‘The military is closing in on Gaza City from all directions’: Israeli forces launch sudden operation on Jabalia

The Israeli military launched on Tuesday night a sudden operation in Jabalia, to the north of Gaza City.

“The situation is extremely dangerous. The military is closing in on Gaza City from all directions. With this assault on Jabalia in the north, alongside the intensified strikes in the southeast, Israel is tightening its grip, preparing to push further into the city’s center and west to seize full control,” Gaza’s Civil Defense spokesperson Mahmoud Basal told Mada Masr.

Israeli forces launched an assault on the Zeitoun neighborhood of southeast Gaza City on August 11 and conducted a sudden incursion further west into the Sabra neighborhood on Monday, as officials repeatedly broadcast plans to invade and control the metropole home to around 1 million people.

Many civilians had remained in Jabalia despite Israeli forces' invasion of the north at the end of last year, Basal said. The area includes the Jabalia camp, Jabalia al-Balad and Jabalia al-Nazla, and constitutes the last area still standing in northern Gaza.

Witnesses described Israeli troops advancing with tanks and armored vehicles, reentering the area on Tuesday amid heavy shelling and clashes.

In Jabalia al-Balad, eyewitness Mohamed Taleb told Mada Masr that relentless bombardment started targeting the town Tuesday night. Tanks pushed as far as central Jabalia al-Balad, while aircraft dropped leaflets ordering residents to evacuate southward. He said this was a sign of an imminent escalation.

“We barely survived a very difficult night,” Taleb said. “The terrifying explosions didn’t stop all night. The eastern neighborhoods have been almost completely destroyed. It seems the Israeli military intends to destroy the whole of Jabalia.”

Taleb managed to flee south to Gaza City with his family, but many others remain trapped.

In Jabalia camp, witness Moatassem Badr said tanks could be heard moving throughout the night, until they reached the camp’s eastern edge, where they opened artillery fire on civilian homes.

“There is real terror around,” he said. “The military is besieging the area from three sides, bombarding it heavily to force people to evacuate.” Many have been killed, according to Badr, but rescue crews cannot reach them.

Ambulances and civil defense vehicles were targeted deliberately, Basal told Mada Masr. In Jabalia al-Nazla, civil defense teams managed to recover five bodies and several wounded, but many more victims of both artillery shelling and aerial bombardment remain unreachable, he said.

An assault on the area risks leaving it in ruins, as has already happened across the rest of the North Gaza Governorate.

Israel’s Channel 14 reported that the Givati Brigade has begun a ground operation in Jabalia, deploying several battalions. The channel said the operation aims to replicate the “Beit Hanoun model” — razing neighborhoods both above and below ground. The offensive could last several weeks, according to the channel.

For the ninth consecutive day, Israeli forces continued their push into the Zeitoun and Sabra neighborhoods in southeast Gaza City, amid relentless bombardment and renewed evacuation orders.

The areas had come under an intense wave of artillery fire that lasted from Monday night until the early hours of Tuesday. Israeli tanks and armored vehicles staged a sudden incursion deep into Sabra on Monday.

Witnesses described it as a response to an ambush that had targeted an Israeli special forces unit. The ambush triggered heavy clashes near the Sabra United Nations Refugees and Works Agency-affiliated clinic and close to the schools complex, spreading panic among residents.

Israeli forces then deployed tanks and armored vehicles to cover the unit’s withdrawal, advancing toward the vicinity of Sabra school and the area around Thamaniya Street. Quadcopter drones hovered overhead, firing heavily along Thalathiny Street and in the Maghrabi area of Sabra, while surveillance drones circled above schools sheltering displaced families in western Rimal and Sheikh Ejlin.

The advance forced dozens of families to flee in fear of escalating attacks, according to eyewitness Abd Abu Shamala, who told Mada Masr that the sounds of shelling and rounds of fire in Sabra have been continuous since Monday.

Although Israeli forces briefly pulled back, he said their vehicles advanced again overnight on Tuesday, taking positions on elevated ground overlooking the entire neighborhood and firing at any moving target.

Abu Shamala described widespread destruction in the neighborhood, with families trapped under heavy shelling and unable to evacuate. Several people were killed and injured, while bodies remain lying in the area, unreachable under the ongoing fire.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz approved the operational plan for the full invasion of Gaza City on Wednesday, mobilizing over 100,000 reservists. The operations are reportedly planned to take several weeks as Israeli forces seek to expel hundreds of thousands of  Palestinians from the city and toward southern Gaza.