Israelis protested countrywide on Friday, marking the 700th day of the Gaza war, and organisers called for people to join a mass rally planned in Jerusalem on Saturday night.
The protest came as Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesman Brig Gen Effie Defrin said Israeli forces now control roughly 40 per cent of Gaza City and intend to push further in the coming days as part of the broader plan to seize complete control of the urban area.
Close to 100,000 residents of the city have already fled south, away from the areas of fighting. The campaign has prompted international criticism because of the dire humanitarian crisis.
The IDF announced that in the coming days it will carry out strikes against multistory buildings in Gaza City, claiming Hamas had converted them into “military infrastructure”.
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Shortly after the announcement, the IDF struck the Al-Mushtaha tower in Gaza City three times after residents were called to evacuate.
The military claimed that intelligence revealed that Hamas had embedded sniper and anti-tank positions, surveillance systems, command-and-control centres and observation posts inside residential buildings, while also planting explosives nearby to ambush Israeli forces.
Hamas denied the Israeli assertions, accusing Israel of perpetrating war crimes.
UN children’s organisation Unicef warned that “childhood cannot survive” in Gaza City. “The world is sounding the alarm about what an intensified military offensive in Gaza City could bring a catastrophe for the almost one million people who remain there,” said Unicef spokeswoman Tess Ingram in a briefing.
“This unthinkable is not looming; it is already here. The escalation is under way,” she said. “Malnutrition and famine are weakening children’s bodies as displacement strips them of shelter and care, and bombardments threaten their every move. This is what famine in a war zone looks like.”
Israeli defence minister Israel Katz said the military’s operations in Gaza City will intensify until Hamas releases Israeli hostages and disarms.
“When the door opens, it will not close,” he said.
Over the past week, strikes in Gaza City have intensified, leading to a spike in the number of daily casualties.
On Thursday, IDF representatives admitted in a conversation with the hostages’ families that the planned military operations in Gaza City will increase the chances of the 20 living hostages being wounded or killed and dead hostages disappearing, citing a lack of accurate information on their whereabouts.
In response, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum issued a blistering statement, warning that the planned military escalation could place their loved ones in immediate peril.
Hamas has released a video of two hostages, Guy Gilboa-Dalal and Alon Ohel.
“Time is running out,” warned the Islamist group in the video, in which Gilboa-Dalal said he couldn’t believe he was still alive after 22 months of war, and that he was being held in Gaza City.
Egyptian foreign minister Badr Abdelatty reiterated that Cairo will not tolerate the mass displacement of Palestinians, accusing Israel of committing genocide.
“Displacement is not an option, and it is a red line for Egypt, and we will not allow it to happen,” he said in Nicosia.
The war began on October 7th, 2023. Gunmen led by Hamas attacked southern Israel, killing some 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and taking 251 hostages into Gaza, according to Israel.
Israel’s offensive has since killed more than 63,000 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to the Hamas-run health ministry, and left much of the territory in ruins.
