
“We don’t win a war over the bodies of hostages,” protesters chanted in one of the largest and fiercest protests in 22 months of war.
Protesters gathered at dozens of places including outside politicians’ homes, military headquarters and on major highways. They blocked lanes and lit bonfires. Police said they arrested 38 people.
Israel’s military offensive has killed at least 61,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s health ministry, most of them civilians. The figure does not include the thousands believed to be buried under rubble or the thousands killed indirectly as a consequence of the war.
At least three events connected to Mexican Independence Day have been canceled or postponed in Chicago, amid reports that Donald Trump plans to send troops and immigration agents as part of plans to launch mass deportations.
Organizers decided to cancel El Grito Chicago, an event that drew 24,000 people last year and was scheduled for 13-14 September.
“It was a painful decision, but holding El Grito Chicago at this time puts the safety of our community at stake – and that’s a risk we are unwilling to take,” the event’s website stated. “While we’re torn by this decision, when we brought this celebration back, our aim was to create a safe, affordable, family-friendly, community festival for all.”
The anxiety in the country’s third-largest city comes after Trump deployed national guard troops to Los Angeles and Washington DC. Illinois governor JB Pritzker said he was concerned about Ice agents targeting people at the Mexican Independence Day events.
Mexican festivals in Chicago canceled amid Trump plans to deploy troops
Donald Trump’s plan to deploy national guard troops and federal immigration agents to Chicago is already having an impact on the city’s Mexican community.
Organizers have canceled several local events tied to Mexican Independence Day, which occurs on 16 September.
Trump claims Chicago is ‘world’s most dangerous city’. The most violent ones are in red states
As Donald Trump threatens to deploy national guard units to cities ostensibly to quell violence, he repeatedly targets Democratic run-cities.
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Second, crime in large cities in the aggregate is lower in states with Democratic leadership. But the president focuses his ire almost exclusively on large bluecities in bluestates, sidestepping political conflict with redRepublican governors.
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The speaker list at the National Conservatism conference in Washington DC raises questions over what distinctions exist between the nationalist hard right in the US and members of the Trump administration and the Republican party.
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The last time President Trump attended a US Open match, as a presidential candidate in 2015, the booing was so loud that multiple news outlets wrote stories about the critical crowd reaction. ESPN’s live broadcast lingered on shots of Trump during a quarterfinal match.
Trump will be back on Sunday afternoon, attending the men’s final, prompting a question: What will ABC show and how?
The tennis championship, a beloved event in Trump’s hometown borough of Queens in deep-blue New York City, attracts a different crowd than, say, the UFC fighting matches that Trump has attended in recent months.
Whether Trump is met by jeers or cheers at Arthur Ashe Stadium on Sunday, the US Tennis Association says it wants the focus to be on the court.
Disney’s ESPN is the US rights-holder for the tennis tournament, and Disney’s ABC is airing the men’s final on Sunday. The ESPN production plans to show Trump and note that he is in attendance, much the same way Fox showed Trump at the Super Bowl earlier this year.
Curiosity about the network’s coverage plan was piqued on Saturday after a prominent tennis writer, Ben Rothenberg, published a story titled, “U.S. Open Orders Broadcasters to Censor Reactions to Trump.”
He cited a tennis association memo to broadcasters, including ESPN, that asked them to “refrain from showcasing any disruptions or reactions in response to the president’s attendance.”
The memo seemed like a request rather than an order. In a statement to CNN, the association said, “We regularly ask our broadcasters to refrain from showcasing off-court disruptions.”
Broadcasters tend to have the same instincts. Sports networks avoid showing streakers and other attention-seeking, game-interrupting stunts.
Political protests are inherently more newsworthy, however. When environmental activists disrupted a US Open semifinal match in 2023, forcing a long delay in play, ESPN did show some live pictures of the protesters. The live coverage, however, mostly emphasized the impact on the players, in keeping with the network’s focus on sports.
Some Trump antagonists have been publicly hoping for a political protest at the Open final. With tongue firmly in cheek, conservative lawyer George Conway wrote on X, “It would be terrible if he became upset over some chant like ‘WE. WANT. THE EPSTEIN. FILES.’ I earnestly hope and pray this does not happen.”
Trump will arrive in New York in time for the match’s expected start at 2 p.m. ET, according to a White House schedule.
Trump has attended half a dozen major sporting events since the start of his second term in January. He attended the first half of the Super Bowl in February, though he was only seen on camera briefly. Inside the Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana, there were more cheers than boos when he was shown on the stadium’s video screens.
More recently, when Trump was at the FIFA Club World Cup final in July, he was cheered upon arrival at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, but received some boos when shown on the video screens during the national anthem. There were boos again later when Trump helped carry the competition trophy to the stage, prompting some viral videos of the hostile reception.
Yoshinobu Yamamoto was this close to getting the first no-hitter of the 2025 MLB season. Instead, the Los Angeles Dodgers blew a 3-0 lead and allowed the Baltimore Orioles to get a gutting walk-off win.
Yamamoto was one out from making history, going hitless through 8.2 innings. But Baltimore Orioles second baseman Jackson Holliday had other plans: The 21-year-old broke up the no-no at the last second, with a solo homer to deep right field in the bottom of the ninth.
Yamamoto, who had racked up 112 pitches, was immediately taken out of the game and replaced by reliever Blake Treinen. He received a standing ovation as he exited.
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But Yamamoto couldn’t even record a win on the game. With Treinen on the mound, the Orioles filled the bases, giving Baltimore another run after a walk. Tanner Scott, who replaced Treinen, then blew the save, allowing Emmanuel Rivera to get a walk-off RBI single that sent Jorge Mateo and Gunnar Henderson home.
Even with the homer, Yamamoto had a career night, throwing 10 strikeouts in the outing. He also passed seven innings for the first time in his MLB career, nearly getting his first complete game since joining the Dodgers in 2024.
Prior to allowing Holliday’s homer in the ninth, Los Angeles built up a 3-0 lead behind a Shohei Ohtani RBI single in the third and a pair of RBIs (a single and a triple) from Mookie Betts in the fifth and seventh innings.
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In the end, that wasn’t enough, as the Orioles took advantage in the ninth inning to get a dramatic walk-off win.
Though it would have been Yamamoto’s first MLB no-hitter, he’s accomplished the feat twice before in his career: The 27-year-old threw no-hitters in two consecutive seasons in Nippon Professional Baseball, while playing for the Orix Buffaloes.
Instead, the Dodgers will have to contend with their fifth straight loss. After being swept by the Pittsburgh Pirates last week, Los Angeles is in danger of the same thing happening in Baltimore.
Compare this to last year, where there were four no-hitters, including a combined no-no last September from the Chicago Cubs. For now, the league will just have to keep waiting.
