The night sky lights up as Israeli strikes land in Gaza, part of an increased offensive on the area of Gaza City.
Israel’s Defence Minister sa “Gaza is burning” after heavy strikes overnight targeted Gaza City, reportedly killing 20.
The intensifying bombardment came as Israel prepares to launch a full-scale ground invasion of the Gaza Strip’s biggest city.
On Tuesday morning, the Israeli military announced its expanded operation in Gaza City “to destroy Hamas’ military infrastructure” had begun and warned residents to move south.
Israel has been warning the famine-stricken Gaza City residents to evacuate for the past month ahead of the operation, but many have said they are unable to evacuate due to overcrowding in Gaza’s south and the high price of transport.
News of the long-threatened ground invasion going ahead comes as the UN Commission of Inquiry ruled that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.
Gaza City’s Shifa Hospital said it received the bodies of 20 people killed in a strike that hit multiple houses, with another 90 wounded arriving at the facility on Tuesday morning.
“A very tough night in Gaza,” Dr Mohamed Abu Selmiyah, director of Shifa Hospital, told The Associated Press.
“The bombing did not stop for a single moment,” he said. “There are still bodies under the rubble.”
He added first responders has said many casualties were still under rubble in multiple areas, and the number of dead is likely to increase.
Israel’s Defence Minister said Israeli Defence Forces were “striking with an iron fist” in Gaza.
“Gaza is burning. The IDF is striking with an iron fist at the terror infrastructure, and IDF soldiers are fighting valiantly to create the conditions for the release of the hostages and the defeat of Hamas”, Defence Minister Israel Katz said in a post on social media platform X.
“We will not relent and we will not back down – until the mission is completed.”
An independent UN Commission of Inquiry released a report on Tuesday, concluding Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.
The UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel, called on the international community to end the genocide and punish those responsible for it.
The commission, created four years ago, concluded that Israeli forces had committed four of the five genocidal acts defined by the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, including:
- Killing
- Causing serious bodily or mental harm
- Deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about the destruction of the Palestinians in whole or in part
- Imposing measures intended to prevent births.
They added that both statements and behaviours of Israeli security forces “indicate that the genocidal acts were committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, Palestinians in the Gaza Strip as a group.”
Israel rejected what it called a “distorted and false” report.
The deeply documented findings by the three-member team are the latest accusations of genocide against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke to reporters on Tuesday morning as he prepared to travel to Qatar from Israel.
He will meet with officials in Doha, still incensed over Israel’s strike last week that killed five Hamas members and a local security official.
Rubio hinted at the strength of the Israeli offensive in Gaza City, saying “We think we have a very short window of time in which a deal can happen.
“We don’t have months anymore, and we probably have days and maybe a few weeks, so it’s a key moment, an important moment.”
Both Netanyahu and Rubio said Monday the only way to end the conflict in Gaza is through the elimination of Hamas and the release of the remaining 48 hostages – around 20 of them believed to be alive – setting aside calls for an interim ceasefire in favour of an immediate end to the conflict.
Hamas has said it will only free the remaining hostages in return for Palestinian prisoners, a lasting ceasefire and an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.
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