In a dramatic escalation of the nearly two-year-old war, Israeli tanks rolled through Gaza City this week, marking the start of what Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called the final push to seize the territory’s largest urban center. The offensive, which began in earnest on September 16, 2025, has triggered mass displacement, drawn sharp international condemnation, and left families of Israeli hostages camped outside Netanyahu’s residence in protest, demanding urgent action as the conflict takes on what many describe as an existential dimension.
According to Reuters, the Israeli military warned on September 19 that it would operate with “unprecedented force” in Gaza City, urging remaining residents to flee southwards. The military’s Arabic-language spokesman, Colonel Avichay Adraee, announced the closure of the Salah al-Din Road—the main north-south artery through Gaza—leaving the Al-Rashid coastal road as the only escape route. “From this moment, Salah al-Din Road is closed for southbound travel,” Adraee posted on X, addressing Gaza City residents. He urged civilians to join the hundreds of thousands who had already moved south to the so-called humanitarian area of Al-Mawasi, where Israel claims aid and medical care are available, though repeated strikes have left many skeptical of its safety.
The humanitarian crisis has reached a breaking point. The United Nations declared a famine in the Gaza City area, as food, water, and medical supplies have become severely limited amid relentless airstrikes and shelling. Displaced Palestinians described harrowing journeys on foot, dragging carts with their few belongings, or waiting for days on the roadside in hopes of finding transport. "We walked more than 15km, we were crawling from exhaustion. My youngest son cried from fatigue. We took turns dragging a small cart with some of our belongings," Nivin Ahmed, a 50-year-old mother, told AFP after fleeing to Deir el-Balah with her family.
For many, the journey south is not even an option. Mona Abdel Karim, 36, said she had been sleeping with her family on Al-Rashid street for two nights, unable to secure transport. “I feel like I’m about to explode. We can’t walk on foot—my husband’s parents are elderly and sick, and the children are too weak to walk,” she said. Others, like Umm Mohammed Al-Hattab, 49, remain trapped in tents in western Gaza City after their homes were destroyed. “The bombing hasn’t stopped, and at any moment, we expect a missile to fall on us. My children are terrified, and I don’t know what to do,” she told AFP.
Israeli forces have pounded Gaza City with strikes and tank fire, dismantling more than 20 military infrastructure sites in the past day alone, according to the Israeli military. On September 19, Israeli fire killed at least 22 people across Gaza, including 11 in Gaza City, based on figures from Gaza hospitals compiled by AFP. The offensive, which Israel says targets Hamas and other militant groups, has devastated the city’s infrastructure. The Hamas-run Gaza media office reported that since August 10, Israeli forces have destroyed or damaged 1,600 residential buildings and 13,000 tents that once sheltered displaced people.
Despite the military’s push, many Palestinians are reluctant to leave their homes, fearing permanent displacement and uncertain of what awaits them in the south. “Even if we want to leave Gaza City, is there any guarantee we would be able to come back? Will the war ever end? That’s why I prefer to die here, in Sabra, my neighborhood,” Ahmed, a school teacher, told Reuters by phone. Leaflets dropped over the city urged residents to use the newly reopened Salah al-Din Road to escape by midday on September 19, but the chaos and danger on the ground have left many trapped.
As the tanks advanced from three directions—east, north, and the northwestern coastal areas—an Israeli official told Reuters that the operation to seize Gaza City could take months and might only be suspended if a ceasefire is reached. The official estimated that around 100,000 civilians would remain in the city, with the fighting expected to intensify over the next month or two. Yet, the prospects for a ceasefire appear remote. Israel recently attacked Hamas leaders in Doha, infuriating Qatar, a key mediator, and prompting U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio to remark that there was “a very short window of time” for a ceasefire, referring to Israel’s stated goal of crushing Hamas by force.
The scale of displacement is staggering. The Israeli military estimated on September 19 that 480,000 residents—nearly half of Gaza City’s pre-war population—had fled since late August. The United Nations put the city’s population at about a million people and warned that forcing them into overcrowded encampments in the south would worsen the unfolding hunger crisis. The Gaza media office reported that 190,000 people had moved south and 350,000 had relocated within the city’s central and western areas by mid-September.
The international response has been fierce. The European Union threatened sanctions against Israel on September 18, citing concerns over the offensive and the humanitarian catastrophe. Humanitarian groups and international organizations have intensified their criticism, with a coalition of more than 20 aid organizations—including Save the Children and the Norwegian Refugee Council—issuing a joint statement urging governments to take stronger action against what they described as “genocide” in Gaza. “This is not only a humanitarian disaster but what the UN Commission of Inquiry has concluded to be genocide,” the statement read. “World governments must take decisive political, economic, and legal action. Rhetoric is no longer sufficient.”
On September 16, a UN Commission of Inquiry concluded that Israel had committed genocide in Gaza, a finding Israel called “scandalous” and “fake.” The United States, Israel’s closest ally, vetoed a UN Security Council resolution calling for a ceasefire on September 18, further fueling global outrage. Qatar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned the ground offensive as an “extension of the genocide war” against Palestinians.
The roots of this war stretch back to October 7, 2023, when Hamas attacked Israel, killing about 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages, according to Israeli sources. In response, Israel launched a relentless military campaign that, as of September 2025, has killed more than 65,000 people in Gaza, the majority of them civilians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry figures cited by the UN.
Meanwhile, the families of Israeli hostages have taken their protest to Netanyahu’s doorstep, camping outside his residence and demanding action. Their presence is a stark reminder of the war’s deeply personal cost for Israelis, even as the conflict’s existential stakes are debated on the world stage.
As tanks edge forward and the humanitarian crisis deepens, Gaza City stands at a crossroads—its fate, and that of its people, hanging in the balance as global pressure mounts and the war’s toll grows ever more severe.
