Israel Begins Ground Assault on Gaza City as Civilians Flee

 

 

Israel confirmed Tuesday it has launched a ground offensive on Gaza City, intensifying bombardments and pushing deeper into the enclave’s largest urban center despite widespread international condemnation.

 

The long-anticipated operation began on the city’s outskirts, with the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) targeting high-rise towers and key Hamas strongholds. Defense Minister Israel Katz said the offensive aimed to dismantle “terror infrastructures” and secure the release of hostages. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described the moment as a “critical stage” in the war.

 

The UN and humanitarian groups have warned that the assault risks deepening Gaza’s dire humanitarian crisis. Nearly one million people live in and around Gaza City, but Israel estimates only 40% have evacuated, a figure CNN could not independently verify. Large numbers of Palestinians were seen fleeing with their belongings, as Israeli airstrikes leveled neighborhoods like Sheikh Radwan.

 

On Tuesday, an independent UN inquiry accused Israel of committing genocide, alleging Palestinians were “targeted collectively due to their identity.” Israel rejected the findings as “distorted and false.”

 

Gaza City, once spared the destruction seen in Rafah and Khan Younis, now faces similar devastation. Health officials reported at least 93 Palestinians killed in northern Gaza on Tuesday, with over 100 deaths across the enclave.

 

Israel’s security cabinet had planned to expand aid sites before launching the assault, but only five of 16 promised facilities are open, forcing displaced civilians to walk for hours in search of food and medical help.

As Israeli drones hovered, residents described the strikes as among the heaviest in months. “Fear, fear, it’s all fear,” said Maysar Al Adwan, a Gaza City resident fleeing with his family.

Key Takeaways

• Israel launches ground assault on Gaza City, escalating the conflict despite global condemnation.

• UN accuses Israel of genocide, while Israel rejects the findings and dismisses the inquiry.

• Humanitarian crisis deepens, with limited aid sites, mass displacement, and over 100 Palestinians killed in a single day.

Source: CNN

Thousands of Palestinians are continuing to flee Gaza City, as Israel's major ground offensive aimed at occupying the city enters a second day.

 

Amid large-scale bombardment overnight, Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry said al-Ranitisi children's hospital was targeted in three separate Israeli attacks, forcing half of its patients and their families to flee. The Israeli military said it was looking into the report.

 

Other hospitals said at least 35 people had been killed by Israeli fire across Gaza so far on Wednesday, most of them in the north.

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cx270y1rgzeo

 

UN estimates suggest at least 650,000 people remain in Gaza City as Israel ramps up its offensive

 

 

Relentless tank strikes and airstrikes in the past 24 hours have killed at least 16 people and hit Gaza’s only specialist hospital for children, according to Palestinian health authorities, who say the death toll in the territory has almost reached 65,000 since October 2023.

 

On the ground, fearful families trapped in Gaza City say they are having to navigate remotely operated bomb-packed armoured cars: rigged vehicles that the Israeli media claims its military is now relying on as part of the current ground offensive.

 

“Today we woke up to terrifying sounds from these massive robots bombs exploding in Gaza’s neighbourhoods and streets, causing massive destruction,” said Hussein Mansour, 55, who has stayed in Gaza City praying for a ceasefire as it is too expensive to evacuate his wife and child.

 

Palestinians dodge ‘giant robot bombs’ in desperate scramble to flee Gaza City

 

 

The Palestinian authorities estimate that hundreds of thousands of people could still be in Gaza City despite Israel having issued a mass evacuation order. Many cannot afford the $600 (£440) it now costs to rent a vehicle to travel south.

The main road out of Gaza City along the coast is too busy now for residents to be able to leave (Reuters)

 

 

Macabit Mayer, aunt of Gali and Ziv Berman, calls for an immediate ceasefire outside Benjamin Netanyahu’s residence in Jerusalem (Tanya Zion-Waldoks/Hostages Family Forum)

Exhaustion, despair and anger are grinding away at Ne'man Abu Jarad. Once again, for the 11th time, he and his family have been forced to uproot and move across the Gaza Strip.

 

The next day, they unpacked in southern Gaza on barren former agricultural land outside the city of Khan Younis, unsure where they would now find food and water.

 

This has been the Abu Jarads’ life for nearly two years, since fleeing their home in the far north of Gaza days after Israel launched its onslaught in response to Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack. Like countless Palestinian families, they have fled the length of Gaza and back, forced to move every few months as Israel attacks each new shelter. The Associated Press has chronicled much of their journey.

 

Despair deepens for a Palestinian family forced to flee across Gaza yet again

 

Mideast Wars Displaced Again:©(Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

The situation in Gaza City is "nothing short of cataclysmic", a UN official has told the BBC, as Israeli tanks and troops continue to advance on the third day of a ground offensive.

 

Olga Cherevko, a spokeswoman for the UN's humanitarian office, said she had seen a constant stream of Palestinians heading south during a recent visit to the city, but that hundreds of thousands remained.

 

The World Health Organization (WHO) warned that overwhelmed hospitals were on the brink of collapse because it was being prevented from delivering lifesaving supplies.

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c5y8l46m5evo

 

Israeli aircraft carried out strikes along Gaza City's Mediterranean coast on Thursday

ByDavid Gritten

 

 

 

Many displaced families who have fled southwards are having to sleep on roadsides