The Israeli military on Saturday issued evacuation orders for two buildings in Gaza City and urged Palestinian civilians to move to the south of the territory, where it said it could provide support, as aid organizations warned that such an exodus could worsen the humanitarian crisis.
The military warned that it planned to strike two high-rise buildings in Gaza City and ordered people inside them and in nearby tents to leave. A short time later, it said it had attacked one of the towers. A military spokesman said the buildings would be targeted because of Hamas activity inside or near them. Hamas had yet to comment on that accusation.
The call came a day after the military destroyed a high-rise tower in Gaza City, also saying that Hamas has operated from it. Hamas denied the accusation.
On Saturday, the military also said it was designating a humanitarian area in Al-Mawasi and Khan Younis, in the south of Gaza. The military said it would work to provide “field hospitals, water pipelines, and desalination facilities, along with the continued supply of food, tents, medicines, and medical equipment.”
In a statement, COGAT, the Israeli military agency that manages humanitarian affairs in Gaza, said the facilities were currently operational.
That statement could not be independently verified. Both Al-Mawasi and Khan Younis have been heavily damaged during the war, and it was not clear what humanitarian assistance was available.
The war was ignited by the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel, in which roughly 1,200 people were killed and 250 more taken hostage. Since then, the Israeli military response has killed more than 60,000 Palestinians, according to the local health ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants. More than half of those killed have been women, children and the older adults, according to local health officials.
The war has destroyed most of Gaza’s infrastructure and parts of the territory are suffering from famine, according to a U.N.-backed group of food experts.
Last month, Israel announced that it planned to take control of Gaza City, which Israeli officials have portrayed as one of Hamas’s last strongholds in Gaza. On Thursday, the military said it was in control of almost half of the city.
But Gaza City is also home to hundreds of thousands of people who have sought shelter in ruined buildings and tent encampments.
Many of those people have been displaced multiple times by Israeli military operations, crisscrossing Gaza as they have fled offensive after offensive.
Israel has directed Gazans to humanitarian zones multiple times during the war, but has sometimes continued to strike those areas. In Sept. 2024, an Israeli military strike in Al-Mawasi killed at least 19 people. It also struck Al-Mawasi two months before that attack.
In both strikes, the military said the targets were Hamas fighters.
Israel has been preparing to take over Gaza City for weeks. But humanitarian groups have warned that forcing such a large number of people to flee, especially at this stage of the war, would exacerbate a dire humanitarian crisis.
Mirjana Spoljaric, the president of the International Committee of the Red Cross, said in a statement in August that no part of Gaza could absorb a huge influx of people, given the destruction to civilian infrastructure and lack of food, shelter and medical care.
“It is impossible that a mass evacuation of Gaza City could ever be done in a way that is safe and dignified under the current conditions,” she said.
Abu Bakr Bashir and Aaron Boxerman contributed reporting
Liam Stack is a Times reporter who covers the culture and politics of the New York City region.
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