What’s behind Israel’s ground push into Gaza City?
The Take
Al Jazeera
4.7 • 748 Ratings
🗓️ 21 August 2025
⏱️ 25 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Israel’s ground push into Gaza City comes as Hamas accepts a ceasefire deal brokered by Egypt and Qatar. Palestinians are being forced south in the Gaza Strip, where tent camps are rising and aid remains scarce. What does this move reveal about Israel’s broader plan?
In this episode:
- Jeremy Scahill (@jeremyscahill), Investigative Journalist and Co-Founder, Drop Site News
Episode credits:
This episode was produced by Tamara Khandaker, Sonia Bhagat and Marcos Bartolomé, with Phillip Lanos, Spencer Cline, Melanie Marich, Farhan Rafid, and guest host, Kevin Hirten. It was edited by Kylene Kiang, Amy Walters and Sarí el-Khalili.
Our sound designer is Alex Roldan. Our video editors are Hisham Abu Salah and Mohannad Al-Melhem. Alexandra Locke is the Take’s executive producer. Ney Alvarez is Al Jazeera’s head of audio.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Al Jazeera Podcasts. |
| 0:08.0 | Today, Israel's takeover of Gaza is here. |
| 0:15.0 | Despite international condemnation, Israel is threatening to seize Gaza City, |
| 0:20.0 | with nearly one million residents |
| 0:22.1 | is the largest in the strip. With Palestinians in Gaza bracing for their lives, how does |
| 0:28.7 | Israel's new blueprint fit into its broader ambitions? I'm Kevin Horton, and this is the |
| 0:36.6 | take. I'm Kevin Hurton, and this is The Take. |
| 0:47.3 | I'm Jeremy Skehill. I'm an investigative journalist at DropSight News. |
| 0:57.1 | So, Jeremy, welcome to The Take. So on Tuesday, Hamas announced it is accepting the latest ceasefire proposal brokered by Egypt and Qatar. |
| 0:58.7 | So let me just give a few details. |
| 1:00.6 | It's a 60-day truce. |
| 1:09.0 | It will allow time to further negotiate, allow aid to flow into Gaza, and Hamas would agree to release about half of the remaining captives. |
| 1:12.3 | So now this puts the ball back in Israel's court. |
| 1:17.5 | Meanwhile, there were these massive anti-war protests in Tel Aviv over the weekend. |
| 1:22.7 | What's your read on the current state of play? And do you think Netanyahu will be feeling any new pressure to deal? I think Netanyahu on a micro level is facing some heat to make a deal. |
| 1:29.9 | Certainly a majority of the Israeli population is very, very focused on the fact that there are |
| 1:36.4 | 50 living and deceased Israeli captives remaining in Gaza. But at the same time, the pattern that |
| 1:43.5 | we've seen is that Netanyahu has been |
| 1:45.7 | perfectly content to sacrifice the lives of those captives in pursuit of his broader vision, |
| 1:52.6 | as he's put it, to conquer the Gaza Strip. Even when Israel signs so-called ceasefire deals, |
| 2:00.2 | Netanyahu has boasted in front of the Israeli security |
| 2:03.5 | cabinet that he always gets what's called a secret side letter from the president of the United |
... |
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