The Israeli military said in a statement that one of its divisions "has begun expanding its operations in and around Gaza City," while "another division is continuing its operations and has deepened its activity in the area." It also claimed to have assassinated Hamas leader Wassim Mahmoud Yousef Abu al-Khair, deputy head of military intelligence in the Bureij Battalion in the central Gaza Strip.
Meanwhile, the Israeli occupation army said its forces were continuing their operations in the cities of Khan Yunis and Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip.
On August 11, the Israeli occupation army launched an attack on Gaza City, starting from the Zeitoun neighborhood (southeast), in an operation later dubbed "Gideon Vehicles 2." The operation included the demolition of homes using booby-trapped robots, artillery shelling, indiscriminate gunfire, and forced displacement.
In this context, the occupation army announced the closure of Salah al-Din Street, which connects the northern and southern Gaza Strip, after having temporarily opened it last Wednesday to expedite the exodus of Palestinians southward. The army stated that movement from the north was now possible only via the coastal Rashid Street, despite warnings from eyewitnesses of the dangerous security situation on both roads.
For weeks, the Israeli occupation army has been intensifying its bombing of residential towers and buildings in Gaza City, as part of a policy aimed at forcing Palestinians to flee south. On Tuesday, the Israeli army said it had launched a "large-scale ground operation" across Gaza City, with the participation of regular and reserve forces from the 98th, 162nd, and 36th divisions, as part of Operation "Gideon Armored Vehicles 2."
During Operation "Gideon Armored Vehicles 1," which ran from May 16 to August 6, the occupation forces were stationed inside the northern Gaza Strip governorate and on the northern outskirts of Gaza City, in addition to the city's eastern neighborhoods (Shuja'iyya, Tuffah, and Zeitoun).
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For its part, the Hebrew newspaper Haaretz revealed that Netanyahu ordered the occupation army to "eradicate Gaza City completely," considering his promises to eliminate Hamas "empty," and that the government seeks to turn Gaza into "real estate booty" according to plans promoted by National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich.
The newspaper stated that "hundreds of soldiers and tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians were killed to build housing for police officers," noting that Smotrich announced that negotiations regarding his plan were underway with the administration of US President Donald Trump, while Netanyahu expressed no reservations about it.
She added that there is "a gap between official statements about destroying Hamas and recovering the hostages, and the colonial economic ambitions being discussed behind the scenes by government members," emphasizing that Gaza is a Palestinian territory inhabited by more than two million people, most of whom are 1948 refugees, and that "any talk of systematically occupying and cleansing it is criminal."
The Hebrew newspaper accused Netanyahu of attempting to "wipe out entire cities and villages from the face of the earth," and called for an end to the war, warning that its continuation "will yield no gains, but rather horrific crimes and disasters."
On August 8, the Israeli government approved a plan proposed by Netanyahu to gradually reoccupy the entire Gaza Strip, starting with Gaza City, home to approximately one million Palestinians.
Since October 7, 2023, Israel has been committing genocide in the Gaza Strip with American support, resulting in the deaths of 65,141 Palestinians and the injury of 165,925 others, most of them children and women. Hundreds of thousands have been displaced and famine has claimed the lives of 435 Palestinians, including 147 children.
