Palestinians react, as smoke and flames rise while a residential building collapses after an Israeli air strike, in Gaza City, September 7, 2025. DAWOUD ABU ALKAS / REUTERS
The Israeli military said it hit a residential tower in Gaza City on Sunday, September 7, after issuing two evacuation warnings, while the Palestinian territory’s civil defence agency reported no immediate casualties. “The IDF (Israeli military) struck a high-rise building that was used by the Hamas terrorist organisation in the area of Gaza City,” the military said in a statement referring to Al-Roya Tower, saying it had been used “to monitor the location of… troops in the area.”
An evacuation order for the Al-Roya Tower, the third tower it has targeted this week, was put in place at first on Saturday and again on Sunday. Israel has already struck two towers this week, including the 15-storey al-Sousi Tower on Saturday.
The warning came as the Israeli army pushed inside Gaza City in a bid to step up pressure on the Palestinian militant group Hamas. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that the army was “deepening” its assault in and around Gaza City, as it seeks to step up pressure on the Palestinian militant group Hamas.
“We are deepening the manoeuvre on the outskirts of Gaza City and within Gaza City itself,” Netanyahu told ministers at the start of a cabinet meeting, according to a video shared by his office. “We are destroying terrorist infrastructure, we are demolishing identified terror towers,” Netanyahu said.
Israel has not publicly announced the start of a major offensive to seize Gaza City, which Netanyahu’s cabinet approved last month, but troops have intensified bombings and operations in the area for weeks.
Read more Subscribers only Gaza’s horrifying death toll does not include indirect victims of Israel’s offensive
The Israeli military has claimed that the two high-rises flattened in recent strikes were used by Hamas to “monitor” Israeli troops, an accusation denied by the Palestinian group. The escalation has fuelled fears of a further deterioration in already dire humanitarian conditions for Palestinians living in the area.
Netanyahu said that Israel had “established another humanitarian zone to allow the civilian population in Gaza to move to a safe area.”
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On Saturday, Israeli aircraft dropped thousands of leaflets over western neighborhoods of Gaza City urging residents to evacuate, witnesses and an Agence France-Presse (AFP) journalist said. Netanyahu said around 100,000 residents had already left Gaza City, accusing Hamas of trying to prevent evacuations and of using civilians as “human shields.”
Mustafa Al-Jamal, who lives in Gaza city, told AFP on Saturday that he did not plan to leave. He said the area in southern Gaza residents were told to evacuate to has been repeatedly bombed despite being declared “a safe zone.” “Where can we go? We have no money, no tent, no house, no food.”
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Israeli protesters took to the streets on Saturday to call on their government to reverse the decision to conquer Gaza City, fearing for the fate of hostages believed to be held there.
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