The Israeli military has destroyed a second major high-rise tower in Gaza City in as many days, after Benjamin Netanyahu’s forces warned people to flee south ahead of a planned offensive to capture the area.
Residents of Sousi Tower, a 15-storey building and well-known landmark, said they were given just 20 minutes to pack what they could and evacuate before warplanes reduced the tower to rubble.
The Israeli military said Hamas used the building to gather intelligence and that explosive devices had been planted nearby, a claim denied by Hamas. Locals said the building was used to shelter the displaced.
Defence minister Israel Katz shared a video on X of what appeared to be the multi-storey building collapsing after the strike, sending a cloud of dust and debris into the air. He added: “We continue.”
Sousi Tower resident Aida Abu Kas described the chaotic evacuation of the building, telling the Associated Press: “Suddenly, we were sitting at home and people started shouting. Some said it was a lie and other said it was real. We went out and didn’t know what to do.”
Hamas said Israel’s claims that the tower was being used by militants were false and part of a “systematic forced displacement” plan. “These towers are strictly monitored, entry is permitted exclusively for civilians,” it said a statement.
Israeli forces have been carrying out an offensive on the suburbs of Gaza City for weeks after Mr Netanyahu ordered his military to capture it. The city and its surrounding region is currently experiencing a famine, the UN says, after Israel severely restricted aid flows.
The intensified assault threatens to displace hundreds of thousands of Palestinians sheltering there from nearly two years of fighting. Before the war, around a million people, nearly half of Gaza’s population, lived in the city.
The health authorities in the Hamas-run Strip said Israeli strikes and gunfire killed at least 40 people across Gaza on Saturday, with half of them being in Gaza City.
Palestinians in Gaza City said it made little difference whether they stayed or fled. “Some say we should evacuate, others say we should stay,” said Abdel Nasser Mushtaha, 48, a resident of the city’s Zeitun neighbourhood.
He told AFP news agency: “But everywhere in Gaza there are bombings and deaths. For the past year-and-a-half, the worst bombings that caused massacres of civilians have been in Al-Mawasi, this so-called humanitarian zone.”
The Israeli military earlier warned residents should leave the city for a designated coastal area of Khan Younis in southern Gaza, assuring those fleeing that they would be able to receive food, medical care and shelter there.
The designated area was a “humanitarian zone”, spokesperson Avichay Adraee said. The military also issued so-called “evacuation warnings” to civilians in certain areas of the city, warning it was about to carry out attacks.
The Israeli military bombed another high-rise tower on Friday that it said was also being used by Hamas. On Thursday, the military said it had control over almost half of Gaza City. It says it controls about 75 per cent of all of Gaza.
More than 64,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s offensive in Gaza in almost two years, according to local health authorities. The offensive began in retaliation against a Hamas-led attack on southern Israeli communities on 7 October 2023 that killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians. The militants took 251 hostages following the attack.
There are growing calls within Israel, led by families of hostages and their supporters, to end the war in a diplomatic deal that would secure the release of the remaining 48 captives. Israeli officials believe 20 of the hostages are still alive.
Mr Netanyahu is pushing for an all-or-nothing deal that would see all of the hostages released at once and Hamas surrendering. US president Donald Trump said on Friday that Washington was in “very deep” negotiations with the Palestinian militants.
