DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip— The Israeli army issued evacuation orders and targeted high-rise buildings in Gaza City on Saturday, urging Palestinians to flee south ahead of an escalating offensive to seize the city of nearly 1 million.
Aid groups warn that a large-scale evacuation would exacerbate the humanitarian crisis in Gaza City, which the world’s leading hunger watchdog announced last month was officially suffering from famine as a result of Israeli restrictions on food aid.
Most Palestinian families have been repeatedly displaced in the nearly two-year-long war and say they have nowhere left to go. The Israeli military has previously bombed tent encampments designated as humanitarian zones.
“There is no safe tent, no safe house, no safe place, no safety at all,” said Nadia Marouf, who fled Israel’s offensive in the north with her children and resettled
“Where do I go? We went to the south, there is no space in the south, where can we go?”
Israeli army urges Palestinians to move to a ‘humanitarian zone’
Israeli military spokesperson Avichay Adraee called on Palestinians to flee to southern Gaza, announcing on social media that the army had redrawn the borders of a humanitarian zone to encompass the overcrowded encampment of Muwasi and parts of the southern city of Khan Younis.
Aid groups have raised alarm about woefully inadequate shelter, sanitation, water and food in Muwasi. Months of Israeli bombardment have decimated civilian infrastructure in Khan Younis.
The Israeli military said it would work to provide field hospitals, water pipelines and food supplies within its humanitarian zone.
Hamas urged Palestinians to stay put in defiance of the latest evacuation orders. Exhausted and despairing, many Palestinians had their own reasons for refusing to pack up and uproot themselves again.
“I can’t walk, I am in pain, and I do not know what to do or where to go,” said Ala Alfarani, whose tent was crushed beneath a pile of rubble in Israel’s strike on a high-rise in the Tel al-Hawa neighborhood of south Gaza City.
Israel targets high-rises in Gaza City
Israel on Saturday issued evacuation warnings for two high-rises in Gaza City, with Adraee, the military spokesperson, accusing Hamas of operating inside or near the towers.
Soon after, Adraee said that the military had struck one of them.
Hamas rejected the allegations, insisting the high-rises were residential towers.
Residents of Sousi Tower, a prominent 15-story building, told The Associated Press that the Israeli army gave them around 20 minutes to grab their belongings and flee before warplanes razed the building.
“We were sitting at home and people started shouting,” recalled resident Aida Abu Kas, describing panic and confusion rippling through the building. “Some said it was a lie and other said it was real. We went out and didn’t know what to do.”
It was not immediately clear if people had been killed or wounded in the strike.
Israel Katz, Israel’s defense minister, posted a video of the Sousi Tower collapsing in an enormous cloud of smoke along with the words: “We continue.”
It was the second Gaza City tower demolished in as many days. On Friday, Israel hit Mushtaha Tower, a local landmark that housed dozens of families, saying that Hamas militants had used it for surveillance. Hamas denied those claims.
The leveling of high-rises comes as Israel ramps up its offensive against Hamas after announcing plans to take control of Gaza’s largest city, where displaced Palestinian families have pitched tents on the ruins of bombed-out buildings.
Earlier this week, the Israeli military said it had seized control of 40% of the city.
Israel says the assault is aimed at pressuring Hamas to surrender. Critics of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accuse him of prolonging the war for political reasons.
