{"id":74061,"date":"2025-09-19T20:58:11","date_gmt":"2025-09-19T20:58:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/74061\/"},"modified":"2025-09-19T20:58:11","modified_gmt":"2025-09-19T20:58:11","slug":"israeli-forces-advance-on-gaza-city-as-displaced-palestinians-panic-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/74061\/","title":{"rendered":"Israeli forces advance on Gaza City as displaced Palestinians panic \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Israel\u2019s <\/a>military said it had expanded operations in Gaza City<\/a> on Friday and bombarded Hamas infrastructure, while displaced Palestinians<\/a> traumatised by the advance said they had no means to flee.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe situation is really bad. All night long, the tank was firing shells,\u201d said Palestinian Toufic Abu Mouawad, who left a camp for the displaced with nowhere else to go.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to flee with the boys, the girls, the children. This is the situation that we are living in. It is a very tragic situation. We call on all the Arab countries and the people who have a good conscience to stand with us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Israeli forces control Gaza City\u2019s<\/a> eastern suburbs and in recent days have been pounding the Sheikh Radwan and Tel Al-Hawa areas, from where they would be positioned to advance on central and western areas, where most of the population is sheltering.<\/p>\n

Gaza\u2019s health authorities said 33 Palestinians had been killed in the last 24 hours.<\/p>\n

On Thursday, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it believed 350,000 people had left Gaza City since the start of September and that about 600,000 remained.<\/p>\n

Satellite imagery from September 18th shows new tents appearing in the areas south of Gaza City after September 5th. It also shows crowds of people on the Al Rashid road and what appear to be vehicles on the Salah al Din road.<\/p>\n

In leaflets dropped over Gaza City, the military had told Palestinians they could use the newly reopened Salah al Din road to escape to the south.<\/p>\n

The IDF said an air strike had killed Mahmoud Yusuf Abu Alkhir, whom it identified as deputy head of military intelligence in Hamas\u2019 Bureij Battalion. It said he had taken part in \u201cterrorist attacks against Israeli troops and the state\u201d.<\/p>\n

Hamas, the militant group administering Gaza, triggered the war when it attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people and taking 251 back to Gaza as hostages, according to Israeli figures.<\/p>\n

Families of the remaining 20 or so surviving hostages have been imploring Netanyahu to stop the offensive and instead negotiate a ceasefire with Hamas to free their loved ones.<\/p>\n

In almost two years of fighting, Israel\u2019s fierce offensive has killed more than 65,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health authorities, and demolished most of the structures in the tiny enclave, which is now gripped by hunger and even famine.<\/p>\n

Israel claims the extent of hunger has been exaggerated and that Hamas could end the war at once if it surrendered, freed the hostages, disarmed and disbanded.<\/p>\n

Dozens of protesters gathered on the Israeli side of the border, calling for an end to the war. They held banners or placards with slogans that included \u201cStop the genocide in Gaza\u201d and \u201cFree Gaza, isolate Israel\u201d.<\/p>\n

The armed wing of Hamas said on Thursday that the hostages were distributed throughout the neighbourhoods of Gaza City.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe start of this criminal operation and its expansion means you will not receive any captive, alive or dead,\u201d it said in a written statement.<\/p>\n

Israel Katz, Israel\u2019s defence minister, said on X: \u201cIf Hamas does not release the hostages and disarm, Gaza will be destroyed and turned into a monument to the rapists and murderers of Hamas.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hamas says it will not disarm until a Palestinian state is established. Numerous attempts to mediate an end to the conflict have failed.<\/p>\n

Displaced Palestinian Osama Awad said the Israeli shelling, bombing, air strikes and naval bombardment were coming closer: \u201cFor one week, we have been living nights of horror.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is a horror that most of Gaza\u2019s two million Palestinians have experienced over and over again in repeated Israeli onslaughts and multiple displacements.<\/p>\n

All around Awad, children sat on top of piles of their families\u2019 meagre belongings while others moved a few possessions on carts.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the United States<\/a> vetoed on Thursday a draft United Nations<\/a> Security Council resolution that would have demanded an immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire in Gaza<\/a> and that Israel<\/a> lift all restrictions on aid deliveries to the Palestinian<\/a> enclave.<\/p>\n

The text, drafted by the elected 10 members of the 15-member council, would also have demanded the immediate, dignified and unconditional release of all hostages held by Hamas<\/a> and other groups.<\/p>\n

It received 14 votes in favour. It was the sixth time the US had cast a veto in the Security Council over the nearly two-year war between Israel and militants Hamas.<\/p>\n

\u201cFamine has been confirmed in Gaza \u2013 not projected, not declared, confirmed,\u201d Denmark\u2019s UN ambassador Christina Markus Lassen told the council before the vote.<\/p>\n

[\u00a022 aid agencies urge world leaders to stop Israel\u2019s war on Gaza: \u2018The inhumanity is unconscionable\u2019Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\"AA makeshift displacement camp at the beach in Gaza City on September 18th. Photograph: Omar al-Qattaa\/AFP via Getty <\/p>\n

\u201cMeanwhile, Israel has expanded its military operation in Gaza City, further deepening the suffering of civilians. As a result, it is this catastrophic situation, this humanitarian and human failure, that has compelled us to act today,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u2013 Reuters<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Israel\u2019s military said it had expanded operations in Gaza City on Friday and bombarded Hamas infrastructure, while displaced…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":74062,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[9,10,13,14,3761,69,6,71,3857,11,12,15,16,5,72,7,8,384,2863,65,66,67],"class_list":{"0":"post-74061","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-featured-news","11":"tag-featurednews","12":"tag-gaza-strip","13":"tag-hamas","14":"tag-headlines","15":"tag-israel","16":"tag-israel-hamas-conflict","17":"tag-latest-news","18":"tag-latestnews","19":"tag-main-news","20":"tag-mainnews","21":"tag-news","22":"tag-palestine","23":"tag-top-stories","24":"tag-topstories","25":"tag-united-states","26":"tag-united-nations-un","27":"tag-world","28":"tag-world-news","29":"tag-worldnews"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74061","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74061"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74061\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74062"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74061"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74061"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74061"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}