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Gaza's civil defence agency said Friday that 450,000 Palestinians have fled Gaza City since Israel began its offensive to seize the territory's largest urban centre. "The number of citizens displaced from Gaza to the south has reached 450,000 people since the start of the military operation on Gaza City in August," said Mohamed al-Mughayir, an official of the rescue force. The Israeli military warned Friday it would operate with "unprecedented force" in Gaza City, telling residents to flee as it presses its ground offensive. Israel has pummelled Gaza City with air strikes and tank fire in its bid to seize it, nearly two years into the war that has devastated the Palestinian territory and left Gaza City gripped by a UN-declared famine. The assault comes ahead of a planned move by several Western governments, including Britain and France, to recognise a Palestinian state at a UN summit next week. The military launched its ground assault on Tuesday and has for days been telling residents to head south, but many Palestinians say the journey is prohibitively expensive and they do not know where to go. "For several days, we've been trying to evacuate to the south, but we haven't been able to find any means of transport," Khaled al-Majdalawi, a displaced Palestinian in western Gaza City told AFP, describing "intense and continuous" shelling. The UN estimated at the end of August that about 1mn people were living in Gaza City and its surroundings. The Israeli military has urged Palestinians to head to a "humanitarian area" in Al-Mawasi on the coast. Israel first declared the area a safe zone early in the war, but has carried out repeated strikes on it since then. Nivin Ahmed, 50, fled south from Gaza City to the central city of Deir el-Balah on Thursday, walking with seven family members. "We walked more than 15km (9 miles), we were crawling from exhaustion," she told AFP. "My youngest son cried from fatigue. We took turns dragging a small cart with some of our belongings." Mona Abdel Karim, 36, said she had been unable to secure transport south and had been sleeping on Al-Rashid road for two nights with her family waiting for a driver. "I feel like I'm about to explode. We can't walk on foot — my husband's parents are elderly and sick, and the children are too weak to walk," she said. Israeli fire killed at least 33 people across the territoryFriday, 18 of them in Gaza City, according to a tally of figures given by Gaza hospitals contacted by AFP. The US-backed offensive on Gaza City came as a UN probe accused Israel of committing "genocide" in the Gaza Strip, saying Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other senior officials had incited the crime.

Huge numbers of Palestinians were fleeing Gaza City by any means Wednesday as the Israeli military pressed its ground offensive, killing dozens in strikes.Images showed a steady stream of Gazans heading south on foot, by car and on donkey carts, with their few belongings piled high as Israel bombarded the city.Israel had announced the day before that the US-backed campaign in the Gaza Strip's largest city had begun, pledging to destroy the militant group Hamas in the area.The offensive has sparked outrage among the international community, with the Palestinian territory already devastated by nearly two years of war and the Gaza City region gripped by a UN-declared famine.Gaza's civil defence agency, a rescue force operating under Hamas authority, said Israeli fire had killed at least 62 people across the territory Wednesday.The Israeli military said it was opening a temporary new route via Salah al-Din Street to allow people to flee, after unleashing a massive bombardment before dawn on Tuesday and pushing its troops deeper into Gaza City.It came as a United Nations probe accused Israel of committing genocide in the Palestinian territory, saying Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other senior officials had incited the crime.Israel's Arabic-language spokesman, Colonel Avichay Adraee, said the corridor would remain open for just 48 hours from midday (0900 GMT).Israel's campaign has killed at least 65,062 people, also mostly civilians, according to figures from the territory's health ministry that the United Nations considers reliable.

Israel launched its long-anticipated ground offensive in Gaza City Tuesday, targeting Hamas fighters and prompting widespread international alarm, with the UN condemning it as "carnage".A United Nations probe charged Israel with committing "genocide" in the Palestinian territory and accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other senior officials of incitement.The Israeli military unleashed a massive bombardment of Gaza City overnight as its troops moved deeper into the territory's largest urban hub."Over the past 24 hours, following extensive discussions with the political echelon, the IDF (military) has significantly expanded its operation in Gaza City," said army chief Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir."We are operating deep in the area, combining ground troops, precision strikes and high-quality intelligence. Our objective is to enhance the strikes on Hamas until its decisive defeat."UN chief Antonio Guterres said Israel was "determined to go up to the end".Israel was "not open to a serious negotiation for a ceasefire, with dramatic consequences from Israel's point of view," he said.The military estimated there were 2,000-3,000 Hamas fighters in central Gaza City, an army official told journalists.It said about 40% of Gaza City residents had left and moved to the territory's south, the official added.An AFP journalist saw many people, including children, sleeping in front of a hospital in Gaza City after fleeing from their homes."The people do not have money to move to the south or even to move internally," said Youssef Shanaa, who had taken refuge at a hospital.People spoke of relentless bombing in Gaza City, much of which is already in ruins after nearly two years of Israeli strikes.Only huge piles of rubble remained of a residential block in the north of the city hit by overnight bombing."Why kill children sleeping safely like that, turning them into body parts?" said Abu Abd Zaquout. "We pulled the children out in pieces."The assault was "systematic ethnic cleansing targeting our people in Gaza", Hamas said in a statement.US President Donald Trump accused Hamas of using hostages as human shields."I hear Hamas is trying to use the old human shield deal, and if they do that they're going to be in big trouble," he said.Israel struck Yemen's Houthi-held Hodeidah port Tuesday, saying it targeted a military infrastructure site of the rebel group, which has fired missiles at Israel since the outbreak of war in Gaza.Later the military said it intercepted a missile launched from Yemen.Gaza's civil defence, a rescue force operating under Hamas authority, said at least 44 people had been killed by Israeli fire Tuesday.Media restrictions in the territory and difficulties in accessing many areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify the details provided by the civil defence or the Israeli military.The European Union said the assault on Gaza City would worsen an already "catastrophic" humanitarian situation, while Britain said it would bring only "more bloodshed, kill more innocent civilians and endanger the remaining hostages".Despite the growing criticism, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who visited Israel at the weekend, offered robust backing for the offensive as he met Netanyahu."We think we have a very short window of time in which a deal can happen. We don't have months anymore, and we probably have days and maybe a few weeks to go," he told reporters as he left Israel Tuesday.Before flying out to Qatar, the top US diplomat said he hoped the US ally would keep up its Gaza mediation efforts, despite Israel carrying out air strikes against Hamas leaders gathered in the Gulf country last week to consider a US truce proposal.Rubio's visit came a week before France was set to lead a UN summit in which several Western governments, angered by what they see as Israeli intransigence, plan to recognise a Palestinian state.

The Israeli military said Saturday that more than 250,000 people had fled Gaza City since it began intensifying operations there, as Palestinian officials reported many had been unable to evacuate south due to overcrowding.The United Nations estimated in late August that about one million Palestinians lived in and around Gaza's largest urban centre, where it said a famine was unfolding after months of worsening conditions.The world body and members of the international community have urged the military to abandon its plans to capture the city, warning the assault and ensuing displacement could worsen the already dire humanitarian situation.On Saturday, Arabic-language army spokesman Avichay Adraee said on X that "more than a quarter of a mn residents of Gaza City have moved out of the city for their own safety".Gaza's civil defence agency, however, reported a much lower figure, saying fewer than 70,000 had managed to leave.The Israeli military dropped leaflets Saturday urging residents in western districts to evacuate, as the civil defence reported continuous air strikes.Mohammad Abu Salmiya, head of the Al-Shifa medical complex, said that displacement was continuing inside Gaza City, with residents moving from east to west, but "only a small number of people have been able to reach the south"."Even those who manage to flee south often find no place to stay, as the Al-Mawasi area is completely full and Deir al-Balah is also overcrowded," the senior official added, saying many had returned to Gaza City after failing to secure shelter or basic services.Bakri Diab, who fled western Gaza City for the south, said Israeli strikes continued there as well."Bombing happens here too — the south isn't safe either," said the 35-year-old father of four."All the occupation has done is force people to crowd into places with no basic services and no safety."Israel has come under mounting international pressure to halt its Gaza City offensive, but says it is determined to dismantle what it describes as one of Hamas's last strongholds.In recent weeks the military has targeted high-rise buildings there, saying they were being used by Hamas militants.On Saturday the military announced it had struck yet another tall building in the area.The death toll from the ongoing Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip, which began on Oct. 7, 2023, has reached 64,803 martyrs and 164,264 injured.

The Israeli occupation army ordered residents of Gaza City in the northern part of the Strip, to evacuate immediately and head south via Al-Rashid Street, announcing also plans to launch a large-scale offensive in the area, marking a dangerous escalation that further exacerbates humanitarian concerns. The announcement coincided with ongoing artillery shelling across various areas of the Gaza Strip. Early this morning, Israeli artillery targeted central Khan Yunis in the southern part of the Strip. Additionally, Israeli drones opened fire on Palestinian homes, while occupation forces continued to demolish residential blocks and homes in northern and central Gaza, leaving widespread destruction in the targeted neighborhoods. In a related development, several Palestinians were injured in an Israeli airstrike on an apartment near Al-Qouqa roundabout in Al-Shati refugee camp, west of Gaza City. Earlier, medical sources reported that the death toll from the ongoing Israeli assault on Gaza, which began on October 7, 2023, has risen to 64,455, the majority of whom are women and children. The number of wounded has reached 162,776, while many victims remain trapped under the rubble or in the streets, as ambulance and civil defense crews are unable to reach them.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told residents of Gaza City on Monday to evacuate, as the military ramped up its deadly assault on the Palestinian territory's largest urban centre. Israel has been intensifying its bombardment of the city in preparation for an operation to conquer it, despite repeated entreaties from Western nations and aid agencies to stop. Gaza's civil defence agency meanwhile said at least 39 people had been killed by Israel, including 25 in Gaza City, Monday. The premier's warning came hours after one of the deadliest attacks on civilians in Jerusalem since the start of the war, in which two Palestinian gunmen opened fire on a bus, killing six people, according to Foreign Minister Gideon Saar. The two gunmen were killed by a security officer and an armed civilian, police said. Israel's defence minister, Israel Katz, had told Hamas earlier Monday to lay down its arms or face annihilation. On Monday, Israeli forces targeted a fourth high-rise building - the Al-Ruya tower- in Gaza City in as many days. Israel has faced mounting international pressure to halt its campaign in Gaza, with United Nations rights chief Volker Turk saying he was "horrified by the open use of genocidal rhetoric... by senior Israeli officials". US news outlet Axios reported that White House envoy Steve Witkoff sent a new proposal for a Gaza hostage and ceasefire deal to Hamas last week. Palestinian fighters killed four Israeli soldiers Monday after lobbing an explosive device into their tank, the Israeli military said. A Reuters report said Spain on Monday banned ships and aircraft carrying weapons to Israel from calling at Spanish ports or entering its airspace due to Israel's military offensive in Gaza, measures the Israeli foreign minister denounced as antisemitic. Spain, which recognised a Palestinian state in May 2024 and has been a vocal critic of Israel's actions in the Gaza Strip, responded to Gideon Saar's comments by summoning its ambassador in Tel Aviv back for consultations. On top of the ban on ships and aircraft delivering weapons or military-grade jet fuel to Israel, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez's government said it would not allow anyone who has participated directly in "genocide" in Gaza to enter Spain. Israel has strongly denied that its actions in Gaza amount to genocide, and it is fighting a case at the International Court of Justice in the Hague that accuses it of genocide.

The Israeli occupation forces on Sunday carried out one of the most destructive assaults on Gaza City since the resumption of the war on March 18, flattening entire blocks and inflicting widespread devastation. Mahmoud Basal, spokesperson for the Civil Defense in the Gaza Strip, said more than 50 buildings were completely destroyed, while another 100 were partially damaged, including high-rise towers that housed thousands of residents. He described the day as "one of the most difficult since the war resumed." Basal accused the occupation of deliberately targeting buildings surrounded by displaced persons' tents and shelters, leading to the destruction of more than 200 tents. He called this a "systematic policy" aimed at intensifying forced displacement. Civil Defense teams received multiple distress calls from civilians trapped under the rubble in the Zarqa area of the Tuffah neighborhood, where an entire building was bombed while residents were inside. The renewed bombardment also struck the few remaining mosques in Gaza City. Basal warned that Israel's "inhumane and immoral policy" against civilians risked worsening the humanitarian catastrophe and urged the international community to take urgent action to halt the ongoing massacres. On Sunday evening, Israeli occupation forces demolished the six-story Al-Ruya Tower, one of Gaza City's most prominent residential buildings, leaving behind scenes of devastation.

An Israeli strike flattened a high-rise in Gaza City Saturday — the second in as many days — after the military warned people to flee ahead of a planned offensive against the urban hub. Israel has been warning for weeks of a new assault on the territory's largest city, without issuing a timeline. It has stepped up air strikes and ground operations on the city's outskirts, sparking fears it could worsen already dire conditions. Saturday, Israeli aircraft dropped thousands of leaflets on western neighbourhoods calling on residents to evacuate, witnesses and an AFP journalist said. Nafez Anis, who has been living in a tent with his family in Gaza City, said he had read the leaflet, but was not planning on leaving. "Where should we go?" he told AFP. "We will wait, and when we see Israeli tanks approaching here, we will leave." Gaza civil defence agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP that 55 Palestinians had been killed by Israeli fire during the day, including 18 near an aid distribution centre in the north. Saturday, the military struck a Gaza City high-rise, saying Hamas was using it "to monitor" Israeli troops and adding that it had taken "measures to mitigate harm to civilians". Witnesses identified the building as the Sussi residential tower and said it was destroyed. Hamas condemned the attack and denied using residential or civilian buildings for military purposes. The Israeli military has said it will target structures being used by Hamas, particularly tall buildings. It also issued an evacuation order for another high-rise Saturday, warning of an imminent strike and telling people to leave for the south. A military spokesperson had earlier called on residents to leave for Al-Mawasi, on the Mediterranean coast to the south. Israel first declared Al-Mawasi a safe zone early in the war, but has carried out repeated strikes on it since then, saying they targeted Hamas. Gaza City residents said they believed it made little difference whether they stayed or fled. "Some say we should evacuate, others say we should stay," said Abdel Nasser Mushtaha, 48. "But everywhere in Gaza there are bombings and deaths" he added, pointing, in particular, to the strikes on Al-Mawasi. "It no longer makes any difference to us," said his daughter Samia Mushtaha, 20. "Wherever we go, death pursues us, whether by bombing or hunger." Israel has faced mounting domestic and international pressure to end the nearly two-year war. Thousands demonstrated in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem Saturday evening to call for a ceasefire and hostage release deal. In Tel Aviv, protesters unfurled a massive banner saying: "President Trump, save the hostages now!" Hamas agreed last month to a proposal for a temporary ceasefire and staggered hostage releases, but Israel has demanded the group release all the hostages at once, disarm and relinquish control of Gaza, among other conditions. The UN estimates nearly 1mn people remain in and around Gaza City, where it declared a famine last month. It has warned of a looming "disaster" if the assault proceeds. Israel's offensive has killed at least 64,368 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to figures from the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza that the UN considers reliable.

The Israeli military destroyed a high-rise in Gaza City Friday, shortly after announcing it would target tall buildings identified as being used by Hamas ahead of its planned seizure of the urban hub.Despite mounting pressure at home and abroad to halt its nearly two-year offensive in Gaza, Israel has been calling up reservists, intensifying its bombardments and closing in on Gaza City ever since announcing its intention to capture the Palestinian territory's largest city.AFP footage showed the Mushtaha Tower in the city's Al-Rimal neighbourhood collapsing after a massive explosion at its base, sending a thick cloud of smoke and dust billowing into the sky.AFP photographs of the aftermath showed Palestinians inspecting the rubble and debris of the collapsed building.Gaza civil defence agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal accused Israel of carrying out "a policy of forced displacement against civilians" in its targeting of high-rise buildings.The agency said Israeli strikes in and around Gaza City killed at least 19 people, among at least 32 Palestinians killed across the territory Friday.A member of Hamas's political bureau, Izzat al-Rishq, said Israeli claims the group was operating in the high-rises were "nothing but flimsy pretexts and blatant lies."The UN estimates that nearly 1mn people live in Gaza City and its surroundings, an area where it last month declared a famine.

Israeli forces pounded the suburbs of Gaza City overnight from the air and ground, destroying homes and driving more families out of the area.Residents of Sheikh Radwan, one of the largest neighbourhoods of Gaza City, said the territory had been under Israeli tank shelling and airstrikes throughout Saturday and yesterday, forcing families to seek shelter in the western parts of the city.The Israeli military has gradually escalated its operations around Gaza City over the past three weeks, and on Friday it ended temporary pauses in the area that had allowed for aid deliveries, designating it a "dangerous combat zone"."They are crawling into the heart of the city where hundreds of thousands are sheltering, from the east, north, and south, while bombing those areas from the air and ground to scare people to leave," said Rezik Salah, a father of two, from Sheikh Radwan.Local health authorities said Israeli gunfire and strikes killed at least 30 people yesterday, including 13 who tried to get food from near an aid site in central Gaza. The Israeli military said it was not aware of casualties near humanitarian aid distribution points in central Gaza.An Israeli official said Netanyahu's security cabinet was to convene late yesterday to discuss the next stages of the planned offensive to seize Gaza City.A full-scale offensive is not expected to start for weeks. Israel says it wants to evacuate the civilian population before moving more ground forces in.Netanyahu confirmed yesterday that Israeli forces had targeted Abu Ubaida, the spokesperson of Hamas' armed wing. Defence Minister Israel Katz said that Abu Ubaida was killed. Two Hamas officials contacted by Reuters did not respond to requests for comment.Gaza health authorities said 15 people, including five children, were killed in the attack on a residential building in the heart of Gaza City.Abu Ubaida, also known as Hozayfa Al-Khalout, is a well-known figure to Palestinians and Israelis alike, close to Hamas' top military leaders and in charge of delivering the group's messages, often via video, for around two decades.On Saturday, Red Cross head Mirjana Spoljaric said an evacuation from the city would provoke a massive population displacement that no other area in the enclave is equipped to absorb, with shortages of food, shelter and medical supplies."People who have relatives in the south left to stay with them. Others, including myself, didn't find a space as Deir Al-Balah and Mawasi are overcrowded," said Ghada, a mother of five from the city's Sabra neighborhood.Around half of the enclave's more than 2mn people are presently in Gaza City. Several thousand were estimated to have left the city for central and southern areas of the enclave.

Fifteen Palestinians were martyred and others injured on Saturday in an Israeli occupation airstrike targeting displaced persons' tents in Al-Nasr and Al-Zaytoun neighborhoods in Gaza City.Local sources reported that Israeli occupation warplanes bombed tents for the displaced near the Youth and Sports Roundabout in Al-Nasr neighborhood, killing 11 people and injuring others. Four more people were martyred and others wounded in a separate strike on Al-Zaytoun neighborhood, southeast of the city.The Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza announced yesterday that the death toll from the ongoing Israeli assault on Gaza Strip since October 7, 2023, had risen to 63,025 martyrs, with 159,159 injured.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) stated that intensified Israeli military operations in Gaza City will expose around one million people to new forced displacement.The agency added in a post on the X platform Friday, that any further escalation would exacerbate suffering and push more Palestinian civilians toward catastrophe, amid existing famine.It pointed out that the ongoing Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip and evacuation orders are forcing entire families to leave their homes once again amid fear and destruction.Members of the UN Security Council, except the United States, called on Wednesday in a joint statement for an immediate, permanent, and unconditional ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, a significant increase in aid across the sector, and for Israel, the occupying power, to immediately and unconditionally lift all restrictions on the delivery of aid.They also called on Israel to immediately reverse its decision to take control of Gaza City.