The Israeli military announced on Friday that it would end its policy of pausing daytime operations in Gaza City, which was intended to ease the delivery of aid. It was the latest indication that the military was moving toward a full-scale invasion of the city.
In a statement, the military said the “local tactical pause in military activity” would not apply to Gaza City as of 10 a.m. on Friday, describing the area as a “dangerous combat zone.”
The Israeli military instituted pauses of operations between 10 a.m. and 8 p.m. in several parts of Gaza in late July after international outrage over the dire humanitarian situation. Last week, a panel of global food experts said Gaza City and its surrounding areas were suffering from famine.
Early this month, the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that the Israeli military would expand its nearly two-year campaign in Gaza by taking control of Gaza City.
The military has not yet issued a broad evacuation order for Gaza City, but its announcement on Friday was the latest in a series of moves in recent weeks signaling that it wants Palestinians in Gaza City to move southward.
The military has already carried out widespread destruction of a neighborhood in the southern part of Gaza City, Zeitoun, turning a large part of it into a barren wasteland, according to satellite images reviewed by The New York Times.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, or O.C.H.A., has acknowledged that the pauses have enabled some improvements to the delivery of aid. But U.N. officials have said many trucks carrying food and other supplies were being intercepted by hungry Palestinians and gunmen before reaching their destinations. The U.N. officials also said they were confronting limited routes into Gaza and long waits at Israeli checkpoints.
On Friday, O.C.H.A. said it was assessing the “potential impact” of the Israeli military’s announcement on civilians and humanitarian operations.
“We remain deeply concerned by the intensified offensive in Gaza city, which will drive further mass displacement,” the agency said in response to an inquiry.
Indications that the Israeli military was building up to its invasion of Gaza City have been mounting in recent weeks.
In early August, an Israeli military official contacted Dr. Mohammed Abu Salmiya, the director of Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, telling him to prepare a plan for transferring medical equipment to towns south of the city.
On Wednesday, Avichay Adraee, an Arabic-language spokesman for the military, issued a statement claiming there were vast open spaces in central and southern Gaza where people in Gaza City could relocate. But Palestinians in central and southern Gaza have said there are few apartments for rent in those areas and expressed disbelief there was enough open space for hundreds of thousands of people to settle in tents.
The destruction in Zeitoun has also suggested that the military is moving toward a broader takeover of Gaza City.
A satellite image from Zeitoun on Aug. 8 showed scores of buildings intact and what appeared to be several tent encampments. A separate image of the same area from Aug. 25 showed many, if not most, of the buildings reduced to piles of rubble and the apparent encampments gone.
The Israeli military has said that its strikes in Gaza target militants and their weapon caches, and it has stressed that Hamas fighters have embedded themselves in civilian spaces.
The intensification of the war comes as talks for a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas and the release of hostages have faltered.
On Friday, Mr. Netanyahu said the body of an Israeli man who was killed during the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, was returned to Israeli territory. He said the body of the man, Ilan Weiss, had been moved to Gaza after he was killed while he went out to defend Kibbutz Be’eri in southern Israel.
Hamas has said it has accepted a new framework put forth by Arab mediators, which would begin with a temporary cease-fire and the exchange of some Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners. But Mr. Netanyahu has not supported that proposal, calling for negotiations for the release of all hostages and the end of the war “on conditions that are acceptable for Israel.”
Hamas has said it is willing to release all remaining hostages on the condition that Israel ends the war. But Hamas has not publicly accepted Mr. Netanyahu’s conditions for doing so, which include the group’s disarmament.
Adam Rasgon is a reporter for The Times in Jerusalem, covering Israeli and Palestinian affairs.
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