Israel pressed ahead Wednesday with an intense new ground offensive in Gaza City, defying international condemnation and sending hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fleeing the devastated, famine-stricken area.
The Israeli military said that troops were “dismantling military structures” used by Hamas in the area and that its air force and artillery had struck the city more than 150 times in recent days to support their advance.
The Israel Defense Forces said Tuesday that it launched the long-anticipated offensive after it called up 60,000 reservists and struck high-rise buildings across the city in preparation.
Overnight strikes killed at least 45 people, hospital officials told NBC News, as a coalition of aid groups urged the international community to bring an end to the attack.
About 350,000 Palestinians have so far evacuated Gaza City to other areas of the strip, according to an IDF estimate. The Israeli military repeated warnings Wednesday morning for residents to evacuate the city and said it had opened up a new route south via Salah al-Din Street.
The Israeli assault has already reduced much of the enclave to rubble, and it has now killed more than 65,000 Palestinians, according to the Health Ministry.
But thousands are staying put, unsure where to find safety after having been displaced multiple times during the conflict, which began with the Hamas-led terrorist attacks on Oct. 7, 2023, in which 1,200 people were killed and about 250 were taken hostage.
“Better to die here, weeping in Gaza, than to wander in exile,” said Ahmed Helles, 54, a father of eight, sitting beside the ruins of his home.
He added, “Why should I leave? Gaza is unlivable now. That is exactly what the occupation wants — to erase this city, to topple its towers and homes, to empty it of people. I will not give them that victory.”
Nearby, Ibrahim Salamat, 48, a father of six, explained why he has stayed. “I have no money to leave. I move from street to street, escaping the shelling on foot, carrying my children to slightly safer corners. Yet I am still in Gaza. I don’t know if I will ever make it to the south.”
A coalition of aid groups urged the international community to take stronger measures to stop the offensive Wednesday, a day after an independent United Nations commission concluded that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza — an accusation Israel dismissed as “distorted and false.”
“What we are witnessing in Gaza is not only an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe, but what the U.N. Commission of Inquiry has now concluded is a genocide,” read the aid groups’ statement. “States must use every available political, economic, and legal tool at their disposal to intervene. Rhetoric and half measures are not enough. This moment demands decisive action.”
The statement was signed by leaders of more than 20 aid organizations operating in Gaza, including the Norwegian Refugee Council and Save the Children.
Gaza City’s Al-Rantisi Children’s Hospital was bombed three consecutive times Tuesday, said Dr. Muneer al-Boursh, director general of the Health Ministry, with each strike occurring within minutes of the last.
Civil defense teams rescued an 11-year-old Palestinian girl, Marah Haddad, after she had been trapped for nearly 10 hours under rubble following an Israeli strike on a residential area in Sheva Square. She was transferred to the Baptist Hospital in Gaza City for treatment.
The offensive has also raised concerns over the safety of the remaining hostages in Gaza.
“I cannot breathe watching the fighting inside Gaza City,” said Noa Argamani, the freed Israeli hostage kidnapped from a music festival during the Oct. 7 attack and rescued in Gaza in June 2024.
“I pray this operation ends swiftly, and that every soldier and every hostage comes back home safe and sound,” she posted on X.
