GAZA — Gaza’s Civil Defence said that within less than a week, Israeli forces have caused “large-scale destruction” across Gaza City’s infrastructure and residential areas after announcing they were “opening the gates of hell” on the city amid plans to occupy it, displacing more than 50,000 people homeless.
According to the Civil Defence spokesperson Mahmoud Basal, Israeli bombardment has destroyed 12 residential towers of more than seven floors, containing about 500 apartments, displacing more than 10,000 people.
He said more than 120 smaller residential buildings were also destroyed, displacing 7,200 people, while partial damage to more than 500 other buildings has deprived nearly 30,000 people of shelter.
Basal added that more than 600 tents housing displaced families were burned or destroyed, leaving at least 6,000 more people homeless. Ten schools and five mosques were also completely destroyed in the strikes.
“In less than one week alone, more than 50,000 people in Gaza – including children, women, and the elderly – have been left homeless amid an escalating humanitarian catastrophe,” he said, urging the UN and international community to intervene.
What We Know?
Israel’s Defence Minister Israel Katz warned last week, “When the gate of hell is opened, it will not be closed, and [Israeli military] activity will intensify” until Hamas accepts Israel’s conditions for ending the war.
He said that as the military had issued a forced evacuation order for the Mushtaha Tower, a high-rise building in the west of Gaza City, which had been attacked and partially destroyed by Israeli forces earlier in the war.
“We start”, he wrote on X after destroying the Mushtaha Tower, which was the first high-rise to be destroyed after announcing their plan.
On Tuesday, the Israeli military warned residents of Gaza City to flee south or risk being killed. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also warned the residents on Monday to “leave now.”
“I say to the residents of Gaza, I take this opportunity and listen to me carefully: you have been warned — leave now!” he said.
On Monday, Katz also issued a threat to Gaza, warning that a “powerful hurricane” will hit the Palestinian enclave and that “Gaza will be destroyed” and “annihilated.”
Israel’s Claims to Target High-Rise Towers
Israeli military spokesman Avichay Adraee said on Friday that the Israeli military will target several buildings in Gaza City over the coming days that he claims are being used by Hamas. The Israeli military did not provide any evidence to support this claim.
The management of the Mashtaha Tower denied the Israeli claims, adding the building was only accessible to displaced people.
Israeli Plan to Occupy Gaza City
The Israeli attacks and threats came as the military pushed deeper into Gaza City, forcing residents to flee amid intense bombardment as Israel approved plans to seize the City, despite international condemnation from the United Nations and states.
The plan reportedly involves forcing around one million residents southwards before surrounding the city and launching incursions into residential areas, followed by an expansion into refugee camps in central Gaza.
UN secretary-general António Guterres criticized Israel’s plan to take control of Gaza City, saying the decision marked “a dangerous escalation” that risks “deepening the already catastrophic consequences for millions of Palestinians”.
That decision “will result in additional forced displacement, killings and massive destruction, compounding the unimaginable suffering of the Palestinian population in Gaza,” he added.
A number of countries, including France, the United Kingdom, China, Turkey, Egypt, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia, also voiced strong opposition to the Israeli plan.
Gaza’s Ministry of Interior warned that Israel’s planned invasion of Gaza City would amount to a “death sentence”.
Not the First Time
Critics and legal experts say that targeting high-rise buildings is a stark escalation of urban warfare that endangers the lives of hundreds of thousands of people taking refuge around them.
Israel has frequently failed to provide evidence to back up its claims that Hamas is using civilian buildings for military purposes.
It has a track record of conducting hits on residential buildings and towers located within the Gaza Strip, one of the world’s most densely populated areas.
These actions, referred to by the Israeli army as “precision strikes” targeting resistance groups, frequently occur in densely inhabited areas and have resulted in civilian casualties.
Gaza’s civil defense denounced Israel’s latest strikes on multistorey towers, saying targeting high-rise buildings is a policy of forced displacement.
“Entire families are thrown into the open without shelter with no safe spaces to go to,” it said, adding the destruction robs Palestinians of their “right to survive and live with dignity”.
The civil defense agency called on the international community to act immediately to halt what it described as an “organised crime”.
“How long will civilians remain without a safe place in this world?”
Gaza’s Government Media Office rejected Israel’s claims that the high-rising residential buildings flattened in recent strikes were being used by Hamas for military purposes.
“We refute, in full and in detail, the lies and allegations propagated by the Israeli occupation to justify its barbaric aggression,” it said in a statement.
“We affirm unequivocally, based on the testimony of the residents of these towers, that they are under surveillance, and only civilians are permitted to enter them.”
The office said Israel’s claims are “part of a systematic policy of deception used by the occupation to justify the targeting of civilians and infrastructure” and that its actions constitute “forced displacement”, which is illegal under international law.
Mahmoud Basal noted that Israeli forces are deliberately targeting buildings surrounded by encampments of displaced people, in what he described as a “systematic” policy aimed at intensifying forced displacement.
He also said Israeli forces are targeting the remaining mosques and stadiums in Gaza City, and said Civil Defense crews received distress calls from citizens trapped under the rubble.
C. QNN
