UN chief urges Gaza ceasefire as Israel plans Gaza City offensive amid global backlash

On Thursday, as Israel began executing the opening moves of a military operation aimed at seizing Gaza City, the United Nations Secretary-General called for an immediate ceasefire. Antonio Guterres, speaking from Japan where he was attending a development conference, warned that a full assault on Gaza's largest urban center would "inevitably cause" death and destruction on a scale the region could not absorb. He also pressed Israel to release fifty hostages held by Hamas, most of whom are believed dead, and to reverse its decision to expand settlement construction in the West Bank—moves Guterres characterized as illegal.

Israel is moving forward regardless. The country has mobilized tens of thousands of army reservists for the Gaza City operation, a campaign that military planners acknowledge carries real risk to the remaining hostages and will almost certainly displace thousands more Palestinians. Israel currently controls roughly three-quarters of the Gaza Strip. The operation comes nearly two years into a conflict that began with Hamas's October 7 attack, in which roughly 1,200 Israelis were killed and 251 taken hostage. The Gaza health ministry, which is Hamas-run, reports more than 62,000 Palestinians killed or presumed dead, though that figure cannot be independently verified and does not distinguish between civilians and combatants. Israel says it has killed over 22,000 combatants in the fighting.

The international response has been sharp and coordinated. France's President Emmanuel Macron said the planned offensive could "only lead to disaster for both peoples" and called instead for a permanent ceasefire paired with a hostage release deal, Hamas disarmament, and an international stabilization force for Gaza. In a post on social media, Macron said he had spoken with Jordan's King Abdullah II and Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, and all three leaders share the conviction that expanded Israeli military action "risks plunging the entire region into a cycle of permanent war." Macron outlined what he sees as the only credible path forward: disarming Hamas, strengthening the Palestinian Authority's governance role in Gaza, delivering large-scale humanitarian aid, and deploying an international mission to stabilize the territory.

Jordan's foreign minister, Ayman Safadi, used even sharper language. Speaking in Moscow with his Russian counterpart, Safadi said Israel's policies in the war had caused "massacres and starvation" and that its broader actions were "killing all prospects" for peace in the Middle East. Germany's government similarly rejected what it called the escalation, with a spokesman telling reporters it was "increasingly difficult to understand how these actions will lead to the freeing of all the hostages, or to a ceasefire." Hamas, for its part, claimed the plan to conquer Gaza City demonstrated Israel's "blatant disregard" for ceasefire negotiations. The group recently said it had accepted a proposal for a sixty-day ceasefire and a hostages-for-prisoners exchange, which Israel is currently weighing.

Tensions between Israel and France have sharpened considerably. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Macron of fueling antisemitism by announcing France's plan to recognize a Palestinian state in September—a move followed by several other countries. In a letter to the French premier, Netanyahu charged that recognizing Palestinian statehood "rewards Hamas terror, hardens Hamas's refusal to free the hostages, emboldens those who menace French Jews, and encourages the Jew-hatred now stalking your streets." Netanyahu has also repeatedly stated that Israel cannot hand control of Gaza to the Palestinian Authority after the war ends.

Facing mounting global condemnation, Israel's Foreign Ministry announced Thursday what it called an "unprecedented" initiative to host hundreds of foreign delegations before year's end. The goal, the ministry stated plainly, is "to help spread the Israeli narrative in international media." The scale is striking: by December, roughly 400 delegations comprising more than 5,000 people are expected to arrive in Israel. For context, the ministry had averaged just 25 delegations annually in previous years. The budget allocated is approximately 135 million Israeli shekels—roughly $40 million—drawn from a broader 545 million shekel public diplomacy effort announced last year, though that figure was later reduced and not released until April.

The delegations will include government officials, legislators, journalists, influencers, academics, and figures from law, religion, culture, and sports. Each group will receive a customized itinerary. Activities include tours of southern Israeli communities hit by the October 7 attack, meetings with survivors, screenings of attack footage, visits to Jerusalem and the north, and sit-downs with senior Israeli officials. Several delegations are already scheduled, largely from the United States: 250 state legislators, 1,000 pastors and religious leaders from four regions, and 160 representatives from all sixteen German federal states. Journalists from Europe, Asia, Africa, and Latin America are arriving almost weekly, the ministry said. The operation represents an explicit effort to bypass traditional diplomatic channels and reach foreign publics directly through media exposure—a recognition that Israel's international standing has eroded significantly and that conventional diplomacy alone cannot restore it.