Israel flattens areas in Gaza City

The Israeli army demolished a bloc after a mass of Gaza City as part of a new attack on what was previously the largest urban center in the region.

Israel’s war against Hamas, which started two years ago, directed large areas of the Gaza Strip, including the city of Rafah in the south and the town of Beit Hannon in the north. However, the army did not carry out such demolition on a large scale in the previous Gaza City operations.

This time is different.

Although many of the city still exists, satellite images show that the Israeli forces destroy the entire areas while sweeping them in Gaza City, including Domain neighborhood And an area near Sheikh Radwan, where the army demolished dozens of structures this month.

Source: Satellite Pictures by Planet Labs

Previously, the Israeli forces advanced through Gaza City and then withdrew – only to return later to fight what they said was a renewed Hamas. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from Israel said this time was different because the army would carry the areas he seized.

He said in an interview with Channel 14, an Israeli right -wing television station: “We pick up the lands and carry them. We are cleaning and moving forward.”

Mr. Netanyahu says the attack aims to decisively leak Hamas from one of its last strongholds in the Gaza Strip. But even many Israelis are skeptical that this strategy will succeed now, as Hamas has proven to be flexible in the face of nearly two years of the devastating war.

The Israeli attack on the ground forced hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to flee from their homes in Gaza City, and they were scattered in the Khayyam camps in central and southern Gaza.

This has exacerbated what was already a humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza, with the outbreak of hunger, mass displacement, the collapse of health care, schools and infrastructure. Many residents of Gaza City in Gaza say they simply cannot or will not be displaced again, and many of them have no homes to return to it.

While closing in Gaza City, Israel used the current buildings as bases, only to destroy them later with explosives before moving forward, according to satellite images and video clips verified from the New York Times.

One of the videos shows the army destroying the city of Faqan in the city, which I used earlier as a military situation.

Sources: Video from Yunus Terrawi via X; Satellite photos by Planet Labs

In addition to carrying out demolitions, the Israeli army also maintained air strikes throughout Gaza City, hitting hundreds of targets since mid -September.

In the image of a satellite from September 18, the latest high -resolution image is available from Planet Labs, a commercial Satial Company, a fewer tents can be seen compared to a time when Israel announces the launch of its ground attack in Gaza City two days ago. However, hundreds of tents were visible, many of them are about a mile of Israeli military vehicles.

Source: Satial photo from September 18 by Planet Labs

Mustafa Siam, 44, said that he finally escaped from the city’s neighborhood in the city on Wednesday as the Israeli forces approached the closest and the sound of explosions continued. He walked south for hours on foot with his wife and three children to reach central Gaza.

Mr. Siam’s house was still standing in front of the current Israeli attack. This may not be the case as it returns.

He said: “It seems that the war has no goal or meaning, except for the destruction of the largest possible bases of Gaza.”

Israeli military officials told correspondents that there is no policy to stimulate civilian neighborhoods. They say they are attacking the sites used by Hamas, bombing underground tunnels and other military targets.

But Israeli leaders suggested that he go further.

In August, Israel Katz, the Minister of Defense, threatened that Gaza City would become “like a sofa and a house of Hannon”, two cities that were almost completely destroyed in the war, unless Hamas puts its arms and released the remaining hostages.

Elie Cohen, another minister in the high -ranking security cabinet, chanted the threat in a television interview, he told Channel 14 that “the Gaza City itself should be like a rack completely, which turned us into the city of Atl.”