Israel launches huge ground assault on Gaza City

Israel has launched the main stage of its long-awaited ground offensive on Gaza City, declaring "Gaza is burning" as Palestinians in the area described the most intense bombardment they had experienced in two years of war.

It comes on the day that an independent UN commission concluded that Israel has committed and continues to commit genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.

Gaza health officials reported at least 40 people killed, most of them in Gaza City, in the early hours of the assault, as air strikes swept across the city and tank incursions were reported by residents in several areas.

Israel renewed its calls on civilians to leave, and long columns of Palestinians were streaming towards the south and west in donkey carts, rickshaws, heavily laden vehicles or on foot.

"They are destroying residential towers, the pillars of the city, mosques, schools and roads," Abu Tamer, a 70-year-old man who was making the gruelling journey south with his family, told Reuters in a text message.

"They are wiping out our memories."

An official of the UN children's agency said it was "inhumane" to expect hundreds of thousands of children to leave Gaza City as camps further south were unsafe, overcrowded and ill-equipped to receive them.

So far, more than 140,000 Palestinians have already fled south from Gaza City since 14 August, UN data shows, of a population of around 1 million people.

"It is inhumane to expect nearly half a million children, battered and traumatised by over 700 days of unrelenting conflict, to flee one hellscape and end up in another," TessIngram, a UNICEF spokesperson, told reporters by video link from the sprawling tent camp of Mawasi, Gaza.

Conditions there are so desperate that some people who fled Israel's new offensive on famine-struck Gaza City in recent days are heading back towards the falling bombs, they told Reuters.

"People really do have no good option - stay in danger or flee to a place that they also know is dangerous," she said, adding that some children had been killed at the Mawasi camp while collecting water.

Ingram described seeing large numbers of people fleeing down the main road out of Gaza City this week. One mother, Israa, made the journey on foot accompanied by her five hungry, thirsty children including two with no shoes, said Ingram, who met them.

"They were walking into the unknown - no clear destination or plan - with little hope of finding solace," she said.

Hours before the escalation, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio offered apparent backing for the Israeli government's decision to abandon ceasefire talks and use force to smash Hamas.

While the United States wished to see a diplomatic end to the war, "we have to be prepared for the possibility that's not going to happen", Mr Rubio told a Jerusalem press conference alongside Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday.

He endorsed Israel's demand that Hamas disarm, disband and free all remaining hostages at once as the only way to end the war.

Hamas says it would free all hostages as part of a permanent ceasefire that would see Israeli forces pull out of Gaza, but has vowed not to disarm until a Palestinian state is established, a goal Israel is determined to thwart.

Today, an Israel Defence Forces official said ground troops were moving deeper into the city, towards its centre, and that the number of soldiers would rise in coming days. The IDF said it was confronting up to 3,000 Hamas combatants it believed are still in the city.

"Gaza is burning," Defence Minister Israel Katz posted on X. "The IDF strikes with an iron fist at the terrorist infrastructure and IDF soldiers are fighting bravely to create the conditions for the release of the hostages and the defeat of Hamas."

'Like escaping from death towards death'

The area of Tel Al-Hawa, in the southwest of the city, was being pounded by strikes from air, ground and sea, according to witnesses reached by Reuters via text message.

They said the IDF was using robots loaded with explosives, and that powerful blasts were sending debris and shrapnel hundreds of metres from impact sites.

Despite the intensity of the bombardment, some residents were staying put, either for lack of money to secure a tent and transport, or because they believed there was nowhere safe to go.

"It is like escaping from death towards death, so we are not leaving," said Um Mohammad, a woman living in the suburb of Sabra, which has been under aerial and ground fire for days and where tanks have made incursions.

Both Hamas and the IDF estimate around 350,000 people have fled Gaza City so far, with close to twice as many still left behind.

Some Israeli military commanders have expressed concern about the assault on Gaza City, warning that it could endanger the remaining hostages held by Hamas, and may be a "death trap" for troops.

Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir, at a meeting the Israeli Prime Minister convened late on Sunday with security chiefs, urged Benjamin Netanyahu to pursue a ceasefire deal, according to three Israeli officials, two of whom were in the meeting and one of whom was briefed on its details.

Hostage families gathered outside Mr Netanyahu's home in Jerusalem late yesterday as news of the intensified strikes in Gaza streamed in.

"Our loved ones in Gaza are being bombarded by the IDF under the orders of the prime minister," said Anat Angrest, whose son Matan is among the 20 hostages believed to still be alive.

Hamas attacked Israel in October 2023, killing about 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages, Israeli tallies show. Israeli authorities say 20 of the remaining 48 hostages in Gaza are alive.

Israel's military assault against Hamas has killed over 64,000 Palestinians, Gaza's health ministry says.