Israel launches ‘most violent’ strikes on Gaza since 7 October
Six people, among them women and children, were killed in an Israeli airstrike on a tent housing displaced civilians in central Gaza on Sunday
The Israeli army has been launching some of its heaviest airstrikes on the Gaza Strip since the start of its genocidal war in October 2023.
According to an Al-Mayadeen correspondent, these are “the most violent attacks” since 7 October.
“Over the past few hours, the Israeli army has conducted extensive bombing operations in southern Gaza City, intensifying its artillery bombardment of the Tel al-Hawa neighborhood with the aim of accelerating forced displacement. It has also launched intense airstrikes on the area since,” the correspondent said.
Israel also bombed Gaza City’s Al-Zaytoun neighborhood and carried out artillery shelling on the Shujaiya neighborhood.
An airstrike on a tent housing displaced people in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza, killed six people, including women and children.
Additionally, the army shelled the southern city of Khan Yunis. At least 35 Palestinians have been killed since dawn on Sunday.
The Israeli army has launched a campaign of destroying Gaza City’s residential towers, claiming they house Hamas infrastructure and fighters.
“The occupation misleads public opinion by claiming to target the resistance while systematically bombing residential towers, buildings, schools, and civilian institutions,” Gaza’s Government Media Office said in a statement on 14 September.
“We strongly condemn the deceptive and false narratives propagated by the Israeli occupation army in its messages to both local and international audiences. While it claims to be targeting the resistance, the facts on the ground leave no room for doubt: the occupation is deliberately, and in a clearly systematic manner, bombing schools, mosques, hospitals, medical centers, destroying residential towers and apartment buildings,” it added.
Israel carried out more than 100 airstrikes on 13 September, according to Palestinian journalist Youssef Fares.
Footage shows the first moments after Israel targeted a group of Palestinians at a charging point near the Thai Restaurant, west of Gaza City, on Saturday night.
In less than a week, Israel has destroyed at least a dozen residential towers with more than seven floors and hundreds of apartments in Gaza, displacing at least 10,000 people.
Over 120 residential buildings with fewer than seven floors have been leveled, forcing more than 7,000 people out of their homes.
Six hundred tents housing the displaced have also been targeted over the past several days, while ten schools and five mosques have been destroyed.
Gaza Civil Defense spokesman Mahmoud Basal reported on 12 September that Israeli forces have left more than 50,000 people in Gaza homeless.
According to recent Hebrew media reports, Israeli security officials told cabinet ministers that the operation to seize and occupy Gaza City will take months.
Israel’s massive escalation of strikes on Gaza City aims to wipe out infrastructure and pave the way for the upcoming assault.
Last week, Israel launched an unprecedented attack on Qatar, targeting Hamas leaders as they were meeting to discuss a US ceasefire proposal. Qatar has since suspended its mediation efforts.