Israel Flattens Gaza City High-Rise, Tells Residents To Flee

(MENAFN- Gulf Times) An Israeli strike flattened a high-rise in Gaza City Saturday - the second in as many days - after the military warned people to flee ahead of a planned offensive against the urban hub.

Israel has been warning for weeks of a new assault on the territory's largest city, without issuing a timeline.

It has stepped up air strikes and ground operations on the city's outskirts, sparking fears it could worsen already dire conditions.

Saturday, Israeli aircraft dropped thousands of leaflets on western neighbourhoods calling on residents to evacuate, witnesses and an AFP journalist said.

Nafez Anis, who has been living in a tent with his family in Gaza City, said he had read the leaflet, but was not planning on leaving.

"Where should we go?" he told AFP. "We will wait, and when we see Israeli tanks approaching here, we will leave." Gaza civil defence agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP that 55 Palestinians had been killed by Israeli fire during the day, including 18 near an aid distribution centre in the north.

Saturday, the military struck a Gaza City high-rise, saying Hamas was using it "to monitor" Israeli troops and adding that it had taken "measures to mitigate harm to civilians".

Witnesses identified the building as the Sussi residential tower and said it was destroyed.

Hamas condemned the attack and denied using residential or civilian buildings for military purposes.

The Israeli military has said it will target structures being used by Hamas, particularly tall buildings.

It also issued an evacuation order for another high-rise Saturday, warning of an imminent strike and telling people to leave for the south.

A military spokesperson had earlier called on residents to leave for Al-Mawasi, on the Mediterranean coast to the south.

Israel first declared Al-Mawasi a safe zone early in the war, but has carried out repeated strikes on it since then, saying they targeted Hamas.

Gaza City residents said they believed it made little difference whether they stayed or fled.

"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."

Israel has faced mounting domestic and international pressure to end the nearly two-year war.

Thousands demonstrated in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem 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!"

Hamas agreed last month to a proposal for a temporary ceasefire and staggered hostage releases, but Israel has demanded the group release all the hostages at once, disarm and relinquish control of Gaza, among other conditions.

The UN estimates nearly 1mn people remain in and around Gaza City, where it declared a famine last month. It has warned of a looming "disaster" if the assault proceeds.

Israel's offensive has killed at least 64,368 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to figures from the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza that the UN considers reliable strike high-rise Gaza City planned offensive

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