At least 65 killed in Gaza as Israel escalates attacks on Gaza City

Israel’s defence minister warns that Gaza City will be destroyed unless Hamas yields to Israel’s terms for ending the war.

At least 65 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza since dawn, medical sources told media, including 37 killed in Gaza City where Israel was escalating attacks in the lead-up to a broader planned offensive.

An Israeli air strike hit a school in Sheikh Radwan, a Gaza City neighbourhood where tens of Palestinians were seeking shelter in makeshift tents in the schoolyard. At least 12 civilians were killed in the attack, Gaza’s Ministry of Health said on Friday.

Footage circulating on social media and verified by media show an Israeli quadcopter hovering over a building in Sheikh Radwan as neighbours watch anxiously, before it drops an explosive on its target. The video then cuts to footage of smoke rising from the targeted building.

Another person was killed by Israeli forces in the Tuffah neighbourhood in Gaza City, a medical source at al-Ahli Hospital told media.

Earlier, Israel’s defence minister warned that Gaza’s largest city would be destroyed unless Hamas yielded to Israel’s terms for ending the war.

“The gates of hell will soon open on the heads of Hamas’ murderers and rapists in Gaza – until they agree to Israel’s conditions for ending the war,” Israel Katz wrote in a post on X.

Katz restated Israel’s ceasefire demands, which include the release of all captives and Hamas’s complete disarmament. Hamas has said it would release captives in exchange for ending the war, but rejects disarmament without the creation of a Palestinian state.

Yet Netanyahu also confirmed that he would authorise the military to mount a major operation to seize Gaza City, which could start within days.

While many Israelis fear an assault could doom about 20 captives deemed to be alive, Netanyahu maintains the offensive is the surest way to free captives and achieve the war objective of destroying Hamas.

media correspondent Tareq Abu Azzoum said that while Gaza City was being pounded especially hard, Israeli attacks were continuing relentlessly across the Gaza Strip.

“It was another deadly night in Gaza, and this morning is marked by grief and unbearable pain, clearly written on the faces of victims’ relatives and emergency responders who spent the night rushing to calls across the Strip,” Abu Azzoum said, reporting from the central city of Deir el-Balah.

“For Palestinians on the ground, these military actions send a clear signal that no matter where they move, no corner of Gaza is spared from any potential Israeli attack.”

‘Unbearable grief and pain’

An Israeli drone strike on a makeshift tent in the southern city of Khan Younis killed one woman and four children, sources at the Nasser Medical Complex said.

Another Palestinian was killed and others were injured after the Israeli army struck the Jabalia al-Balad area of northern Gaza, according to sources at al-Shifa Hospital.

This comes on the same day the UN-backed global hunger monitor declared that famine is occurring in northern Gaza, and is projected to spread to central and southern areas by the end of September.

Since May 27, when Israel introduced the new food aid distribution mechanism co-run by the controversial United States-backed GHF, the Health Ministry estimates at least 2,036 aid seekers have been killed.