The Israeli military said Thursday it now controls 40% of Gaza City, the Palestinian territory’s largest urban hub, amid preparations for full conquest.
Ahead of the anticipated onslaught, Israel has increased its bombardment of the northern part of the territory, around Gaza City, in recent days in defiance of growing international demands to stop the attack.
Over 30 individuals were murdered in the city by Israeli attacks on Thursday, according to Gaza's civil defense organization, out of at least 64 Palestinians killed throughout the Gaza Strip.
One of the senior officials of the European Union referred to the conflict as a "genocide" as the humanitarian situation for Gaza's population of over two million people worsened. Israel vigorously opposes this term, but many nations and rights organizations have accepted it.
In a televised briefing, Israeli military spokesman Brigadier General Effie Defrin said that "we hold 40 percent of the territory of Gaza City", adding that the offensive "will continue to expand and intensify in the coming days".
The Palestinian militant organization Hamas launched the assault on Israel in October 2023, and Defrin promised to "increase the pressure" on them "until it is defeated."
A senior Israeli military officer told reporters on Wednesday that authorities anticipated the latest offensive would drive an estimated one million Palestinians south, away from Gaza City, since the great majority of Gazans had already been uprooted at least once during the war.
Last month, the UN announced that there was a famine in and around Gaza City, which is home to an estimated one million people.
A tent housing a displaced Palestinian family in Gaza City
was struck
by an Israeli airstrike on Thursday, killing five people, including three
children, according to civil defense spokesperson Mahmud Bassal.
AFP images showed Palestinians outside destroyed tents in Tel al-Hawa, the neighborhood where the strike alleged by the civil defense occurred, cleaning up strewn-about items.
Among the rubble were a pair of pink slippers that were stained with blood.
"The genocide in Gaza exposes Europe's failure to act and speak with one voice,"
Ribera said, in remarks slammed by Israel as serving "Hamas propaganda".
Top EU officials have so far shied away from calling Israel's actions a "genocide".
One resident, Israa al-Basous, described witnessing the burning tent next to hers.
Bodies in white shrouds were lying on the morgue floor at Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, where the dead and injured were being received.
As her son's body lay outside on a stretcher, one mom caressed his head.
Speaking in Paris, Teresa Ribera, the vice president of the European Commission, denounced the war as a "genocide" and criticized the 27-nation bloc for doing nothing to halt it.
According to the civil defense, another Israeli airstrike on the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza killed seven people, including three children.
The Israeli military denied any strike there, saying it was "not aware" of it.
Yousef Suleiman, who claimed to have lost family members in the pre-dawn attack, was shown on AFP camera strolling inside a bombed-out shelter with ragged pieces of material hanging from tent poles.
"The entire tent was destroyed, along with everyone inside,"
he told AFP.
Due to restrictions on media in Gaza and limited access in several areas, AFP cannot independently confirm the tolls and information released by the Israeli military or civil defense organization.
According to an AFP count based on Israeli figures, Hamas's October 2023 struggle with Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,219 individuals, primarily civilians.
According to United Nations-reliable health ministry data in Hamas-run Gaza, the retaliatory operation by Israel has resulted in at least 64,231 Palestinian fatalities, mostly civilians.
Meanwhile, a number of top Hamas officials met with Iran's
Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi in Doha to discuss measures to cease the war,
according to a statement from the Iranian-backed group.
How might capturing Gaza City change Israel’s stated goals
against Hamas?
While Israel has publicly stated its win-or-lose goal of eliminating Hamas's military capabilities and securing hostage release, achieving command of Gaza City reflects a significant shift from targeting merely accomplishment of a military objectives (e.g., eliminating people) by delineating an avenue to much more direct Israeli security management (surveillance) or (more likely) outright occupation of the key urban site, destroying even the pretense of independent governance (Hamas) in Gaza with only vague plans for an alternative administration.
The conquest of Gaza City would necessitate the forcible removal of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians and mark an extraordinarily profound change in the political and demographic configuration in that region.
This may be consistent with certain Israeli political
elements which have advocated longer term political or even territorial control
in Gaza as alternative governing structure.