GAZA CITY: The Israeli military has launched its long-awaited ground offensive in Gaza City, after heavy overnight strikes on the territory’s major metropolis.
Following orders from political leadership, Israeli troops have “expanded the ground operation into the Hamas stronghold, Gaza City”, a spokesman said on Tuesday.
Israel’s Security Cabinet approved the takeover of Gaza City in August.
The military spokesman called the offensive a “gradual manoeuvre” involving both air and ground forces, aimed at rooting out Hamas fighters hiding in the extensive tunnel network that lies under the city.
He said two divisions including regular and reserve troops were currently involved in the operation, expected to be complex with “many challenges”. A division usually consists of 10,000 to 15,000 soldiers.
Israel estimates that up to 3,000 combat-ready members of the Islamist militant group are in Gaza City.
The UN Human Rights Chief called on Israel to immediately stop its ground assault on Gaza City, saying that evidence was mounting of war crimes, crimes against humanity and possibly more.
“I can only think of what it means for women, for malnourished children, for people with disabilities, if they are again attacked in this way. And I have to say the only response to this is: stop the carnage,” Volker Turk told reporters in Geneva on Tuesday.
“Palestinians, Israelis scream for peace. Everyone wants an end to this, and what we see is a further escalation which is totally and utterly unacceptable,” he added.
“Gaza is burning,” Defence Minister Israel Katz wrote on Telegram, vowing Israel would not relent or back down “until the mission is completed”.
Earlier on Tuesday Israel heavily bombarded Gaza City, witnesses said, hours after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio backed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s new offensive there and its stated goal of eradicating Hamas.
Rubio showed no daylight between himself and Netanyahu on a visit to Jerusalem on Monday, saying Israel could “count on our unwavering support” for its military push in the devastated Palestinian territory.
Witnesses said there was soon “heavy, relentless bombing on Gaza City” which levelled homes and left people trapped under the rubble.
“We can hear their screams,” said 25-year-old resident Ahmed Ghazal.
According to Israeli military information, around 40 per cent of the civilians residing in Gaza City – or over 350,000 people – have already left.
Rubio’s Monday trip to Jerusalem came despite US President Donald Trump chiding Israel a week earlier for carrying out air strikes on Hamas leaders in US partner Qatar.
But Rubio took a dim view of the Qatari-brokered negotiations for a ceasefire and called Hamas, whose unprecedented October 7, 2023, attack on Israel triggered the Gaza war, “barbaric animals”.
The Secretary of State travels to Qatar on Tuesday in an attempt to reassure the emirate, which is home to the largest US airbase in the region and has assiduously courted Trump.
Trump told reporters in Washington that Netanyahu “won’t be hitting in Qatar” again.
In Gaza City, the territory’s largest urban centre, the United Nations determined last month that a million people were facing famine, a finding rejected by Israel.
Mahmud Bassal, a spokesman for the Gaza civil defence agency, said on Tuesday that “bombing is still ongoing heavily across Gaza City, and the number of deaths and injuries continues to rise”.
Bassal said the Israeli military also targeted the southern city of Khan Younis, after the civil defence agency reported Israeli strikes killing 49 people on Monday.
Media restrictions in Gaza and difficulties in accessing many areas mean Agence France-Presse is unable to independently verify the details provided by the civil defence agency or the Israeli military.
Rubio’s visit comes a week before France will lead a UN summit in which a number of US allies, angered by what they see as Israeli intransigence, plan to recognise a Palestinian state.
Rubio called statehood recognition “largely symbolic”, while Netanyahu, whose government is fervently opposed to such a move, said his country may take unspecified “unilateral steps” in response.
Far-right members of Netanyahu’s cabinet have called for the annexation of the occupied West Bank to preclude a state, triggering protests by the United Arab Emirates, which took the landmark step of recognising Israel five years ago.
Netanyahu said Rubio’s visit was a “clear message” the United States stood with Israel, and called Trump “the greatest friend that Israel has ever had”.
Washington’s top diplomat, standing alongside the Israeli premier, said “the people of Gaza deserve a better future”.
“But that better future cannot begin until Hamas is eliminated,” Rubio said at a joint press conference.
The October 7 attack by Hamas resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, most of them civilians, according to an Agence France-Presse tally of official figures.
Israel’s retaliatory campaign in Gaza has killed more than 64,900 people, also mostly civilians, according to figures from the health ministry that the UN considers reliable.
Rubio privately met the families of hostages, who have campaigned hard for their release.
Of the 251 people taken hostage by Palestinian militants in October 2023, 47 remain in Gaza, including 25 the Israeli military says are dead.
In a highly symbolic step, Rubio late on Monday attended the inauguration of a tunnel for religious tourists that goes underneath the Palestinian neighbourhood of Silwan to the holy sites.
Fakhri Abu Diab, 63, a community spokesman in Silwan, said Rubio should instead come to see homes, such as his own, that have been demolished by Israel in what Palestinians charge is a targeted campaign to erase them.
“Instead of siding with international law, the United States is going the way of extremists and the far-right and ignoring our history,” he said.
Rubio began his visit on Sunday in the Old City of Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem, joining Netanyahu at the Western Wall, the holiest site where Jews are allowed to pray, and calling Jerusalem the “eternal capital” of Israel.
Until Trump’s first term, US leaders shied away from such overt statements backing Israeli sovereignty over contested Jerusalem, which is also holy to Muslims and Christians.
