Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday that everyone in Gaza City should leave right now because the Israeli military was stepping up its attack on the largest city in the Palestinian territory. The order comes as Israel gets ready for a big ground campaign to “conquer” the city. This approach has been heavily condemned by Western countries and humanitarian groups.
The order to leave comes after one of the bloodiest strikes on civilians in Jerusalem since the war began. Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said that two Palestinian militants shot at a bus, killing six passengers. A security officer and an armed civilian then “neutralized” the attackers. Netanyahu said in response that these “murders strengthen our determination to fight terrorism.”
The Prime Minister said in a video that the IDF has been going after tall buildings in Gaza City that he says Hamas is using to gather intelligence. Netanyahu said, “We brought down 50 terror towers in two days. This is just the first step in the ground operation that will be going on in Gaza City.” “I tell the people living there: you have been warned, get out now!” He went on to say that the present airstrike is “just a prelude, just the opening, to the main intensified operation—the ground maneuver of our forces, who are now organizing and assembling to enter Gaza City.”
The continued bombing has caused a lot of deaths, with Gaza’s civil defense service saying that at least 39 people died on Monday, 25 of them in Gaza City. Laila Saqr, a resident, told AFP over the phone, “All we hear are bombings and ambulances carrying martyrs.” She was sad about the city’s devastation, saying, “Nothing is left” and “Israel destroys everything, even the memories.”
On the other hand, Defense Minister Israel Katz sent a strong message to Hamas on X, telling them to “release the hostages and put down your weapons—or Gaza will be destroyed and you will be annihilated.”
Many countries around the world have condemned the rising violence. Volker Turk, the UN’s top human rights officer, said he was horrified by the “open use of genocidal rhetoric… by senior Israeli officials.” US President Donald Trump has said, though, that “the Israelis have accepted my terms” for a truce and prisoner deal. He has also given Hamas a “last warning” to accept the accord.
Hamas has said that it is ready to “immediately sit at the negotiating table” to talk about a ceasefire. However, it has also said that it wants a “clear declaration of the end of the war, a full withdrawal (of Israeli forces) from the Gaza Strip, and the formation of a committee of independent Palestinians to manage the Gaza Strip.” In the past, Israel has asked Hamas to free all of its hostages, disarm, and give up control of Gaza.
The Israeli military says there are still 47 hostages in Gaza, and they think 25 of them are dead. The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said that the current conflict, which started with Hamas’s onslaught on October 7, 2023, that killed 1,219 people, has now killed more than 64,522 Palestinians.