Israeli air strike hits Al-Roya residential tower, southwest of Gaza City. Photo circulated on X
In a statement, the Israeli military said it "struck a high-rise building… in the area of Gaza City", referring to Al-Roya Tower, and alleged it had been used by Hamas "to monitor the location of… troops in the area", AFP reported.
Israel has often issued similar statements before targeting hospitals, schools, shelters, and other civilian infrastructure, aiming to clear itself of responsibility for the casualties, and has rarely provided any evidence to back up its claims.
The strike came hours after Netanyahu told the Israeli cabinet that the military had intensified its assault on Gaza City. "We are deepening the manoeuvre on the outskirts of Gaza City and within Gaza City itself," Netanyahu said at the start of Sunday's cabinet meeting.
Witness Mohammed Al-Nazli told AFP that the bombing of the Al-Roya tower "felt like an earthquake" and that the building was "completely destroyed and turned to rubble."
Commenting on the army's levelling of high-rises over the past days, Nazli said it was "extremely terrifying, and we don't know how much more we can endure."
Earlier on Saturday, an Israeli strike flattened a high-rise in Gaza City. Witnesses identified the building as the Sussi residential tower and said it was destroyed in an Israeli airstrike, with video shared by Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz showing the roughly 15-storey structure buckling to the ground in a cloud of dust and smoke.
Israel has been warning for weeks of a new assault on the territory's largest urban centre, without issuing a timeline of its plans to occupy the city.
"We're continuing," Katz said in the post on X, after having shared a video the previous day of another Gaza City high-rise being destroyed.
The Israeli army has said it will continue targeting structures in the area, particularly tall buildings, in the coming days, without specifying when a ground invasion of Gaza City will begin, citing the need to "maintain the element of surprise".
Meanwhile, Israeli airstrikes and operations on the city’s outskirts have intensified despite widespread calls to abandon the plan, which would worsen the famine already triggered by Israel’s blockade of Gaza.
Israel’s nearly two-year genocidal war on Gaza has killed at least 64,400 Palestinians, mostly women and children, since it began in October 2023. Independent estimates place the death toll much higher, with more than 160,000 injured and at least 9,000 still buried beneath the rubble.
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