DUBAI, United Arab Emirates, and GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Israel's military says it has taken control of almost half of Gaza City as it prepares for a large-scale ground offensive to fully occupy its densely populated urban center.
Israeli military spokesperson Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin said in a press briefing the military now has "operational control" of 40% of Gaza City and will continue to expand and intensify the offensive in the coming days. The military called around 60,000 reservists back to war to support the expansive operation, which Israel says is aimed at returning hostages and dismantling Hamas rule.
Last week, the military declared all of Gaza City a "dangerous combat zone" and is striking at high-rise buildings in the city's central and western neighborhoods. These areas, including its western shoreline, have been crowded for months with displaced people and tents.
Already, entire neighborhoods on the outskirts of Gaza City have been leveled by Israeli strikes and thousands of Palestinian families displaced. In the past three weeks, Gaza's civil defense, or first responders, say Israel has destroyed some 1,500 homes in the Zaytoun and Sabra neighborhoods of eastern Gaza City. That destruction can be seen in satellite images, as well.
The assault on Gaza City — once the territory's beating heart and its commercial and cultural hub — comes nearly two years into Israel's war in Gaza that's killed more than 64,200 people, a third of them children, according to Gaza's health ministry. The war began in October 2023 with a Hamas-led attack on Israel that authorities there say killed nearly 1,200 people and took hostages.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke to reservists this week who were ordered back to Gaza to carry out this next phase of the war, describing it as a "decisive stage" aimed at defeating Hamas.
Netanyahu has the tacit backing of President Trump for this Gaza City offensive, despite hundreds of former Israeli security officials saying Hamas no longer poses a threat and that it's time to end the war. There have also been large protests in Israel demanding a ceasefire that frees hostages held by Hamas.
Following President Trump's call for Hamas to release Israeli hostages, the group said it was ready for a deal to release them in exchange for Palestinians held in Israeli prisons. But the Israeli government has rejected the offer, dismissing it as "spin."
Netanyahu and his far-right coalition are instead determined to expand the war. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich laid out that vision for Gaza, saying areas of the enclave must be annexed by Israel and the gates of Gaza opened for Palestinians to leave. He also said Israel should cut water and food off to those who remain in Gaza City.
No safe or dignified way to forcibly displace people
U.N. aid agencies, as well as France, the U.K. and other Western governments, are urging Israel to halt the assault on Gaza City, warning of an even greater humanitarian crisis.
Already, leading experts on hunger have declared a famine in Gaza City due to Israeli restrictions on aid. As part of the coming assault, Israel will phase out aid to Gaza City in order to move the population south, according to a person briefed by Israeli officials on the plan. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the plan publicly.
The International Committee of the Red Cross says the evacuation of Gaza City cannot be done in a safe or dignified manner, calling it "unfeasible and incomprehensible." It noted that people are starving, wounded and unable to relocate, and that no area in Gaza can handle an influx of displaced people due to extreme shortages of food, water, shelter and medical care across the territory.
Israel tried to take over Gaza City before in this war, besieging it and launching raids in its streets, but tens of thousands of people remained. Many more returned to the city during a temporary ceasefire earlier this year.
Still, Israel's military insists that the full evacuation of Gaza City this time is "inevitable."
Privately, the military is warning of risks to its plan. The military chief of staff says Israel may need to enforce military rule over Palestinians in Gaza City by November, according to the person briefed by Israeli officials.
Israeli troops encircle Gaza City, forcing families to flee
The sound of loud explosions can be heard and seen in northern Gaza City, day and night. That's where Israeli troops are blasting away at homes and buildings.
Dozens of people have been killed in Israeli strikes across the city in recent days, according to the health ministry. Israeli tanks now encircle the coastal city from north, south and east.
Israeli drones have opened fire at Palestinian families in areas of northern Gaza City, according to people fleeing these areas as quoted by NPR.
"The drones ordered us to leave and opened fire on us, as did the tanks," said Tahiya Abu Warda, a 54-year-old grandmother with her grandson.
Abud Warda and others spoke to NPR as they were arriving to the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood of northern Gaza City last week, which itself was forcibly evacuated days later and under heavy Israeli bombardment.
Abu Warda said she fled with her grandson only with the clothes on her back. She had no time to break apart the makeshift tent she was living in, and is without shelter now. Her grandson stood by her side thirsty for water, but there was none.
Other families were seen pushing and pulling makeshift wagons piled high with mattresses, empty jugs of water, clothes and other basics needed for survival.
Israel orders Gaza City's population south, but there's no space
In a recent post on social media, the military promised "abundant humanitarian aid" to Palestinians who flee south. That aid, however, has yet to be seen. The military instead shared photos of smiling Palestinians atop cars with their belongings. Car rides south cost thousands of dollars largely due to the high price of fuel, which Israel restricts into Gaza and is in short supply.
Ibrahim Abu Humeidan, a father of two, told NPR his family's been displaced 17 or 18 times in the war. He said he's lost the exact count. He said the military fired "indiscriminately" at people to make them flee his neighborhood of Saftawi.
"I am here, tossed in the street, without any money. They're telling us to move south. How?" he said, as he rested with some of his belongings on a sidewalk in Gaza City. "I don't have money to get south. I don't even have money to feed my kids."
Abu Humeidan said there's no space in Gaza City or in Gaza's south to set up a tent.
The military has called such statements "false rumors." It recently posted maps it says show "vast empty areas" where people can put up tents in southern Gaza.
Israeli professor Yaakov Garb, an environmental studies expert who examines land patterns in Gaza, used satellite imagery to analyze the military's map and found that the areas the military points to as empty are either in red military zones that are off limits to Palestinians, or for weeks have been full of tents with displaced people, or are empty because they are shifting sand dunes where tents can't be erected.
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"These designations, as far as I can see, seem to be quite distanced from what's actually going on on the ground and the needs of the population," Garb said.
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"This is so far from what might be considered any sort of planning for displaced populations," he said, noting that this lack of planning by the military is happening "in advance of an emergency they're about to create."
Batrawy reported from Dubai and Baba from Gaza City. Daniel Estrin contributed reporting from Tel Aviv, Israel.
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