Israeli forces enter crowded Sheikh Radwan area

3/9/2025 17:42

The Israeli military moved

deeper into Gaza City on Wednesday, with soldiers and tanks

pushing into Sheikh Radwan, one of the urban centre's largest

and most crowded neighbourhoods.



In recent weeks, Israeli forces have advanced through Gaza

City's outer suburbs and are now just a few kilometres from the

city centre despite international calls to halt the offensive.



Gaza City residents said the military had destroyed homes

and tent encampments that had housed Palestinians displaced by

nearly two years of war. At least 24 Palestinians, some of them

children, were killed by the military across Gaza on Wednesday,

most of them in Gaza City, according to local health officials.



"Sheikh Radwan is being burnt upside-down. The occupation

destroyed houses, burnt tents, and drones played audio messages

ordering people to leave the area," said Zakeya Sami, 60, a

mother of five, referring to the Israeli military.



"If the takeover of Gaza City isn’t stopped, we might die,

and we are not going to forgive anyone who stands and watches

without doing anything to prevent our death," she told Reuters.



The military dropped grenades on three schools in the Sheikh

Radwan area that had been used to shelter displaced

Palestinians, setting tents ablaze, according to residents, who

said the Palestinians fled before the bombing.



The military also detonated armoured vehicles laden with

explosives to destroy homes in Sheikh Radwan's east and bombed a

medical clinic, destroying two ambulances, according to

witnesses.



The Israeli military said in a statement on Wednesday it

would continue to operate against "terrorists organizations" in

Gaza and to "remove any threat" posed to the State of Israel.



Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered the military

to take the city, which he describes as the last stronghold of

Hamas, whose October 2023 attack on Israel ignited the war.



Netanyahu insists that Hamas, which has ruled Gaza for

nearly two decades but now only controls parts of the territory,

must be defeated if it will not lay down its arms and surrender.



Israel's military has urged the country's political

leadership to instead reach a ceasefire agreement, warning that

the assault would endanger hostages held in Gaza and soldiers

carrying out the offensive, Israeli officials previously said.



In Israel, public sentiment is largely in favour of ending

the war in a deal that would see the release of the remaining

hostages. In Jerusalem on Wednesday, protesters climbed the roof

of Israel's national library, displaying a banner that read 'You

have abandoned and also killed'.







MASS DISPLACEMENT



"We need our soldiers back home. We need our hostages back

home now. It's been too long for them to stay there. Stop the

war now," said Ravid Vexelbaum, 50, from Tel Aviv.



Tens of thousands of reservists reported for duty on Tuesday

to support the offensive, forces that a military official told

reporters last month were mostly expected to take on non-combat

roles, such as in intelligence, or take over from combat

soldiers in places like the West Bank who could then be deployed

to Gaza.



The attack on Gaza City threatens to displace one million

Palestinians, almost half the population of Gaza. The Israeli

military in recent weeks has ordered the civilian population to

leave their homes, although there are reports that many families

who have already been displaced are refusing.



Over 63,000 Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli

military since the war started in October 2023, according to

local health officials. The war has caused a humanitarian crisis

across the territory, with health officials in Gaza reporting

that 367 people, including 131 children, have so far died of

malnutrition and starvation caused by acute food shortages.



Israeli officials acknowledge there is hunger in parts of

Gaza but reject assertions of famine or starvation.



The war in Gaza began on October 7, 2023, when gunmen led by

Hamas attacked southern Israeli communities near the border,

killing some 1,200 people, and taking 251 hostages, including

children, into Gaza. There are 48 hostages still held in Gaza,

of which 20 are thought to be alive.



Hamas has offered to release some hostages, living and

deceased, in exchange for a temporary ceasefire that Israel has

yet to formally respond to. Hamas has also offered to release

all hostages in exchange for an immediate end to the war and

withdrawal by Israeli officials but has refused to lay down its

arms.