Israel has completely destroyed more than 1,000 buildings in the Zeitoun and Sabra neighbourhoods of Gaza City since it started its invasion of the city on August 6, trapping hundreds under the rubble, the Palestinian Civil Defence says.
The agency said in a statement on Sunday that ongoing shelling and blocked access routes are preventing many rescue and aid operations in the area.
Emergency workers continue to receive numerous reports of missing people but are unable to respond, while hospitals are overwhelmed by the toll of the attacks, it added.
“There are grave concerns about the continued incursion of Israeli forces into Gaza City, at a time when field crews lack the capacity to deal with the intensity of the ongoing Israeli attacks,” the Civil Defence said.
“There is no safe area in the Gaza Strip, whether in the north or south, where shelling continues to target civilians in their homes, shelters, and even in their displacement camps.”
Israeli tanks have been rolling into the Sabra neighbourhood as Israel moves to fully occupy Gaza City, forcing close to 1 million Palestinians there southwards.
The Civil Defence’s assertion appears to confirm fears that Israel is planning to fully demolish Gaza City, as it did in Rafah, a campaign that rights advocates say could be aimed at removing all Palestinians from Gaza.
At least three people, including a child, were among the latest victims killed in an attack on a residential apartment on al-Jalaa Street in Gaza City, according to a source in the enclave’s emergency and ambulance department.
The area, where famine has been declared, has been under relentless Israeli bombardment over the last several weeks. Residents reported explosions echoing nonstop through the neighbourhoods, while several buildings were also blown up further north, in the ravaged Jabalia refugee camp.
At least 51 people were killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza on Sunday, including 27 in Gaza City and 24 aid seekers, medical sources told Al Jazeera.
Gaza’s Ministry of Health said eight more people died of Israeli-induced hunger as starvation in the enclave intensifies, raising deaths from malnutrition to 289 people, including 115 children, since the war began.
Israeli forces have been routinely opening fire on hungry Palestinians as they attempt to secure meagre aid parcels at the controversial, Israeli and US-backed GHF sites.
‘Impossible’ to stay alive
Commenting on the worsening humanitarian situation, Philippe Lazzarini, the head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), said that famine is the “last calamity” hitting Gaza, where people are experiencing “hell in all shapes”.
“‘Never Again’ has deliberately become ‘again’. This will haunt us. Denial is the most obscene expression of dehumanisation,” Lazzarini wrote on X.
He added that it was time for the Israeli government to allow aid organisations to provide assistance, and for foreign journalists to be allowed into the enclave.
Gaza’s Ministry of Interior warned against Israeli plans to forcibly displace residents from Gaza City and the northern governorates, urging people against leaving their homes despite heavy bombardment.
The ministry called on residents to remain in their communities, or if threatened, to move only to nearby areas rather than relocate to the south.
“We urge citizens and displaced persons residing in Gaza City not to respond to the occupation’s threats and terrorism, and to refuse to be displaced and move to the remaining areas of the central and Khan Younis governorates,” it said.
“There is no safe place in any of the governorates of the Gaza Strip, and the occupation commits the most heinous crimes daily, even bombing the tents of displaced persons in areas it falsely claims are humanitarian or safe.”
Al Jazeera’s Hind Khoudary, reporting from Deir el-Balah, said Palestinians are nonetheless fleeing areas in Gaza City “under intensive Israeli air strikes and also attacks by quadcopters”.
“We met a couple of these families, and they said that it was [nearly] impossible for them to stay alive as they were fleeing and quadcopters were opening fire on whatever was moving in that area,” Khoudary said.
“Some Palestinians made it safely and were able to flee, but others were trapped in those areas and are unable to leave,” she added.
Leading rights groups and UN experts have accused Israel of committing genocide in Gaza.