Israeli military offensive to occupy Gaza City is underway
Global News Podcast
BBC
4.3 • 8.3K Ratings
🗓️ 21 August 2025
⏱️ 29 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Israel says it has begun 'preliminary actions' of a planned ground offensive to capture and occupy all of Gaza City. It comes as sixty thousand reservists are called up to bolster the operation which is expected to last until next year. Meanwhile, the Israeli government also approves a highly contentious plan for a new settlement near Jerusalem which would cut the occupied West Bank in two. We hear an Israeli and Palestinian perspective. Also: aid agencies in Somalia have raised the alarm over a dramatic rise in diphtheria, and a new superfood for bees to help protect them from climate change. The Global News Podcast brings you the breaking news you need to hear, as it happens. Listen for the latest headlines and current affairs from around the world. Politics, economics, climate, business, technology, health – we cover it all with expert analysis and insight. Get the news that matters, delivered twice a day on weekdays and daily at weekends, plus special bonus episodes reacting to urgent breaking stories. Follow or subscribe now and never miss a moment. Get in touch: globalpodcast@bbc.co.uk
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is the Global News podcast from the BBC World Service. |
| 0:05.0 | I'm Valerie Sanderson, and in the early hours of Thursday the 21st of August, these are our main stories. |
| 0:11.2 | Israel confirms its wider offensive in Gaza City is underway. |
| 0:15.6 | It comes as the country calls up 60,000 reservists. |
| 0:19.2 | The Israeli government also approves a highly contentious plan for a new |
| 0:23.3 | settlement near Jerusalem, which would cut the occupied West Bank into. Also in this podcast, for the |
| 0:31.3 | first time since Seizing power in Afghanistan four years ago, the Taliban have welcomed the foreign |
| 0:36.3 | ministers from Pakistan and China to the Afghan capital Kabul. |
| 0:40.3 | And a new superfood for bees to help protect them from climate change. |
| 0:50.3 | The Israeli military has confirmed that its wider offensive in Gaza City is underway, with |
| 0:55.8 | the city's outskirts already taken. It comes after Israel announced that it would call up |
| 1:01.1 | around 60,000 reservists. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in the north of the strip are |
| 1:06.9 | expected to be ordered to evacuate and to head to shelters in the south. |
| 1:11.4 | It's a plan that's drawn criticism from across the world, |
| 1:14.7 | including from the International Committee of the Red Cross, |
| 1:17.5 | which said the displacement and intensification of hostilities |
| 1:21.0 | risks worsening an already catastrophic situation for Gaza's population. |
| 1:26.5 | This was one Gaza residents' reaction. |
| 1:31.9 | The Gaza Strip can't handle this. We are tired of displacement. Every day we move from one place |
| 1:37.4 | to another. Everyone was saying that there may be a truce, but waking up to the news that |
| 1:42.1 | thousands more soldiers will enter the Gaza Strip, it's very, very catastrophic news. I asked her up to the news that thousands more soldiers will enter the Gaza Strip. |
| 1:44.9 | It's very, very catastrophic news. |
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