Israeli troopers arrange military gear whereas standing on armored personnel carriers close to the border with the Gaza Strip on Aug. 6, 2025 in Southern Israel.
Amir Levy | Getty Images News | Getty Images
The Israeli military on Saturday mentioned Palestinians in Gaza City ought to leave for the south, as its forces advance deeper into the enclave’s largest city space.
Israeli forces have been finishing up an offensive on the suburbs of the northern metropolis for weeks after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the military to seize it.
Netanyahu says Gaza City is a Hamas stronghold and capturing it’s crucial to defeat the Palestinian Islamist militants, whose October 2023 assault on Israel sparked the struggle.
The assault threatens to displace a whole lot of 1000’s of Palestinians sheltering there from almost two years of preventing. Before the struggle, round 1,000,000 folks, almost half of Gaza’s inhabitants, lived within the metropolis.
Israeli military spokesperson Avichay Adraee wrote on X that residents ought to leave the town for a delegated coastal space of Khan Younis in southern Gaza, assuring these fleeing that they’d have the ability to obtain meals, medical care and shelter there.
The designated space was a “humanitarian zone”, Adraee mentioned.
On Thursday, the military mentioned it had management over nearly half of the town. It says it controls about 75% of all of Gaza.
Many of these in Gaza City had been displaced earlier within the struggle solely to later return. Some residents have mentioned that they refuse to be displaced once more.
The military has been finishing up heavy strikes on the town for weeks, advancing by means of outer suburbs, and this week forces had been inside a number of kilometres of the town centre.
Netanyahu, backed by right-wing coalition allies, ordered the seize of Gaza City in opposition to the recommendation of Israel’s military management, in accordance to Israeli officers. Despite its hesitation, the military has referred to as up tens of 1000’s of reservists to assist the operation.
The struggle in Gaza has more and more left Israel diplomatically remoted, with a few of its closest allies condemning the marketing campaign that has devastated the small territory.
All-or-nothing deal
Palestinian militants took 251 hostages into the enclave after its cross-border assault on southern Israeli communities on October 7, 2023 that killed about 1,200 folks.
More than 64,000 Palestinians have since been killed in Gaza, native well being authorities say, with a lot of the enclave decreased to ruins and its residents going through a humanitarian disaster.
There are additionally rising calls inside Israel, led by households of hostages and their supporters, to finish the struggle in a diplomatic deal that might safe the discharge of the remaining 48 captives.
Israeli officers consider 20 of the hostages are alive.
Netanyahu is pushing for an all-or-nothing deal that might see all the hostages launched without delay and Hamas surrendering.
Israeli military officers say they’ve killed a lot of Hamas’ key leaders and 1000’s of its fighters, decreasing the Palestinian militant group to a guerrilla drive.
Hamas has provided to launch some hostages for a brief ceasefire, comparable to phrases that had been mentioned in July earlier than negotiations mediated by the U.S. and Arab states collapsed.
U.S. President Donald Trump mentioned on Friday that Washington was in “very deep” negotiations with the Palestinian militants.
Hamas, which has dominated Gaza for almost twenty years however as we speak controls solely components of the enclave, has lengthy mentioned it could launch all hostages if Israel agreed to finish the struggle and to withdraw all its forces from Gaza.
Most of the hostages who’ve been freed had been launched by means of diplomatic negotiations mediated by the United States and Arab states. Israel and Hamas have accused one another of negotiating in dangerous religion for the reason that breakdown of the final talks in July.
Defence Minister Israel Katz on Friday mentioned the military operations in Gaza would intensify till Hamas accepted Israel’s situations for ending the struggle: releasing the hostages and disarming. Otherwise, the group could be destroyed, he mentioned.