Israel has bombed a third Gaza City residential high-rise in as many days as the military carried out further attacks ahead of a threatened ground offensive.
Israel said it hit Al-Roya Tower on Sunday after issuing an evacuation warning. It followed the destruction of the 15-storey Sousi Tower by war planes on Saturday, with footage posted to social media by the Israeli defence minister.
Witnesses confirmed the tower was destroyed. A Gaza City hospital said one person was killed in the strike.
Air attacks overnight on the city into Sunday had earlier killed 14 people, local health officials said, including a strike on a school in southern Gaza City sheltering displaced Palestinians.
Evacuation warnings for the two towers surrounding tents sheltering displaced Palestinians were issued on Saturday. Avichay Adraee, a military spokesperson, claimed without providing evidence that the buildings were targets because Hamas had infrastructure inside or near them. Hamas said the allegations were “baseless lies” and that the high-rises were residential towers.
Residents of Sousi Tower said on Saturday that the Israeli army gave them about 20 minutes to grab their belongings and flee before warplanes razed the building to the ground.
“Suddenly, we were sitting at home and people started shouting,” Aida Abu Kas, a resident, told the Associated Press, recalling the panic and confusion rippling through the building. “Some said it was a lie and other said it was real. We went out and didn’t know what to do.”
Israel Katz, Israel’s defence minister, later posted a video to social media of the Sousi Tower collapsing in an enormous cloud of smoke along with the words: “We continue.” On Friday, he had posted the evacuation order on X, saying: “The gates of hell are being unlocked in Gaza City.”
On Friday, Israel hit Mushtaha Tower, a local landmark that housed dozens of families, claiming that Hamas militants used it for surveillance without providing any evidence. Hamas denied those claims.
The destruction of the towers has contributed to growing unease in Gaza City as residents weigh whether to give in to Israel’s displacement orders or stay put. Tens of thousands have already left the city as Israel has stepped up its bombardment, and the roads leading south have been packed with residents carrying their belongings in carts and trucks.
Other residents have decided they will not yet leave, distrustful of the safe zone announced by Israel. Israel has in the past carried out strikes in safe zones, including al-Mawasi, as well as killed people evacuating along routes the Israeli military designated as passages to safe zones.
“Some say we should evacuate, others say we should stay,” said Abdel Nasser Mushtaha, 48. “But everywhere in Gaza there are bombings and deaths,” he added, pointing in particular to the strikes on al-Mawasi.
“It no longer makes any difference to us,” said his daughter Samia Mushtaha, 20. “Wherever we go, death pursues us, whether by bombing or hunger.”
Gaza civil defence agency spokesperson Mahmud Bassal told AFP that 56 Palestinians had been killed by Israeli fire on Saturday, including 19 near an aid distribution centre in the north. The Israeli military requested precise timeframes and coordinates to look into the reports.
The military has also issued evacuation warnings to civilians in certain areas of Gaza City. Israel has been threatening a new assault on the territory’s largest city for weeks, without issuing a timeline.
“From this moment, it is announced that the al-Mawasi area is a humanitarian zone and steps will be taken to provide better humanitarian services there,” a leaflet that was dropped over Gaza City on Sunday read.
As the Israeli military continued to strike Gaza City, its foreign minister, Gideon Saar, urged Hamas to lay down its arms and surrender.
“We will be more than happy to reach this objective with political means,” Saar told reporters in Jerusalem on Sunday. His Danish counterpart, Lars Løkke Rasmussen, urged Israel to “change course” and stop its campaign on Gaza City.
The senior Hamas official Bassem Naim told Reuters that it would release all of the remaining Israeli hostages it held if Israel ended the war and withdrew from Gaza, but said the group refused to lay down its arms.
Israel has faced mounting domestic and international pressure to end the nearly two-year war in which at least 63,000 Palestinians, mostly civilians, have been killed, according to Gaza’s health ministry. The figure does not include the tens of thousands believed to be buried under the rubble or killed by indirect consequences of the war.
Thousands demonstrated in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem on Saturday evening to call for a ceasefire and hostage release deal. In Tel Aviv, protesters unfurled a massive banner saying: “President Trump, save the hostages now!”
Israel has said that it is now aiming for a total end to the war in Gaza rather than a ceasefire. It is demanding that Hamas disarm and step away from government in the strip, as well as release all the hostages.
Hamas delivered its own ceasefire proposal three weeks prior – a version of the deal drafted by the US that Israel had previously agreed to – but Israel has yet to respond.
