TEHRAN – Israel has made progress in a full-scale ground invasion of Gaza city after a period of heavy artillery fire, causing widespread international backlash.
On Tuesday, Israeli forces launched a long-standing ground attack in Gaza city, deploying tanks and remotely controlled armored vehicles loaded with explosives onto the streets.
Israeli forces and tanks were pushed deep into the city on Wednesday as Palestinians fled a massive amount of devastated areas.
Israel said the air force and artillery forces had hit Gaza more than 150 times in the days leading up to the ground operation. The strike knocked down a tower in a densely packed area with displaced people living in temporary camps.
Israeli forces say hundreds of thousands of people fled south from Gaza city. At the end of August, the United Nations estimated that around 1 million people, which account for about half of Gaza’s population, lived in the city and its surrounding area. Since the attacks on the ground began, more Palestinians have been killed, bringing the death toll from the Israeli war of massacre in Gaza, which began in October 2023, to over 65,000. The actual number is considered higher, with thousands buried in the ruins of Gaza after nearly two years of relentless artillery fire.
Israel’s death toll from the war with Gaza has exceeded 65,000, the health ministry said Wednesday.
Israel’s ground attacks emerge despite international criticism and the UN Commission’s recognition that the regime is carrying out actions equivalent to the genocide of Palestinian enclaves.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned Gaza city on Tuesday for “systematic destruction.” Kaha Karas, the European Union’s foreign policy director, warned that the attacks would exacerbate the situation at the enclave. “That would mean more death, more destruction, and more evacuation,” she wrote to X.
China’s Foreign Ministry said it “will oppose Israel’s escalation of military operations in Gaza, condemns all actions that harm civilians and violate international law.”
Qatar’s Foreign Ministry called the attack “an extension of the genocide war against the brothers Palestinians.”
Saudi Arabia also condemned Israel’s attacks and criticised the international community for failing to take effective measures to end what the international community described as a violation of international and humanitarian law.
French lawmaker Mathilde Pano, head of the parliamentary group for the left-wing La France Insemize party, called the Israeli attack “genocide, not war,” urging France to put sanctions and accusations of accomplice at risk.
Pope Leo XIV highlighted the light-form of the Palestinians in Gaza, describing their living conditions as “unacceptable” in forced displacement. “I represent a deep solidarity with the Palestinians of Gaza who continue to live in fear, survive in unacceptable circumstances and are being reeled out of their land,” he said.
The Israeli Army said it could take “months” for the attacks in Gaza city to be completed, marking the first timeline given for surgery at the largest population center of the siege territory.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the offensive purpose was to “defeat the enemy (Hamas) and evacuate the population.” However, critics say the statement omitted mentions securing the remaining release of Israeli prisoners of war. The prisoners of war members protested near a Netanyahu residence in Jerusalem (AL-QUDS) on Tuesday, accusing them of abandoning the prisoners of war.
Since the war began almost two years ago, Netanyahu has vowed to defeat Hamas and the free Israeli prisoners, but neither goal has been fully achieved. Dozens of prisoners still remain in Gaza, filmed during the Hamas attack in southern Israel on October 7, 2023.