Israel calls on famine-stricken residents to flee and targets more high-rises in Gaza City

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DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — The Israeli army issued evacuation orders and targeted high-rise buildings in famine-stricken Gaza City on Saturday, calling on Palestinians to move to the territory's south as it escalates operations ahead of a new offensive to seize the city of nearly 1 million.

Aid groups warn that a large-scale evacuation would exacerbate the humanitarian crisis in Gaza City, which the world's leading hunger watchdog says is suffering from famine as a result of Israel's restrictions on food into the territory.

Most families have already been displaced several times over the nearly two-year-long Israel-Hamas war and say they have nowhere left to go, as the Israeli military has repeatedly bombed tent encampments that it had designated as humanitarian zones.

Some Palestinians — who at times have nothing to eat for days in a row — say they are too weak to uproot themselves again.

Israeli military spokesperson Avichay Adraee urged Palestinians on Saturday to flee to the south of the Gaza Strip, saying on social media platform X that the army had declared the makeshift tent encampment of Muwasi and parts of the southern town of Khan Younis to be a humanitarian zone.

It shared a map of Khan Younis neighborhoods within the redrawn borders of the humanitarian zone, which covered the district home to Nasser Hospital. Israel hit the hospital last week in a strike that killed 22 people, including five journalists — among them Mariam Dagga, who worked for The Associated Press and other media outlets.

Palestinians would be able to drive from Gaza City to Khan Younis, and the overcrowded coastal community of Muwasi to the town's west, via a designated road without being searched, Adraee said.

Aid groups have raised alarm about woefully inadequate shelter, sanitation, water and food in Muwasi. Months of bombardment have decimated civilian infrastructure in Khan Younis.

The military said in a statement that it would work to provide field hospitals, water pipelines and food supplies within its newly designated humanitarian zone.

The United Nations on Saturday said its staff would remain in Gaza City to provide badly needed aid to Palestinians caught up in Israel's renewed assault on the city. It said Palestinians who heed Israeli evacuation orders must be able to return voluntarily when the situation allows.

Exhausted and despairing, many Palestinians said they won't pack up and leave again.

“Nowhere is safe across the strip,” said Gaza City resident Ayman Abo Saif, adding that the surge of displaced people in the overcrowded south had sent rents soaring to over $7 a day for just 25 square meters (270 square feet).

Israel on Saturday issued evacuation warnings for two high-rises in Gaza City and surrounding tents, with Adraee, the military spokesperson, saying that the buildings were targets because Hamas had infrastructure inside or near them. Hamas didn't comment on the allegations.

Soon after, Adraee said that the military had struck one of the buildings. There was no immediate information on casualties.

Israel Katz, Israel’s defense minister, posted a video of the tower collapsing in an enormous cloud of smoke along with the words: “We continue.”

The strike comes a day after Israel hit another high-rise building in Gaza City, saying Hamas militants used it for surveillance, without providing evidence. Hamas denied those claims.

The leveling of high-rises comes as Israel ramps up its offensive after announcing last month it planned to take control of Gaza's largest northern city, where many families are crammed into tents in the ruins of bombed-out buildings, in an effort to dislodge Hamas.

Earlier this week, the Israeli military said it had already seized control of 40% of the city.

At Shifa Hospital in Gaza City on Saturday, officials were counting the dead and tending to the wounded from Israeli bombardment the day before.

They said 15 people had been killed, including a family of five whose apartment was destroyed in an Israeli airstrike on the city's Shati refugee camp and civilians killed by Israeli gunfire while seeking aid near the Zikim crossing between the Gaza Strip and Israel.

More than 2,000 Palestinians have been killed while seeking aid at distribution points or along U.N. convoy routes, the Gaza Health Ministry reports, many of them by Israeli fire.

The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment on those killed Friday.

Israelis have staged widespread protests over the military's renewed assault on Gaza City, fearing it will further endanger the remaining hostages held in the strip, 20 of whom Israel believes to still be alive.

Those fears intensified on Friday when Hamas released a propaganda video showing two hostages, Guy Gilboa-Dalal and Alon Ohel, being held in Gaza City.

Families of the hostages have accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of failing to prioritize the safety of their loved ones and called on U.S. President Donald Trump to help accelerate the release of Israelis in Hamas captivity.

The Hostages and Missing Families Forum, a group representing many families of the hostages, thanked Trump and his envoy Steve Witkoff on Saturday for their work advancing Israel-Hamas ceasefire negotiations. The statement praised them for “unwavering determination, courage and compassion.”

Yet for all their appeals, a lasting truce has proven elusive. Hamas said it had accepted a ceasefire proposal from Arab mediators last month. Israel has not yet responded to the latest offer, vowing the war will continue until Hamas disarms and releases all Israeli hostages.

It also has insisted on retaining open-ended security control of the territory of some 2 million Palestinians — a condition unacceptable to Hamas.

The war erupted when Hamas-led militants invaded southern Israel and killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted 251 others on Oct. 7, 2023. Most have since been released in ceasefires or other agreements.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed more than 64,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants beyond saying that women and children make up around half the dead.

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Mroue reported from Beirut.

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