The Israeli army levelled several high-rise residential towers housing thousands of refugees in Gaza City over the weekend, marking the latest escalation in the campaign to completely occupy the city and ethnically cleanse its population.
“A powerful hurricane will strike the skies of Gaza City,” Israel’s Defense Minister, Israel Katz, wrote on X on Monday. “And the roofs of the terror towers will tremble.”
The Israeli military had claimed that Hamas was using the residential towers as “command-and-control centers” earlier in the weekend, without providing any evidence. Israel has also used this general claim when justifying its targeting of hospitals, schools, and other civilian infrastructure in Gaza.
On Friday, the army’s Arabic-language spokesperson, Avichay Adraee, said in a statement that the army would attack buildings that have been converted into “terrorist infrastructure,” which included “cameras, surveillance rooms, sniper and anti-tank missile launching sites, and command-and-control centers.” Adraee also released an illustrative video showing hundreds of buildings on a map of Gaza City highlighted in red, indicating that they will be bombed.
On the same day, the Israeli army bombed the Mushtaha Tower. Hours later, residents of the Mecca Tower were ordered to evacuate ahead of its bombing.
As Israel has expanded its offensive in Gaza City, it has totally destroyed the eastern neighborhoods of Zeitoun, al-Shuja’iyya, al-Tuffah, and Sabra. It is now moving into western Gaza City, where the majority of residents from the eastern areas and from north Gaza have fled.
These remaining areas house tens of thousands of displaced persons crowded into displacement centers. They are now under intense Israeli bombardment. Gaza’s Civil Defense spokesperson, Mahmoud Basal, said that targeting high-rise buildings is not an accident.
“It is part of a policy of forcibly displacing civilians,” Basal said in a statement. “Entire families are being cast out into the streets, homeless and without shelter.”
The high-rise buildings were among the few built structures still standing in Gaza City that were capable of housing thousands of displaced people. Basal said that their deliberate destruction reflects Israel’s intention to precipitate a mass exodus of Gazans once they no longer have a place to go.
Residents of areas in eastern and northern Gaza City, as well as residents from north Gaza, were forced to flee toward the Sudaniyya, Shanti, and al-Rimal neighborhoods west of the city, the Shati and Nabulsi neighborhoods, and the Netzarim corridor. These areas are now filled with tents and crowded with displaced people.
Targeting civilians in the streets
Faris Afana, Director of Emergency and Ambulance Services in Gaza City, said that evacuation orders included areas in the city’s northern parts, such as Abu Iskandar, Jabalia al-Nazla, al-Jalaa, and al-Nafaq Street, whose residents received orders from the Israeli army to leave immediately. Afana added that all areas in northern Gaza City have become “extremely dangerous, and people are unable to walk in those areas.”
Afana said that the Israeli army has deployed quadcopter drones to fire on civilians who remain in the streets in these areas. “The Israeli army has also installed new cranes with automatic guns affixed to them, firing on people in the streets,” Afana added.
As some Gaza City residents scramble to evacuate, Afana said that many are unable to cover the costs of their own displacement. “Buying a tent costs over a thousand dollars,” Afana explained. “And then there are the transportation costs.” Unable to afford to hire transportation to carry their belongings, many have begun to flee south on foot, unable to carry most of their possessions and leaving behind their homes and everything they own, Afana pointed out.
“Since the Israeli occupation announced its intention to invade Gaza City, the army immediately began a complete invasion of the Zeitoun and Sabra neighborhoods, destroying everything it could in over 80% of those areas,” Afana said. “It then moved to the area north of Gaza City in the Abu Iskandar area, almost completely emptying them and launching nighttime raids.”
What has emerged is an effective siege of the entire city, with Israeli forces positioned in several axes surrounding Gaza City, gradually pushing inward from the north, south, and east.
Abdullah Abu Daf, a father of six young girls, left the al-Maghrebi area west of Gaza City after explosions in his area. He said that the army had ordered them to flee south. “I hope the army is telling the truth and won’t bomb us after we leave our home,” Abu Daf said, noting that he isn’t afraid of death, but that he wants to protect his daughters and family. “We’ve seen death hundreds of times during this war, so we no longer fear it. When the army orders us to flee, we don’t flee for ourselves, the adults. We only want to protect our children. It’s not their fault that they should be burned to death or have their bodies eaten by dogs. That’s what happened with our neighbors and relatives in Gaza City.”
Abu Daf says that he has heard stories about a neighbor who was killed in his home, or another who was burned alive with his family under the bombs, or another neighbor whose body remained under the rubble of his house since the Civil Defense and rescue teams were unable to reach him. He does not want his children to suffer a similar fate.
Over the weekend, the number of displaced people leaving the city steadily increased as the Israeli bombardment crept closer to the city’s center, targeting shelters and what remains of the city’s standing structures.
Hassan al-Hawi, a resident of the Sheikh Radwan area west of Gaza City, said that he left his home because quadcopter drones were firing on homes and residents in his area. He fled with his family to Deir al-Balah in central Gaza.
“We spent three days looking for a place to go, and in the end, we were forced to seek refuge in the UNRWA schools in Deir al-Balah,” he said. “The quadcopter would come near our homes and the voice over the loudspeaker would curse at us and threaten us, telling us to leave our homes. They would even fire at us from the windows and sometimes enter through them.”
“We don’t know if we’ll stay here or if the army will tell us to leave later after they’re done with Gaza City,” al-Hawi added.
“Gaza has become a slaughterhouse for civilians,” he said. “Israel is not bombing Hamas or targeting resistance fighters. It is targeting the defenseless, the besieged civilians who are denied food and water.”
My completely objective friend from Mars has asked me to explain the moral system of Earthlings. He ( well, actually, Martians have 17 sexes, but let’s not quibble ) has pointed out to me that on Oct 7** Hamas killed 379 members of Israel’s security forces and 796 civilians, which is a civilian/military ratio of 2.01 to 1, let’s call it 2 to 1. The IDF, my friend pointed out to me, has far exceeded that ratio by anyone’s observation, it has killed far, far more than 2 noncombatants for every Hamasnik.
I explained to him that Hamas started it all, you see, and Hamas was killing civilians deliberately, intentionally, whereas the IDF is simply acting in self-defense, and any civilian casualties due to its actions were purely unintentional – that’s how we Earthlings see things. At which point my Martian friend gave a 134 decibel screech/growl, which is what passes for a Martian ‘laugh’.
**
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/October_7_attacks#Casualties