Israel’s military stepped up armed operations around Gaza City yesterday, ending temporary pauses there that had allowed for aid deliveries, deepening the famine already gripping the north of the territory.
“We are not waiting,” the Israel Defence Forces said in a statement. “We have begun the preliminary operations and initial stages of the attack on Gaza City, and we are currently operating with great intensity on the outskirts of the city.”
The assault is expected to displace thousands from the city, drawing global condemnation and concern that it will deepen the humanitarian crisis in the already devastated Palestinian enclave.
Israel conducted heavy strikes and bombings in the Zeitoun and Sabra neighbourhoods east and south of Gaza City yesterday morning as tanks advanced in areas on the outskirts.
At least 63,025 Palestinian people have been killed and 159,490 others injured in Israeli attacks on Gaza since October 2023, the Gaza health ministry said.
Sixty-seven Palestinians, including 23 aid seekers, were killed in the last 24 hours alone.
UNRWA, the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, said intensifying operations in Gaza City would put “around one million people at risk of being forcibly displaced again.”
“With famine already confirmed in the area, any further escalation would deepen suffering and push more people towards catastrophe,” it posted on X.
About 80 per cent of Gaza is under evacuation orders, with civilians crammed into just one-fifth of its total area. Even those areas are not safe, with Israeli attacks targeting parts it has labelled “humanitarian zones”.
Meanwhile, the foreign ministers of six European nations have condemned Israel’s expanded offensive and its plans to “establish a permanent presence” in the enclave’s largest city.
In a joint statement yesterday, the foreign ministers from Iceland, Ireland, Luxembourg, Norway, Slovenia and Spain reiterated that intensifying military operations in the war-torn enclave would “lead to the intolerable deaths of innocent Palestinian civilians.”
The ministers also denounced “the forced displacement of Palestinians, which represents a flagrant violation of international law.”
The statement said Israel’s “systematic destruction of essential civilian infrastructure, including locations that serve as refuge for extremely vulnerable displaced civilians, is unacceptable.”
They urged the Israeli government and military authorities to immediately cease its operations.
Meanwhile, Türkiye has decided to bar Israeli vessels from using its ports, forbid Turkish ships from using Israeli ports and impose restrictions on some planes entering Turkish airspace, Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said yesterday.
Sources told Reuters that Turkish port authorities had also started informally requiring shipping agents to provide letters declaring that vessels are not linked to Israel and not carrying military or hazardous cargo bound for the country.
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