As it advances on 3 fronts, Israel designates Gaza City a ‘dangerous combat zone’

Israel designated on Friday morning the entirety of Gaza City, the largest metropolitan area in the besieged Gaza Strip and home to around 1 million people, as a military zone.

Civilians in Gaza City report that the invading military has stepped up its aggression on frontier neighborhoods in the north, northeast and southeast since Thursday night.

Announced in the wake of a military maneuver that saw Israel retrieve two bodies from beneath Gaza City, the acceleration of the Israeli military’s multi-front assault sets in motion the full scale of its operation to “capture” the city.

Since Thursday night, Israel has heavily shelled Jabalia al-Nazla, the area directly east of Gaza City which represents the northeastern front in its oncoming advance.

The offensive on Jabalia al-Nazla continued into the day on Friday, striking the area’s center. Street-level fire was accompanied by relentless shooting from quadcopter drones hovering over Jabalia al-Nazla and its surroundings. 

Remotely operated explosives were also detonated to provide cover for the advancing Israeli vehicles, which had already begun to probe the area in flash raids over recent days. Eyewitnesses who had evacuated the area told Mada Masr that the vehicles could be heard approaching  in greater numbers in Nazla on Friday. Though most residents had already fled the oncoming advance, many families remained trapped, the sources said. 

An intense wave of fire also targeted the Saftawy neighborhood beginning Thursday night. Saftawy represents a northern front in the advance. Through it, Israeli forces can access the head of the Jalaa Road, a central highway that splits the east and west of Gaza City.

Quadcopter drones hovered over Saftawy broadcasting messages ordering residents to evacuate within ten minutes as shelling intensified, Mohamed Tafesh told Mada Masr. 

Israeli forces advanced dangerously close to Tafesh and his family’s home near Juret al-Saftawy, he said. He and his household were forced to flee, heading west, though he said some families refused to leave and remained in the area under siege. 

“The Occupation’s vehicles are extremely close to this area and haven’t stopped bombing buildings for days,” Tafesh said. “If those people don’t leave soon, their lives are in grave danger.”

Quadcopter drones are also swarming the Abu Eskandar area, another step south of Saftawy, where heavy artillery shelling continues to pummel the neighborhood, as Israeli forces press in from both Saftawy to the north and the Nafaq area in the east. Many families in Abu Eskandar continue to refuse evacuation, eyewitnesses said.

On the southeastern front, the invading forces have reached central Sabra, with intense fire targeting areas around the Bilal ibn Rabah Mosque, including the Thalathiny area near the power company and the Abu Aida roundabout. Robotic explosives were also detonated within Zeitoun and on the edges of Sabra, accompanied by heavy gunfire.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared earlier this month that the military would turn its efforts to taking Gaza City in its entirety, claiming in a televised speech that the city was still under Hamas control, along with the populous camps in central Gaza and the southern coastal area of Mawasi. 

Military figures spent the ensuing weeks preparing operational plans said to rest upon the forcible displacement of most people from Gaza City and their relocation to southern areas of the strip. Medics in northern Gaza hospitals have already been told to prepare plans for the transfer of their equipment to resume care in the south.

In parallel, Israel launched initial attacks on Zeitoun, to the city’s southeast, and Jabalia to its northeast, conducting heavy aerial bombardment alongside ground operations and wide-reaching demolitions. The operations have already displaced around 50,000 people, according to the Global Camp Coordination and Camp Management Cluster.

But other areas of the strip are crowded and lack the infrastructure to support large numbers of people after nearly two years of non-stop war. Some of those who have sought refuge outside of the city have returned to their homes and tents, having found nowhere else in the strip to shelter. 

Those taking shelter in the city, including the hundreds of thousands crowded into western and central areas, are now in direct danger with the metropole’s entirety designated “a dangerous combat zone” as per the Israeli military notice published earlier Friday. 

The reclassification reneges on the occupying force’s commitment to uphold a daily 10-hour halt to hostilities — a measure intended to facilitate safe passage for humanitarian supplies to reach communities threatened by starvation.

Netanyahu also announced on Friday morning that the military had retrieved the body of Ilan Weiss, an Israeli national who was captured by Hamas on October 7, 2023 and who died in the group’s custody. The Israeli military retrieved another body that has yet to be identified. 

Thanking the military, Netanyahu described their campaign as one “intended to bring all of our hostages back home, the living and the deceased.” Around 50 Israeli nationals, 20 of whom are believed to be dead, remain in Gaza out of an initial 251. 

Despite pressure from groups within Israel for a negotiated prisoner exchange, Netanyahu has prioritized the military’s invasion to “defeat Hamas.”