The bombardment came as ground assault expanded into Gaza City, following a bloody day in which Israeli forces killed more than 108 Palestinians across the famine-hit strip.
Medical sources reported that seven people, including three members of the same family, were killed when Israeli strikes targeted tents sheltering displaced people in Al-Mawasi, west of Khan Younis in southern Gaza.
In another attack, a man, his pregnant wife, and their daughter were killed when Israeli forces bombed a home in Al-Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza.
Two others were also killed and several injured in a strike on an apartment in the Tel al-Hawa neighborhood, south of Gaza City.
In Sheikh Radwan, northwest Gaza City, several people were killed and wounded when Israeli strikes hit the Ajjour building.
In Rafah, two Palestinians were killed and more than 50 others wounded when Israeli fire struck a crowd waiting for aid near a distribution center north of the city.
Medical authorities said that on Tuesday alone, 108 Palestinians were killed across Gaza—93 in the north, nine in central areas, and six in the south.
Israeli airstrikes were accompanied by artillery fire across several areas of Gaza City, along with armoured vehicles detonating explosives in northern neighbourhoods as part of the military’s campaign to demolish residential buildings and infrastructure, forcing residents to flee.
Israeli Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir announced Tuesday that the army is “deepening the operation into the heart of Gaza City,” weeks after launching the offensive dubbed “Gideon Chariots 2”—aimed at overrunning and occupying the city. Entire residential blocks have since been destroyed, with high-rises and multi-story buildings systematically targeted.
Cries beneath the rubble
Ahmed Ghazal, a 25-year-old resident of Gaza City living near Al-Shawa Square, described the situation as “relentless.”
“There is extremely heavy shelling on Gaza City that has not stopped, and the danger keeps growing,” Ghazal told AFP. “At dawn on Tuesday, I heard explosions that shook the ground terrifyingly. The Israeli army targeted a residential block housing many families, destroying three homes completely.”
He added that “most of the houses destroyed so far were inhabited, and many civilians remain under the rubble, crying out”.
Another resident, Abu Abd Zaqout, recounted, “We pulled out children after they had been torn to pieces.”
Meanwhile, Gaza Civil Defense spokesperson Mahmoud Basal said, “The bombardment on Gaza City continues heavily, and the numbers of dead and injured are rising.”
The United Nations recently estimated that about one million people remain in Gaza City and its surrounding areas, while Israeli figures put the number of those displaced at roughly 350,000.
On Tuesday, thousands more fled the city under Israeli fire, heading south despite the absence of safe zones, according to media reports. Yet thousands of others continue to stay behind in Gaza, unwilling to leave for what they describe as an uncertain fate.
It is a genocide
The UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry (COI) on Tuesday announced that Israel is committing "genocide" in Gaza in a bid to "destroy the Palestinians" there, and blamed Israel's prime minister and other top officials for incitement.
The commission found that "genocide is occurring in Gaza and is continuing to occur," commission chief Navi Pillay told AFP.
"The responsibility lies with the State of Israel."
The commission, tasked with investigating the rights situation in the occupied Palestinian territories, published its latest report nearly two years after the start of the Israeli war on Gaza in October 2023.
Israel has killed nearly 65,000 people and wounded more than 160,000 others, mostly women and children, and destroyed most infrastructure in the strip since the start of the war.
In August, the United Nations declared that famine in Gaza, the first ever in the Middle East, amid a total Israeli blockade on the entry of humanitarian aid to 2.3 million Palestinians into the strip.
More than 450 Palestinians have died of starvation and acute malnutrition due to the Israeli blockade in the past six months.
The COI concluded that Israeli authorities and forces had, since October 2023, committed "four of the five genocidal acts" listed in the 1948 Genocide Convention.
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