The Israeli military destroyed a high-rise in Gaza City on Friday, shortly after announcing it would target tall buildings identified as being used by Hamas ahead of its planned seizure of the Palestinian territory's biggest city.
Despite mounting pressure at home and abroad to halt its nearly two-year offensive in Gaza, Israel has been calling up reservists, intensifying its bombardments and closing in on Gaza City.
In a statement Friday, the military said it had "identified significant Hamas terrorist activity within a wide variety of infrastructure sites in Gaza City, and particularly in high-rise buildings", adding it would target those sites "in the coming days".
Less than an hour later, it said it had struck one such high-rise, accusing Hamas of using it "to advance and execute attacks against troops in the area".
AFP footage showed the Mushtaha Tower in the city's Al-Rimal neighbourhood collapsing after a massive explosion at its base, sending a thick cloud of smoke and dust billowing into the sky.
AFP photographs of the aftermath showed Palestinians inspecting the rubble and debris of the collapsed building.
The army said that before the strike, "precautionary measures were taken in order to mitigate harm to civilians", including prior warnings.
Arej Ahmed, a 50-year-old displaced Palestinian who lives in a tent in the southwest of Gaza City, told AFP that her husband "saw residents of the Mushtaha Tower throwing their belongings from the upper floors to take them and flee before the strike".
"Less than half an hour after the evacuation orders, the tower was bombed," she said by telephone.
- 'No safe place' -
Gaza civil defence agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal accused Israel of carrying out "a policy of forced displacement against civilians" in its targeting of high-rise buildings.
The agency said Israeli strikes in and around Gaza City killed at least 19 people, among at least 42 Palestinians killed across the territory on Friday.
Contacted by AFP, the Israeli military said it was unable to comment on those reports.
Media restrictions in Gaza and difficulties in accessing many areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify the tolls and details provided by the civil defence agency or the Israeli military.
"The news about Israel beginning to bomb towers and apartment buildings is terrifying," said Ahmed Abu Wutfa, 45, who lives in his relatives' partially destroyed fifth-floor apartment in western Gaza City.
"My children are terrified, and so am I. There is no safe place -- we only hope that death comes quickly."
A member of Hamas's political bureau, Izzat al-Rishq, said Israeli claims the militant group was operating in the high-rises were "nothing but flimsy pretexts and blatant lies."
The United Nations estimates that nearly one million people live in Gaza City and its surroundings, an area where it last month declared a famine.
World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus urged Israel to stop the "catastrophe" of people starving to death in Gaza, where the health ministry says more than 370 people have died from malnutrition since the war began.
Belgian Foreign Minister Maxime Prevot meanwhile told AFP that the European Union was "not living up to its responsibilities in this enormous humanitarian crisis".
- 'Gates of hell' -
Defence Minister Israel Katz said "the bolt has now been removed from the gates of hell in Gaza," vowing to intensify operations until Hamas accepts Israel's terms to end the war.
Israel expects its new offensive will displace around a million people towards the south.
Seven hundred days after its attack on Israel that sparked the war, Hamas's armed wing released footage purporting to show two hostages seized in the assault alive in Gaza City late last month.
The video shows hostage Guy Gilboa-Dalal in a car calling on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to carry out the planned offensive on Gaza City.
It later shows him meeting another captive, Alon Ohel -- the first time he has been seen in a video since his abduction during the October 2023 attack.
The prime minister's office said Netanyahu had spoken with the families of both hostages.
"No evil propaganda video will weaken us or divert us from our determination" to crush Hamas and free the hostages, Netanyahu said in comments released by his office.
Relatives and supporters of the hostages rallied in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv on Friday to demand a deal to secure their release.
Of the 251 hostages seized during the Hamas attack, 47 are still in Gaza, including 25 the Israeli military says are dead.
The attack resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures.
Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed at least 64,300 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to figures from the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza that the United Nations considers reliable.
bur-acc/rlp/dc
Commented