IDF intensifying bombardments on the outskirts of Strip’s largest city ever since announcing its intention to capture it
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) repeated an evacuation order yesterday, a day after a similar warning, telling residents near the Al-Ruya building and tents nearby that it would soon be struck.
Palestinians say the building is used to shelter displaced families, but Avichay Adraee, the IDF’s Arabic language spokesman, said forces would “strike due to the presence of Hamas terrorist infrastructure inside or near it”.
It was not immediately clear if there were any casualties.
Mr Adraee called on civilians to move southwards to the humanitarian zone in the Al Muwasi area in Khan Younis, where the IDF said “humanitarian infrastructure” awaited them.
At least 52 people were killed in strikes on a school, tents and houses across the Strip yesterday.
Israel said yesterday that some 1,900 trucks collected and distributed humanitarian aid in Gaza the past week.
Palestinians react as smoke and flames rise while a residential building collapses after an Israeli air strike in Gaza City yesterday. Photo: Dawoud Abu Alkas/Reuters
Today’s News in 90 seconds – 8th September 2025
The increase in humanitarian efforts come after intense international pressure on Israel to relieve the dire situation in Gaza.
There is a “narrow window” to prevent famine from spreading further in Gaza, a top UN official said yesterday.
According to a global hunger monitor, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians are already experiencing or at risk of famine in areas including Gaza City.
“There is a narrow window – until the end of September – to prevent famine from spreading to Deir al Balah (in central Gaza) and Khan Younis (southern Gaza). That window is now closing fast,” said United Nations aid chief Tom Fletcher.
Meanwhile, the IDF ramped up air strikes against high-rise buildings in Gaza City.
Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli prime minister, said that some 100,000 Palestinians have left Gaza City ahead of the ground invasion but that Hamas is “trying to do everything to prevent them from leaving and to keep them there to serve as human shields”.
Around one million civilians still reside in Gaza City, according to UN estimates.
Mr Netanyahu said that the IDF is “deepening the manoeuvre on the outskirts of Gaza City and within Gaza City itself”.
The IDF has been operating for weeks in the Zeitoun neighbourhood adjacent to Gaza City, including yesterday when soldiers said they dismantled a tunnel that “spanned hundreds of metres”.
“Inside they located an operations room used by Hamas’s Zeitoun Battalion to co-ordinate terror activities against IDF troops.”
The brigade’s fire-control centre struck and killed militants who were hiding in a building beneath which an operational shaft leading to an underground tunnel was located, according to the IDF.
In addition, dozens of militant targets were attacked, including observation posts and weapons storage facilities that posed a direct threat to IDF troops in the area, the IDF said.
Other air strikes in Gaza City were also reported yesterday with one video showing an attack on a building in a narrow street with civilians not far from the scene.
An Israeli official confirmed to The Telegraph that the IDF is expected to invade Gaza City in about a week with some 60,000 reserve soldiers called up.
World leaders have called on Israel not to go through with the invasion, warning about the repercussions for civilians who will get caught in battles between Israel and Hamas.
Mr Netanyahu addressed the “public diplomacy damage” Israel is facing, with accusations of war crimes and starvation in Gaza. He said: “If I need to choose between victory over our enemies and malicious propaganda against us, I choose victory over our enemies, as opposed to the opposite.”
“I do not want stories that we have been beaten by our enemies and for us to be eulogised well in the global media. I choose victory,” he added.
Yair Lapid, Israel’s opposition leader, lashed out at Mr Netanyahu yesterday, saying his government is “not even trying to bring the Israeli hostages back home”.
“There’s a hostage deal on the table. A deal could be done, should be done. What mustn’t be done is not to even try,” Mr Lapid said.
Last month, Hamas agreed to a 60-day ceasefire that would see the release of 10 living and 18 dead hostages in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, some serving life in jail for murder.
