Relentless Israeli air strikes and artillery shelling targeted desperate Palestinians in Gaza City on Tuesday, on the same day a United Nations inquiry ruled that Israel is committing genocide in the besieged enclave.
Thick columns of black smoke could be seen filling the sky above the southern Tel al-Hawa neighbourhood, as the sounds of fighter jets, helicopter and quadcopter gunfire, along with the detonation of explosive-laden vehicles, echoed throughout the embattled city.
Following weeks of intense aerial attacks on the neighbourhoods of Zeitoun and Sheikh Radwan, Israeli forces stepped up their assault on Gaza City, with the military announcing a “new phase” in its 22-month-long war.
Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz celebrated the announcement of the deadly assault, declaring on X that “Gaza [City] is burning.”
“The IDF (Israeli army) is striking the terror infrastructure with an iron fist… We will not relent and we will not back down, until the mission is completed,” he said.
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Hours before the assault began, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that while the Trump administration wished for a diplomatic end to the war, “we have to be prepared for the possibility that’s not going to happen”.
The day began with five massive explosions lighting up streets already battered from previous attacks, with medical officials reporting at least 90 fatalities, with countless more wounded and others believed to be missing under the rubble.
Israeli forces also intensified their attacks on Gaza City’s central Rimal and Daraj neighbourhoods, the eastern Sabra neighbourhood, and Sheikh Ejleen and Nasr to the west, with thousands of Palestinians clogging roads heading south, many of whom fled with nothing but the clothes on their backs.
Meanwhile, dozens of families could be seen trying to seek refuge outside al-Quds Hospital on Tel al-Hawa Street, as they struggled to drag suitcases, mattresses and small personal possessions to the war-ravaged facility.
The Ministry of Health had earlier warned there was “severe overcrowding in emergency departments in the remaining functioning hospitals in Gaza City”.
It said that medical teams were operating with depleted stocks of essential medical supplies and a severe shortage of blood units.
UN secretary general Antonio Guterres decried the worsening situation, calling it “horrendous”, adding that the war on the Palestinian territory was morally, politically and legally intolerable.
“What happened in Gaza today is horrendous. We are seeing massive destruction of neighbourhoods, now the systematic destruction of Gaza City,” he said.
“We are seeing massive killing of civilians in a way that I do not remember in any conflict since I am secretary general,” he said.
Earlier, German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul called Israel’s escalation “a step in the completely wrong direction”. The UK’s new foreign secretary, Yvette Cooper, warned the assault “will only bring more bloodshed”.
European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said the offensive “will make an already desperate situation even worse”.
“It will mean more death, more destruction & more displacement,” Kallas wrote on X, adding that the bloc will present measures on Wednesday to pressure the Israeli government to change course.
Her comments came on the same day that the UN’s top investigative body on Palestine and Israel ruled that Israel is guilty of the crime of genocide, in the most authoritative pronouncement to date.
The 72-page report by the UN commission of inquiry on Palestine and Israel found that Israel had committed four of the five acts prohibited under the 1948 Genocide Convention, and that Israeli leaders had the intent to destroy Palestinians in Gaza as a group.
The finding echoed reports by Palestinian, Israeli and international rights groups that reached the same conclusion.
