Israeli tanks have moved into multiple neighborhoods of Gaza City over the past 24 hours, with journalists working for CNN in the city reporting heavy shelling, explosions and the sound of gunfire.
Geolocated images on Tuesday show tanks now in the west of the territory’s largest city, in an area known as Beach Camp.
Tanks were also filmed south of the Islamic University on Monday, indicating that Israeli forces have pushed deep into Gaza City since beginning a ground assault on Sunday.
The Israeli military ordered the city’s residents and those displaced there to leave earlier this month. Around a million people were estimated to be in Gaza City at that time. The Israeli military told CNN Tuesday that 640,000 people have left the city since. It’s not possible to verify that estimate.
As they take control of more of Gaza City, Israeli units are remotely detonating armored vehicles packed with explosives to bring down buildings, according to videos and images geolocated by CNN. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) told CNN that, “Hamas converts such buildings into combat zones used for ambushes, command and control centers, weapon depots, fighting tunnels, observation posts,” and other uses.
The IDF said Tuesday that an officer was killed during fighting in Gaza City on Monday. He was named as Maj. Shahar Netanel Bozaglo, 27.
According to an initial IDF probe, Bozaglo was killed when a Hamas operative fired an RPG at one of his battalion’s tanks.
Residents and reporters witnessed a heavy drone presence in the skies above Gaza City as well as Israeli attack helicopters.
“Lately, every explosion has felt like an earthquake, not a metaphor, but a literal shaking of the ground beneath us,” Asem Alnabih, a spokesperson for Gaza Municipality, wrote on X on Tuesday.
The IDF’s push into one of Gaza’s most populated areas, which involves three armored divisions, has sparked widespread criticism at home and abroad.
Bodies of Palestinians are taken from Al-Shifa Hospital for funeral ceremonies on Tuesday. – Khames Alrefi/Anadolu/Getty Images
Inside Israel the families of the remaining hostages held in Gaza say the operation puts them in even greater danger. About 20 hostages are thought to be still alive. Many European governments, as well as Canada and Australia, have condemned the operation as worsening the humanitarian crisis in the battered enclave.
Despite the exodus, hundreds of thousands of people are still in Gaza City, unable or unwilling to move south as ordered by the Israeli military.
Abu Wissam – who has lost his home and his son, and is sleeping in the streets – told CNN: “If I had the money to evacuate and rent a place to stay… I would leave. But now there are gangs in the south charging people to sleep in the streets.”
“Whoever should die will die, here or in the south, our fate will come wherever we are,” he said in despair.
The few functioning medical facilities cannot cope with what the International Committee of the Red Cross described on Tuesday as the “astronomical levels of need” in Gaza City.
On Monday, two hospitals in Gaza City, Al-Rantisi Children’s Hospital and the Specialized Eye Hospital, shut down and evacuated their patients, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza.
Saya Aziz, a British-Australian doctor at Al-Shifa hospital, said she had nothing to treat the wounds of patients. Taking a crying baby in her arms, she told CNN: “Look at the dressing, look there’s nothing to clean them with… How is this baby surviving?”
Even if they were able to transfer patients out of Gaza City, Aziz added, “I’ve been down south, they have nothing, there’s nothing.”
Displaced people fleeing northern Gaza on September 23. – Mahmoud Issa/Reuters
Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP), an NGO working in Gaza, said on Tuesday that Al-Quds hospital had sustained damage as a result of the intense bombardment of the Tal Al-Hawa neighborhood. Video shot from the hospital Monday showed the surrounding streets completely empty.
The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said later on Tuesday that a key oxygen station at the Al-Quds Hospital was struck by Israeli gunfire and was rendered unusable. The PRCS, which runs the hospital, said the hospital now had to rely on pre-filled oxygen cylinders which will only last for three days.
The group said Israeli military vehicles were positioned at a gate of the hospital and were preventing anyone inside the compound from leaving. The IDF did not respond to CNN’s request for comment.
A healthcare center run by the Palestinian Medical Relief Society (PMRS) had also been destroyed, MAP said.
The Israeli cabinet originally set October 7 – the second anniversary of Hamas’ attacks on Israel – as the deadline for the evacuation of Gaza City and its takeover by the IDF . But former residents of the area say establishing full control will be difficult among the narrow streets of the city.
Israel’s move spurred several governments to push ahead with recognizing a Palestinian state. In recent days, France, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada and Portugal have been among governments to take the step.
Israel has condemned recognition as a reward for terrorism. But French President Emmanuel Macron told a conference at the United Nations on Monday that the recognition of a Palestinian state is the “only solution that will allow for Israel to live in peace,” calling the move a “defeat for Hamas.”
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