Residents reported Israeli tanks in two Gaza City areas leading to the city centre on Thursday, while internet and phone lines across the Gaza Strip were cut, signalling a likely escalation of ground operations.
Israeli forces control Gaza City’s eastern suburbs and, in recent days, have been pounding the Sheikh Radwan and Tel Al-Hawa areas, from where they would be positioned to advance on central and western areas where most of the population is sheltering.
“The disconnection of internet and phone services is a bad omen. It has always been a bad signal; something very brutal is going to happen,” said Ismail, who only gave one name. He was using an e-SIM to connect his phone, a dangerous method as it requires seeking higher ground to receive a signal.
At least 79 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli strikes or gunfire across the Gaza Strip in the past 24 hours, most in Gaza City, the territory’s health ministry said early afternoon on Thursday.
Main Network Routes ‘Targeted’
The Palestinian Telecommunications Company said in a statement that its services had been cut off “due to the ongoing aggression and the targeting of the main network routes”.
The Israeli army did not respond to a request for comment on the blackout.
In its latest statement to the media, it said troops were expanding their operations in Gaza City, dismantling what it called “terror infrastructure” and “eliminating terrorists”, and continuing to operate in Khan Younis and Rafah in the south.
Israel says it wants to smash the Palestinian militant group Hamas in its strongholds and free the last hostages still being held in Gaza, but its latest major offensive after two years of devastating war has drawn international condemnation.
Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have fled Gaza City since Israel announced on August 10 it intended to take control, but a greater number are staying put, either in battered homes among the ruins or in makeshift tent encampments.
Gazans Scared Of Offensive
Bassam Al-Qanou, a displaced man sheltering with around 30 family members in a ragged, improvised tent camp on the beach, said they had no way to get out and nowhere to go.
“We are scared, but what can we do?” he said, adding that the children couldn’t sleep because of fear and the incessant boom of missile strikes from sea, air and ground.
The military has been dropping leaflets urging residents to flee towards a designated “humanitarian zone” in the south of the territory, but aid agencies say conditions there are dire, with insufficient food, medicine and space and inadequate shelter.
Four more Palestinians, including a child, have died of malnutrition and starvation in the past 24 hours, the health ministry said, raising deaths from such causes to at least 435 people, including 147 children, since the war started.
Israel says the extent of hunger in Gaza has been exaggerated.
The Hamas-run government’s media office said that a total of 3,542 people had been killed across the Gaza Strip from August 11, the day after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced plans to seize control of the territory, to Wednesday.
It said 56% of them were killed in Gaza City and the northern part of the enclave, and 44% in the central and southern areas, which it said demonstrated that Israel was trying to depopulate the north, whilst not sparing the south.
Israel blames Hamas for the continuation of the war, saying the group could end it now if it surrendered, disarmed and disbanded.
Tanks Seen In Two Strategically Located Neighbourhoods
Along the coastal road, an unbroken column of every type of vehicle from carts and beaten-up cars to vans designed to carry goods was moving south, heavily laden with mattresses, gas cylinders and entire families perching on their belongings.
“We are heading to go sleep on the streets towards the beach, like this barefoot, we don’t know where to go,” said Yasser Saleh, speaking as he stood on the edge of a rickety trailer being pulled by a car.
In Sheikh Radwan, which is north of the city centre and has come under heavy bombardment in recent days, residents said they had seen tanks in the heart of their neighbourhood.
They also said Israeli forces had detonated four driverless vehicles full of explosives, and the blasts had destroyed many houses.
Similar explosions had rocked Tel Al-Hawa, which is located southeast of the city centre, and residents there also reported seeing tanks in the streets.
The Israeli army said it does not comment on the deployment of its forces.
Death Toll Crosses 65,000
The total Palestinian death toll from the two-year war between Israel and Hamas surpassed 65,000 on Wednesday, according to the Gaza health authorities.
The war was triggered by the Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken hostage, according to Israeli tallies.
(With inputs from Reuters)
