The Israeli military has stepped up its attack on Gaza City, calling it a war zone and starting to hit high-rise structures that it says are being used as Hamas infrastructure. The military destroyed the Mushtaha Tower in the Al-Rimal district of the city on Friday. This prompted worldwide outrage and made the humanitarian catastrophe worse.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said that Hamas was using the facility to “advance and carry out attacks against [Israeli] troops.” The IDF also said that it took “precautionary measures” before the strike, such as giving warnings ahead of time. The management of the Mushtaha Tower, on the other hand, has refuted these claims, saying that only displaced civilians could get into the structure. A witness said that people were told to leave their homes less than half an hour before the attack.
The offensive is getting bigger, and the humanitarian crisis is getting worse.
International groups are becoming more and more worried about the military operation that is getting stronger. The UN has called the situation in Gaza City “unthinkable,” saying that a recent wave of displaced Palestinians has stretched already limited humanitarian resources in the south to their breaking point. The UN and other NGOs have said that a mass evacuation of Gaza City, which is home to about a million people, is not safe or dignified since people who have been forced to leave are running out of food, water, and shelter.
The humanitarian situation is terrible. Gaza’s health ministry says that dozens of Palestinians have died in recent attacks, including ones on a bakery and an apartment building. The ministry also said that at least 30% of the people who perished in the violence were youngsters and that more than 330 Palestinians had died from malnutrition-related reasons.
Many governments and relief groups have spoken out against the attack, which Israeli military authorities say is meant to “defeat Hamas” and will force about a million people to leave their homes. Hamas, on the other hand, has said again that it is ready for a full cease-fire if Israeli hostages and Palestinian inmates are freed.