Israel begins ground offensive in Gaza City

by · UPI

Sept. 16 (UPI) -- Israel began its ground offensive in Gaza City, the Israeli Defense Forces have confirmed.

An IDF official said forces have advanced from the outskirts of town toward the center of the city, The Guardian reported.

"Last night we began deepening our operations deeper into Gaza City," the IDF official told The Guardian. "It's a gradual thing. It is not a black or white thing. But yesterday was a big step forward ... in operations on the ground."

The person added that IDF troops were expecting to meet significant resistance from up to 3,000 Hamas and its allied fighters in Gaza City.

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Ghazi al-Aloul, a displaced resident from northern Gaza, told the BBC he is sleeping at the entrance of al-Quds Hospital in Tel al-Hawa.

"I did not choose this," he said. "I was forced after leaving the home where my family and I had been sheltering for nearly a month after fleeing the north."

"The bombardment has been insane for hours," he said. "And the army is threatening to demolish several residential buildings in the area."

On Tuesday, the health ministry in Gaza reported that 59 people had been killed and 386 wounded in the past 24 hours. This brings the death toll of Palestinians to almost 65,000. The actual number is expected to be significantly higher.

This morning a United Nations probe by independent rights investigators said Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinian people in Gaza. The Human Rights Council found that it has "reasonable grounds" to conclude that Israeli authorities and government have committed four of the five punishable acts of genocide under the Genocide Convention amid its nearly two-year war against Hamas.

In a statement on Tuesday, Israel's Foreign Ministry called it a "fake report" written by "Hamas proxies."

"Israel categorically rejects this distorted and false report and calls for the immediate abolition of this Commission of Inquiry," it said.

The ministry accused the commission of relying upon "Hamas falsehoods" that have "already been thoroughly debunked."

"Gaza is burning. 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. We will not relent and we will not go back -- until the completion of the mission," Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said on X.

Katz also posted several videos of high-rise buildings collapsing.

"The terror tower in Rimal al-Afari crashes into the sea of Gaza. Drowning the centers of terror and incitement," Katz wrote.

The cost of displacement for Palestinians fleeing the city has surged far beyond what most people can pay. Residents told the BBC that renting a small truck now costs around $860, while a tent for five people sells for about $1,147. Most families have had no income since the war started, so many had to walk for miles or stay and face the danger.

According to United Nations data, 140,000 people have fled Gaza City over the past month. Tess Ingram, a spokesperson for UNICEF, said there was no safe place for the displaced population.

"It is inhumane to expect nearly half a million children, battered and traumatized by over 700 days of unrelenting conflict, to flee one hellscape and end up in another," Ingram said from al-Mawasi, a tented camp on the southern coast of Gaza Strip. "People really do have no good option -- stay in danger or flee to a place that they also know is dangerous," Ingram said.

Lina al-Maghrebi, 32, a mother of three from Gaza City's Sheikh Radwan neighborhood, told the BBC she had resisted leaving her home until she got a phone call from an Israeli officer ordering her to evacuate.

"I was forced to sell my jewelry to cover the cost of displacement and a tent," she said. "It took us 10 hours to reach Khan Younis, and we paid [$1,004] for the ride. The line of cars and trucks seemed endless."

Palestinians flee south from Gaza City

Palestinians flee south from Gaza City amid intensified Israeli shelling during a military operation in central Gaza on September 16, 2025. Photo by Hassan Al-Jadi/UPI | License Photo