Gaza City is currently witnessing widespread Israeli targeting and destruction of what remains of its residential buildings, while tents full of displaced families, health facilities, schools, and aid seekers are also being hit. The Israeli occupation, which now claims 40% control, is trying to implement its plan of emptying the city of its residents and forcing them Southwards – and minister Israel Katz is cheering it on:
142 Palestinians starved to death by the Israeli occupation since August 15, 2025
The situation is catastrophic. While thousands have been displaced to the Western neighbourhoods of Gaza City, most families have no shelter, no food, and no safety. There is also a near-total collapse of the humanitarian system, while Israeli manufactured hunger and disease are ravaging the population. Although famine was confirmed in Gaza City on August 15, nothing has improved. As of September 13, 2025, hospitals in the Gaza Strip have, so far, recorded a total of 420 deaths of Palestinians from starvation and malnutrition, including 145 children. 142 of these deaths have been recorded in the last month.
Edouard Beigbeder, UNICEF Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa, told the Canary:
The escalating military offensive in Gaza City is having devastating consequences for over 450,000 children, already traumatised and exhausted by nearly two years of unrelenting war. They are teetering on the edge of survival, as both famine and deadly violence spread. UNICEF is warning of an impending catastrophe as the military operation expands. With limited or nonexistent shelter and services, the ongoing escalation is already resulting in disproportionate civilian casualties and driving the near total collapse of the remaining lifelines children need to survive.
The Israeli occupation continues to attack aid workers and humanitarian organisations and, on September 7, bombed the Association for Women and Child Protection headquarters (AISHA), killing one of its employees, as well as a pregnant woman seeking support from the organisation, and a five year old child. Many others were injured in the attack. AISHA has relentlessly continued to support women and children in Gaza, providing mental health support, humanitarian aid, and also spaces where women can take a short break from the ongoing death and destruction.
The obvious intention of the Israeli occupation is to make Gaza City a place that is impossible for Palestinians to live in, and to forcibly displace the population Southwards, to put more than two million people in an already overcrowded ‘safe zone’, lacking essential services.
A “critical point”
Amjad Shawa is the director of the Palestinian Non-Governmental Organizations Network (PNGO) in Gaza strip. He says that civil society has vowed to continue their work, as best they can. He told the Canary:
The situation is reaching a very critical point, that we haven’t witnessed before. But humanitarian and medical teams say they will stay with the people, to try and deliver their services. We are part of the social fabric and will continue to carry our responsibility to our people.
Although the Israeli occupation issued a blanket displacement order, on September 9, for all of Gaza City’s more than one million residents currently sheltering there, many Palestinians have decided to stay, either through fear they will never be able to return, or because they are just too weak, suffer from health problems, or lack the necessary money for transport. These so-called evacuation orders amount to forceable transfer and are illegal. Under international law these orders must move people to a safe area, with proper services, and people must be allowed to return once fighting ends.
The day after these evacuation orders were issued, the UN and its humanitarian partners issued a statement, saying the Israeli occupation issued these orders “without effective steps to ensure the safety of those forced to move’ and directed people to an area in the south where, they concluded, neither the size nor the scale of provided services is fit to support those already there, let alone new arrivals:
Nearly one million people are now left with no safe or viable options – neither the north nor the south offers safety.
Israeli occupation deliberately targets and kills starving Palestinians seeking food
Over the past week the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) have continued to commit horrific massacres in Gaza City including, on September 12, striking a residential square in the Al-Nasser district of the city, and bombing Al-Shati refugee camp’s Abu Asi school, in the West of Gaza City, which was sheltering displaced families. Attacks on Al-Shati camp are intensifying, with several airstrikes hitting the camp. Yesterday, September 13, five airstrikes on Al-Shati hit several residential homes, and three schools sheltering displaced civilians.
Another school sheltering displaced civilians was Al- Farabi School, which was targeted without any warning, with two rockets, at about 3am September 7. Eight Palestinians were killed, and many others wounded. On the same day, the IOF also opened fire on hundreds of starving aid seekers, who were crowded near the Zikim border crossing in Northern Gaza, waiting for aid trucks. 30 people were killed and, according to the Civil Defense, the large number of injuries to the upper body, show these civilians were deliberately targeted. As of September 13, 2025, 2484 Palestinians aid seekers have been killed- who arrived at hospital, and more than 18,117 injured.
There have also been numerous reports of the occupation not only bombing tents, but also firing flares at them, to burn displaced Palestinian families while they sleep.
Nine high rise residential buildings completely flattened, and displacement tents destroyed – and Katz cheers
Attempting to forcibly displace Palestinians from Gaza City, the occupation has targeted nine high rise residential towers in the past week, leaving thousands homeless, and nearby tents destroyed. Defense Minister, Israel Katz, in an X post, called these tower blocks-which are home to civilian families and the displaced- ‘high rise terrorist buildings’, and vowed to ‘annihilate’ them.
On Friday September 5, after he threatened ‘the gates of hell are opening’ in Gaza, five high explosive bombs struck the 12 storey Mushtaha tower, a local landmark, and damaged hundreds of nearby tents sheltering displaced people. On the following day, residents of the 15 storey Soussi Tower were given only a 15-minute evacuation warning. Katz posted a video of the strike on Soussi Tower, and the building collapsing, on Saturday with the message: ‘We continue’:
Several other high rises have been targeted including, on September 10, the Tiba 2. This was a residential tower in Western Gaza City, which was bombed shortly after the IOF ordered thousands of residents and displaced Palestinians to evacuate the site and move to Al Mawasi in the South. After Tiba 2 was levelled, IOF Arabic media spokesperson, Avichay Adraee, said on social media:
An ordinary tower? Of course not. This is terrorist infrastructure used by Hamas. Over the past few days, we have been attacking multi-story buildings and towers in Gaza City that have been converted into terrorist infrastructure, as a prelude to expanding our strikes against Hamas in the city. In the coming days, we will continue to attack such towers.
Yesterday, just minutes after the army issued an immediate evacuation order, Burj Al-Nour tower in the Tel al-Hawa neighborhood, South West Gaza City, was levelled to the ground.
Gaza’s Government Media Office has denounced the claims Hamas uses these buildings, saying they are a lie and calling them ‘part of a systematic policy of deception used by the occupation to justify the targeting of civilians and infrastructure’.
Plan to destroy telecommunications and internet to cut off Gaza from the world
The real reasons why the Israeli occupation is obliterating high rise buildings in the largest urban centre in the Gaza Strip is nothing to do with Hamas but, in an attempt to move people southwards, the IOF are leveling Gaza city to the ground, preventing their return in the future.
The other motive of targeting these multistorey buildings is to destroy vital internet and telecommunication channels, for the same reason Al Jazeera journalist Anas Al Sharif and his colleagues were targeted and killed in their tent, last month in Gaza City- in an attempt to silence those speaking out about the genocide in Gaza.
Euro-Med Monitor calls the occupation’s cutting off of telecommunications and internet services:
a systematic policy to isolate Gaza from the world and obstruct humanitarian response… creating confusion and uncertainty that drive forced displacement.
For the past two years, there has been no credible evidence produced for any of the Israeli occupation’s claims, that Hamas uses any civilian objects for its military purposes, although even if Hamas were using these buildings these attacks are illegal under International Humanitarian Law, because attacks on legitimate military objectives are still prohibited if they are expected to cause incidental loss of civilian life, civilian harm, or damage to civilian objects-such as schools, homes, hospitals- which would be excessive in comparison to the expected military advantage.
Israel’s deliberate targeting of civilians and civilian objects-with or without Hamas inside- is a war crime.
The Israeli occupation has continued to use the presence and activities of Hamas as a justification for widespread military operations in Gaza, and to aid its true objective of forcibly displacing the largest possible number of Palestinians, although the use of Hamas as a rationale for extensive and devastating attacks on civilian sites has been widely discredited by reports from the UN and international human rights organizations.
These acts violate the key principles of International Humanitarian Law, especially the obligations under the Fourth Geneva Convention to safeguard civilians and protect hospitals and other non-military infrastructure. Attacks must always comply with the principles of distinction, proportionality, and precaution. Indiscriminate or disproportionate attacks that result in mass civilian casualties or deliberately target civilian infrastructure constitute war crimes, and the argument that Hamas is using ‘human shields’ does not legally or morally permit violating these laws or carrying out collective punishment. The occupation has destroyed hospitals, homes, schools and shelters, and murdered journalists, without ever providing any credible evidence that these targets are being used for military purposes.
150,000 tonnes of explosives on Gaza in the past 23 months
In order to forcibly displace the Palestinian population, initially from the North of Gaza and eventually from the entire Strip, to bring about its vision of a ‘greater Israel’, the occupation has turned beautiful neighbourhoods, with olive trees, bustling markets and once vibrant communities into a wasteland, wiping out memories and livelihoods at the same time. According to the Gaza Government Media Office, more than 150,000 tonnes of explosives have been dropped on Gaza by the occupation, since October 7, 2023, while the entire population is exposed to a genocide, mass starvation and ethnic cleansing.
In a statement released September 13, Gaza Civil Defense said:
Residents of Gaza City are now being subjected to ‘ethnic cleansing’. The Israeli occupation has reached the level of ‘blind madness’ in its bombardment of schools sheltering displaced families and residential buildings located in densely populated neighborhoods… A state of extreme panic prevails among the displaced residents of Gaza City, as there are no shelter centres that provide even the minimum standards of safety and security. The free world and international humanitarian organisations are urgently required to break their silence and put an end to this ongoing cycle of genocide and ethnic cleansing.
All states, including the UK, have a legal obligation to prevent and stop genocide, including by suspending arms transfers to Israel, enforcing an immediate and permanent ceasefire and supporting international accountability.
It is now time for the UN General Assembly to utilise the Uniting for Peace Resolution 377 (V), and send armed peacekeeping troops into Gaza. These should have the following functions:
- Safeguard Palestinian civilians
- Support the UN’s unrestricted entry and distribution of humanitarian aid
- Preserve evidence of potential war crimes and violations of human rights,
- Facilitate reconstruction of Gaza
‘Safe Zone’ has been bombed 109 times
The IOF has announced that the only ‘humanitarian safe zone’ is in Al-Mawasi, even though, between October 7, 2023, and September 6, 2025, it was bombed 109 times, according to the Gaza Government Media Office. In reality, as with the rest of Gaza, there is no safety, no services, and no space in Al-Mawasi, only disease and overcrowding.
Between October 7, 2023, and September 13, 2025, 64,803 Palestinians have been killed by the occupation in Gaza, while 164,264 have been admitted to hospital with injuries.
Here are some figures from the Gaza Government Media Office-from October 7, 2023 to September 6, 2025- for which the Israeli regime is responsible:
A total of 162,005 Palestinians have been admitted to hospital with injuries- with 19,000 in need of long-term rehabilitation. There are 4,800 amputees- 18 percent of these being children.197 ambulances and 61 Civil Defense vehicles have been targeted, 56,320 children have lost one or both parents, and 21,182 women have become war widows, while 2700 families have been completely wiped out.
Featured image via the Canary
By Charlie Jaay
This post was originally published on Canary.
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