Since Sunday morning, the Gaza Strip has witnessed a relentless barrage of destruction, with Israeli forces demolishing more than 50 buildings and partially damaging another 100, according to the Palestinian Civil Defense. Among the ruins are some of the city’s most prominent high-rises, once home to thousands of residents and now reduced to tangled piles of concrete and rebar. The devastation has not spared makeshift tent encampments, mosques, stadiums, or even schools, as the Israeli military intensifies its campaign to seize control of Gaza City—Gaza’s largest and most densely populated urban center.
The latest strikes come as part of what Israel’s Defence Minister described on Friday as a new phase of military activity, warning, “When the gate is opened, it will not be closed, and [Israeli military] activity will intensify” until Hamas accepts Israel’s conditions for ending the war—chief among them, the release of all hostages and the group’s disarmament. “We start,” he wrote on X after the Mushtaha Tower, a 12-storey residential building in the west of Gaza City, was leveled by Israeli fighter jets.
On Saturday, Israeli forces flattened the Soussi Tower, a 15-floor building near the UN headquarters in Tal al-Hawa. This landmark, one of the highest in Gaza City and a symbol of the city’s skyline, was also a sanctuary for dozens of displaced Palestinian families. Its destruction follows a pattern: the residential complex once comprised three towers—one destroyed in 2024, and the remaining two now brought down. The Israeli military claimed these buildings were being used by Hamas for intelligence gathering and had been rigged with explosives, but, as noted by the Quds News Network, offered no evidence to support these assertions.
Only a day later, on Sunday, September 7, Israeli forces targeted Al-Ruya Tower, a five-storey building housing 24 apartments, department stores, a clinic, and a gym. The attack came after an evacuation threat, forcing residents and displaced families—many already living in makeshift tents after previous strikes—to flee once more. Amjad Shawa, head of the Palestinian NGOs Network, told Al Jazeera, “Today, hundreds of families lost their shelters. Israel [is] aiming to force Palestinians to the southern areas using these explosions, but everyone knows that there is no safe place in the south or any humanitarian zone.”
The destruction of Al-Ruya Tower was accompanied by a surge of violence across the enclave. At least 65 people were killed on Sunday alone, including 49 in the northern part of Gaza, according to the Palestinian Civil Defence. The attack also followed previous strikes on the Al Jazeera Club in central Gaza City, where tents sheltering displaced families were hit, and on the al-Farabi school-turned-shelter, where at least eight Palestinians, including children, lost their lives. Sohaib Foda, who was sleeping in the al-Farabi School when it was bombed, recounted, “I heard a thud, and a block fell on my face. My cousin’s daughter, who was sleeping here, got injured and fell beside me. Another block then fell on her head. Everyone was screaming. I was scared. When I touched my face, it was covered in blood, and I realised I had been injured.”
Israeli military spokesman Avichay Adraee has claimed that several buildings in Gaza City are being used by Hamas for military purposes and will be targeted in the coming days. “Over the coming days, the [Israeli military] will attack several buildings that have been converted into terrorist infrastructure in preparation for expanding the operation into Gaza City: cameras, observation rooms, sniper and anti-tank missile launching positions, and command and control centres,” he said in a statement. He further alleged that Hamas has integrated intelligence gathering tools and weapons into these towers, with underground tunnels running close by to set up ambushes and provide escape routes.
However, these claims have been strongly rebutted by Palestinian officials and residents. The management of the Mushtaha Tower has denied any Hamas presence, stating the building was only accessible to displaced people. Gaza’s Government Media Office issued a statement rejecting Israeli allegations, saying, “We refute, in full and in detail, the lies and allegations propagated by the Israeli occupation to justify its barbaric aggression. We affirm unequivocally, based on the testimony of the residents of these towers, that they are under surveillance, and only civilians are permitted to enter them.” The office called Israel’s actions “part of a systematic policy of deception used by the occupation to justify the targeting of civilians and infrastructure” and labeled the destruction as “forced displacement,” which it said is illegal under international law.
As the Israeli military pushes deeper into Gaza City, its strategy has drawn international condemnation, including from the United Nations and various states. The reported plan involves forcing around one million residents southwards, surrounding the city, and then launching incursions into residential areas and refugee camps in central Gaza. Critics and legal experts argue that targeting high-rise buildings in such a densely populated area is a stark escalation of urban warfare that endangers the lives of hundreds of thousands of civilians. Gaza’s civil defence agency denounced the latest strikes, stating, “Entire families are thrown into the open without shelter with no safe spaces to go to,” and lamenting that the destruction robs Palestinians of their “right to survive and live with dignity.”
The humanitarian impact of the campaign is staggering. According to Gaza’s health authorities, at least 64,368 Palestinians have been killed and 162,776 wounded since October 2023. Thousands more remain buried under the rubble, and famine is spreading rapidly. The Palestinian Ministry of Health reported that at least five people, including three children, died of starvation in Gaza over the past day, bringing the total number of malnutrition deaths to 387—including 138 children—since the start of the war. Since the global hunger monitor IPC confirmed famine in northern Gaza on August 22, at least 109 hunger-related deaths have been recorded, 23 of them children.
Despite Israel’s claims of designating the al-Mawasi area in Khan Younis as a “humanitarian zone,” Gaza’s Ministry of Interior warned citizens not to trust these assurances, noting that the area has been repeatedly bombed. As Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud reported, “every five to 10 minutes, you can hear the sounds of explosions from all directions in Gaza City,” with homes, public facilities, schools, and mosques all coming under fire.
The psychological toll on survivors is immense. One family, left homeless after the Soussi Tower was destroyed, told Al Jazeera, “We have nothing left for us. We quickly left the building without bringing anything with us. The Israelis attacked the building half an hour later. Now, we are trying to stay away from the eyes of the other people by trying to sew some fabrics and sheets,” as they attempted to create a new shelter from whatever materials they could find.
Meanwhile, the broader conflict continues to draw in international actors. On Sunday, former U.S. President Donald Trump suggested he had put forward a new proposal to end the war, calling it a “final warning” for Hamas. The Palestinian group acknowledged receiving “ideas” from the US and expressed willingness to consider efforts for a lasting ceasefire.
With the destruction mounting and the civilian toll rising, the situation in Gaza City remains dire, marked by an unyielding cycle of bombardment, displacement, and loss. As one civil defense official asked, “How long will civilians remain without a safe place in this world?” For now, that question hangs unanswered amid the ruins.