Media reports, citing Israeli officials, said on September 16 that Israel has launched a ground offensive in Gaza City.
On September 15, an Israeli airstrike hit Gaza City, resulting in significant destruction and loss of life. The attack, which targeted a densely populated area, has raised serious concerns about the ongoing humanitarian crisis in the region.
It is reported that after weeks of intense bombardments across the territory’s largest urban center saw entire apartment blocks reduced to rubble and forced many Palestinian people to flee despite there being nowhere safe to go.
Hundreds of thousands of residents reportedly remain in Gaza City, however, where a famine – caused by Israeli restrictions on aid – has already been declared.
CNN reports that the move escalates its war in defiance of international condemnation and backlash from the families of hostages held by Hamas.
Al Jazeera reported on September 16 that Gaza City residents say they are being subjected to “heavy, relentless” bombardment amid reports that Israel’s military has expanded its ground offensive. At least 52 people were reportedly killed by Israeli air strikes across Gaza since dawn.
The international community has expressed alarm over the escalation of violence in Gaza.
An independent United Nations inquiry, set up by the UN Human Rights Council, has concluded for the first time that Israel has committed genocide against Palestinians in Gaza and that the country’s leaders incited genocide.
The UN commission report found that Israel has “committed four genocidal acts” in the enclave since October 7, 2023, including the killing of Palestinians in Gaza, causing Palestinians “serious bodily and mental harm,” “imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group,” and deliberately inflicting “conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part.”
In response to the genocide conclusion, Amnesty International UK’s crisis response manager, Kristyan Benedict, has also urged the British government to take much stronger action against Israel.
