Individuals run for lives from air strikes and explosive-laden ‘robots’, as lifelines collapse in Gaza’s largest city centre.
The Israeli military is pushing in the direction of the centre of Gaza Metropolis from two instructions, “sandwiching” residents and forcing them in the direction of the coast in a bid to drive them out of the enclave’s largest city centre.
Israeli military spokesperson Nadav Shoshani advised the Reuters information company on Thursday that infantry, tanks and artillery had been advancing on the inside metropolis, backed by the air drive, with the goal of making use of strain on the armed group Hamas.
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Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud mentioned that the Israeli navy was advancing from the northwest and the southeast, “sandwiching folks within the center” and pushing them to the west of town, the place the al-Rashid coastal street main south is situated.
“The assaults on overcrowded neighbourhoods are inflicting panic and concern, and pushing folks actually to run for his or her lives. We’re seeing waves of individuals now doing simply that,” he mentioned, reporting from Nuseirat in central Gaza.
Individuals in Gaza Metropolis advised Al Jazeera about nonstop assaults, together with “aerial strikes by drones and fighter jets” and detonations from remote-controlled “robots” – unmanned autos full of explosives that the Israeli military has been deploying to explode neighbourhoods because it advances inwards.
At the least 40 folks had been killed in Gaza Metropolis on Thursday, medical sources advised Al Jazeera.
Lifelines collapse
Amid the apocalyptic scenes, fleeing households confronted the heartbreaking prospect of renewed displacement in a territory devoid of “protected zones”, solely this time with the very actual risk that they may by no means once more return residence.
Nonetheless, many have stayed put. The Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics claimed that roughly 740,000 folks – roughly 35 p.c of Gaza’s 2.1 million inhabitants – had been nonetheless within the north of the enclave as of Tuesday.
Nonetheless, the bureau signalled that numbers may drop, with the continual Israeli assaults driving extra folks out and fundamental companies disappearing.
The UN humanitarian workplace (OCHA) warned on Thursday that Gaza Metropolis’s final lifelines had been collapsing.
OCHA accused Israel of “systematically blocking” efforts to carry help to folks, citing the closure of the Zikim crossing to Gaza’s famine-stricken north and bans on sure meals gadgets.
‘Blatant disregard’
Exterior Gaza Metropolis, at the very least 10 Palestinians had been killed by Israeli hearth in different components of the enclave, in response to medical sources.
The Israeli navy reported that 4 of its troopers had been killed within the early hours of the morning within the southern Gaza metropolis of Rafah.
The Workplace of the United Nations Excessive Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in Palestine denounced on social media Israel’s “blatant disregard” for worldwide authorized necessities to tell apart between combatants and civilians in its air assaults on Gaza.
The Israeli strikes on internally displaced individuals, together with as they attempt to depart Gaza metropolis or search shelter close to hospitals, present the Israeli navy’s blatant disregard for the basic precept of distinction. Israel has demanded that Palestinian civilians depart Gaza…
— UN Human Rights Palestine (@OHCHR_Palestine) September 18, 2025
As Israel expanded its offensive on Thursday, the USA vetoed a UN Safety Council decision calling for a ceasefire in Gaza, the lifting of restrictions on help into Gaza, and the return of hostages held by Hamas.
The UK’s everlasting consultant to the UN, Barbara Woodward, mentioned that “Israel’s reckless enlargement of its navy operation takes us additional away from a deal which may carry the hostages residence and finish the struggling in Gaza.”
