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Israel escalates bombardment as defence minister says 'Gaza is burning' Israel launches major ground offensive on Gaza City, forcing thousands more to flee
(about 8 hours later)
Israel ramped up air strikes on Gaza City in recent days
Israel has launched its long-planned major ground offensive on Gaza City, conducting heavy air strikes overnight as troops pushed into the edges of the city.
Thousands of Palestinians have been forced to flee down a single coastal road to the centre of the Strip, joining hundreds of thousands who have already fled.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said a "powerful operation" had been launched against Hamas's "last major stronghold" but UN human rights chief Volker Türk condemned the assault as "totally and utterly unacceptable".
Elsewhere, a UN commission of inquiry found that Israel was committing genocide in Gaza.
Huge columns of Palestinians were seen streaming towards the south in donkey carts, rickshaws, vehicles strapped high with belongings or on foot.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) estimates 350,000 people have already fled Gaza City, though more than that number are thought to have remained.
Many Palestinians say they cannot afford to go south, while others say southern and central Gaza are not safe as Israel has carried out air strikes there too. Some have said they attempted to go south but found no space to pitch their tents, so returned to Gaza City.
Watch: Blasts over Gaza skyline seen from southern IsraelWatch: Blasts over Gaza skyline seen from southern Israel
Israel has heavily bombed Gaza City overnight with unconfirmed reports from the US news site Axios and the Jerusalem Post that the military has now launched its ground offensive to occupy the entire city. Lina al-Maghrebi, 32, a mother of three from the city's Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood, said: "I was forced to sell my jewellery to cover the cost of displacement and a tent."
Israeli strikes are also reported in central Gaza, in the direction in which thousands of people are fleeing. Palestinian officials say there are rising numbers of deaths and injuries. "It took us ten hours to reach Khan Younis, and we paid 3,500 shekels [£735] for the ride. The line of cars and trucks seemed endless."
The intensification came ahead of a long-threatened full-scale ground invasion of the city, which is home to hundreds of thousands of people. Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry says 59 people were killed and at least 386 injured in the past 24 hours. Three people, it adds, died as a result of famine and malnutrition, including one child.
It came hours after Secretary of State Marco Rubio assured Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of unwavering US support during a trip to Jerusalem on Monday. "Gaza is burning," Israel's Defence Minister, Israel Katz, wrote on X, as the offensive began. "The IDF strikes with an iron fist at the terrorist infrastructure and IDF soldiers are fighting bravely to create the conditions for the release of the hostages and the defeat of Hamas."
Early on Tuesday morning, Israel's defence minister, Israel Katz, wrote on X, "Gaza is burning" and threatened that Israel, "will not relent and we will not go back - until the completion of the mission." An IDF official said ground troops were moving deeper into the city and that up to 3,000 Hamas combatants remained in the city.
Local journalists in Gaza say there have been almost constant Israeli air strikes and artillery and gunfire in Gaza City. Homes are said to have been destroyed, with people trapped in the rubble. There has been no official confirmation of a new ground incursion from the Israeli military. The UN commission of inquiry said its latest report was "the strongest and most authoritative UN finding to date" on the war. However, it does not officially speak for the UN.
Israel has demanded that Gaza City's residents leave and head south to a central area of the strip. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) estimate about 250,000 Palestinians have fled, though hundreds of thousands are believed to remain in the area. Among its findings are that Israeli security forces perpetrated "sexual and gender-based violence", directly targeted children with the intention to kill them, and carried out a "systemic and widespread attack" on religious, cultural and education sites in Gaza.
Some say they cannot afford to go south, while others say southern Gaza is not safe as Israel has carried out air strikes there too. Some have said they attempted to go south but were unable to pitch their tents, so returned to Gaza City. Navi Pillay, the chair of the panel that produced the report, said: "The genocide convention was born out of humanity's darkest chapters."
Israeli strikes on Gaza continued into Tuesday "Today, we witness in real time how the promise of never again is broken and tested in the eyes of the world," she added.
Rubio meanwhile was heading to visit Qatar next, where Arab leaders on Monday condemned Israel's attack last week on the capital Doha targeting, but reportedly failing to kill, Hamas leaders.
Speaking from the tarmac at Ben Gurion airport, Rubio said Qatar was still the only country able to mediate on Gaza. Pressed by the BBC on the condemnation of Israel from Arab and Muslim countries in Doha on Monday, he said the US prefers that war ends in a negotiated settlement and hoped partners in the region "stay engaged".
Rubio also said that there was "a very short window" in which a deal on Gaza could be made, Reuters and AFP reported. He added that Hamas had to "cease to exist as an armed group".
In Israel, hostage families camped outside the Israeli prime minister's house overnight because they believe the current military strategy is putting their loved ones in danger. Some 48 hostages are believed to remain in Gaza with 20 believed to be alive.
The escalation in bombardment on Gaza also comes after Netanyahu refused to rule out further strikes on Hamas leaders abroad despite international criticism of the attack on Qatar.
Days earlier the White House said Trump had assured Qatar "that such a thing will not happen again on their soil" - an assertion that he repeated on Monday night.
Qatar hosts a major US airbase and has played a key role in brokering diplomatic efforts to end the war in Gaza, serving as a mediator of indirect negotiations between Hamas and Israel. It has hosted the Hamas political bureau since 2012.
Palestinians look for survivors in the rubble of the Al-Ghafari residential tower after it was destroyed by an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City, 15 September 2025.
As Rubio and Netanyahu met, leaders of Arab and Islamic countries were lining up in Qatar to denounce Israel over its mounting offensive in Gaza City and last week's strike in Doha.
Israel launched its war in Gaza in response to the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.Israel launched its war in Gaza in response to the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.
More than 64,500 people have been killed by Israel during its campaign since then - almost half of them women and children, according to Gaza's Hamas-run Ministry of Health. At least 64,964 people have been killed by Israel during its campaign since then - almost half of them women and children, according to Gaza's health ministry.
With famine having already been declared in the area by a UN-backed body, the UN has warmed an intensification of the offensive will push civilians into "even deeper catastrophe".With famine having already been declared in the area by a UN-backed body, the UN has warmed an intensification of the offensive will push civilians into "even deeper catastrophe".