In a videotaped address, Netanyahu vowed further demolition and displacement plans, saying, "This is just a prelude to the main operation." He added, "I promised you a few days ago that we would demolish the terrorist towers in Gaza, and that is exactly what we are doing. In the past two days, 50 such towers have fallen, brought down by the air force."
Netanyahu continued threateningly: "All of this is just a prelude, just a prelude, to the main, powerful operation, a ground maneuver by our forces that are now being organized and assembled in Gaza City," vowing to proceed with the forced displacement plans, saying: "I say to the residents of Gaza: Seize this opportunity, and listen carefully: You have been warned, get out of there."
A few days ago, the Israeli occupation army began a gradual demolition campaign of high-rise residential buildings in Gaza City, increasing the number of displaced families and forcing them into harsh displacement conditions. Observers warn that the goal is to forcibly displace Palestinians southward, as part of a broader Israeli-American plan to displace them from the Strip.
Earlier on Monday, the Israeli military destroyed the Vision Tower, a multi-story building housing hundreds of Palestinians in western Gaza City, shortly after warning its residents and the displaced in the vicinity to evacuate.
Hours later, Israeli warplanes destroyed the "Peace Tower" on Omar al-Mukhtar Street in central Gaza City with three missiles, after warning Palestinians to evacuate the building. The building's surroundings were home to dozens of tents and large camps housing hundreds of displaced people.
Eyewitnesses reported that Palestinians in the high-rise residential building rushed to evacuate, fearing the bombardment, leaving behind their belongings, while some preferred to throw them from the top.
Also on Monday, Israeli Defense Minister Yisrael Katz threatened to bomb more high-rise residential buildings in Gaza City, destroying the Strip and Hamas, unless prisoners are released and weapons are laid down.
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For its part, Hamas said Monday evening that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's boasting about destroying dozens of high-rise residential buildings in Gaza City was "one of the most heinous images of sadism and criminality," amid the "silence and impotence of the United Nations."
This came in a statement the movement published on Telegram following Netanyahu's video address, stressing that Netanyahu has continued to commit his brutal crimes against civilians for nearly two years, in full view of the entire world.
She explained that "the terrorist Netanyahu's address to the people of Gaza City, saying, 'We warned you, so get out of there,' is a public practice of a fully-fledged crime of forced displacement, carried out under the pressure of bombing, massacres, starvation, and death threats, which represents an unprecedented and blatant challenge to international laws and conventions."
The movement considered that "the silence and inability of United Nations institutions, especially the UN Security Council, in the face of these brutal crimes, blatantly expresses the double standards that have come to govern them, due to the complicit US administration, which portends a comprehensive collapse of the existing system of international values and principles."
Hamas praised the international popular movement rejecting this silence and the growing global rejection of the war of extermination in the Gaza Strip, calling on "all countries and free people of the world to escalate measures against the fascist occupation entity and force it to halt its crimes and violations against our Palestinian people."
Tel Aviv estimates there are 48 Israeli prisoners in Gaza, 20 of whom are still alive. More than 11,100 Palestinians are languishing in its prisons, suffering from torture, starvation, and medical neglect, many of whom have been killed, according to Palestinian and Israeli human rights and media reports.
With American support, Israel has been committing genocide in Gaza since October 7, 2023, leaving 64,522 Palestinians martyred and 163,096 wounded, most of them children and women, hundreds of thousands displaced, and a famine that has killed 393 Palestinians, including 140 children.
