Israeli armored vehicles could be seen on nearly all sides of Gaza City in satellite imagery captured on Tuesday morning, after the military said it had launched a ground offensive into the city overnight.
The satellite imagery, a snapshot of forces at 9 a.m. local time, gives a sense of the scope of Israel’s ground operation. While military vehicles have taken up new positions on the outskirts of the city, they are not visible in the city’s center in the image.
For weeks, the Israeli military has been operating in neighborhoods on the outskirts of Gaza City. In August, the Israeli government approved a plan to take over the city center. By the end of last month, some of the areas on the outskirts had been razed, including much of the Zeitoun neighborhood.
In recent days, the Israeli military has taken up new positions near the city, including at moving into at least two new locations north of the metropolis on Tuesday, according to an analysis of satellite imagery from Planet Labs, a commercial satellite company.
Israeli military vehicles could also be seen entering Gaza along its northern border. Many vehicles were also positioned along Gaza’s eastern edge.
Nearly a million people were estimated to live in Gaza City this summer. Satellite images from earlier this month showed tents crowding nearly every spare piece of land. On Sept. 9, Israel ordered a total evacuation of the city.
Since then, the Israeli military said that at least 350,000 people have heeded the warning, and roads were clogged with families fleeing on Tuesday. Still hundreds of thousands appear to have decided to stay. Satellite images taken on Monday showed hundreds of tents were still pitched in central Gaza City, amid the rubble of high-rise buildings Israel has destroyed this month.
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