{"id":203571,"date":"2025-09-05T23:54:15","date_gmt":"2025-09-05T23:54:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/203571\/"},"modified":"2025-09-05T23:54:15","modified_gmt":"2025-09-05T23:54:15","slug":"idf-blows-up-a-gaza-city-high-rise-building-says-it-housed-hamas-infrastructure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/203571\/","title":{"rendered":"IDF blows up a Gaza City high-rise building, says it housed Hamas infrastructure"},"content":{"rendered":"

The IDF blew up a multi-story building used by Hamas in Gaza City as military infrastructure, the army said Friday, as it ramped up its ground offensive in the enclave.<\/p>\n

According to the military, the building was being used by Hamas as operational infrastructure, including underground facilities that were utilized to plan attacks, stage ambushes against IDF forces and provide escape routes for terror operatives.<\/p>\n

The announcement confirmed an earlier statement from Defense Minister Israel Katz, who said Israel had issued its first formal evacuation notice to residents of a multi-story building in the city ahead of an impending strike.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe bolt is now being removed from the gates of Hell in Gaza,\u201d Katz posted on X. \u201cOnce the door is opened, it will not be closed, and IDF operations will intensify \u2014 until Hamas\u2019s murderers and rapists accept Israel\u2019s conditions for ending the war, first and foremost the release of all hostages and disarmament \u2014 or be destroyed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Katz posted his statement as the IDF expanded its ground offensive into Gaza City, with politicians framing the campaign as a decisive maneuver aimed at breaking Hamas\u2019s remaining strongholds.<\/p>\n

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Alongside the announcement, media outlets in Gaza reported that the IDF struck the Al-Mushtaha tower in Gaza City three times. Footage showed a heavy cloud of smoke at the site after residents were called to evacuate. It was unclear whether there were any casualties in the incident.<\/p>\n

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\u2014 Nurit Yohanan (@nurityohanan) September 5, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Arej Ahmed, a 50-year-old displaced Palestinian who lives in a tent in the southwest of Gaza City, told AFP that her husband \u201csaw residents of the Mushtaha Tower throwing their belongings from the upper floors to take them and flee before the strike.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\u201cLess than half an hour after the evacuation orders, the tower was bombed,\u201d she said by telephone.<\/p>\n

Israel, she added, \u201corders the residents of towers to evacuate, claiming it wants to avoid civilian casualties. But what about us \u2014 hundreds of thousands of displaced civilians in the tents surrounding these buildings?\u201d<\/p>\n

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Palestinians evacuate as smoke covers the area after Israel issued evacuation orders ahead of a military strike on the Mushtaha Tower in Gaza City, on September 5, 2025 (Omar AL-QATTAA \/ AFP)<\/p>\n

The military stressed that it issues warnings to residents and employs precision strikes to reduce the risk to civilians, while again accusing Hamas of using Gaza\u2019s civilian population as human shields.<\/p>\n

According to the military\u2019s announcement, intelligence revealed that Hamas had embedded sniper and anti-tank positions, surveillance systems, command-and-control centers and observation posts inside residential buildings, while also planting explosives nearby to ambush Israeli forces.<\/p>\n

Additionally, the terror group\u2019s tunnels are said to run beneath and around these buildings. The IDF said the sites pose a direct threat to its troops as operations in Gaza City expand, and therefore will be struck soon.<\/p>\n

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A screenshot from an illustrative IDF video showing a digital rendering of a Hamas observation command center in a Gaza City building. (Israel Defense Forces)<\/p>\n

Earlier Friday, Hamas-run authorities in Gaza said 19 people were killed in a series of Israeli strikes in and around Gaza City. When contacted by AFP, the IDF requested timeframes and coordinates to comment on specific incidents.<\/p>\n

IDF spokesperson Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin said Thursday that Israeli forces now control roughly 40 percent of the city and intend to push further in the coming days as part of the broader plan to seize full control.<\/p>\n

IDF Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir has repeatedly warned in private forums that the Gaza City operation will endanger the hostages, and has reportedly urged the government to accept the phased deal that Hamas said it had agreed to, shortly after Israel declared it would only accept a deal for all the hostages to be released at once.<\/p>\n

IDF announces Hamas money man killed<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the IDF also announced Friday that troops working with the Shin Bet security agency earlier this week killed Nur al-Din Dabbaghsh, a Hamas operative who managed finances for the group\u2019s military arm.<\/p>\n

Dabbaghsh was accused of collecting and transferring tens of millions of dollars to the terror group during the war, money that Israel says funded weapons and operations, and helped sustain the organization\u2019s fighting capabilities.<\/p>\n

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Israeli soldiers operating near Hamad City in Khan Yunis, in the southern Gaza Strip, on September 4, 2025. (Yonatan Sindel\/Flash90)<\/p>\n

The military also said its forces continued to strike Hamas infrastructure and operatives across the Gaza Strip, targeting sites both above and below ground while intensifying pressure on Hamas\u2019 military wing.<\/p>\n

In northern Gaza, forces from the 99th Division reported destroying anti-tank missile launch sites, a weapons storage facility, and additional infrastructure, while soldiers from the Nahal Brigade killed several Hamas operatives in clashes nearby.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere, Givati Brigade troops and the 401st Armored Brigade, operating under 162nd Division, continued advancing in the Jabalia area and elsewhere on the outskirts of Gaza City, where they have eliminated terrorists, dismantled explosives and destroyed further Hamas positions.<\/p>\n

Egypt says won\u2019t allow mass displacement of Palestinians<\/p>\n

As Israel\u2019s offensive in Gaza City widens,\u00a0Egypt has said it will not tolerate mass displacement of Palestinians and repeated its charge on Friday that Israel is committing genocide, as thousands of residents of Gaza City defied Israeli orders to leave.<\/p>\n

\u201cDisplacement is not an option and it is a red line for Egypt and we will not allow it to happen,\u201d Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty told Reuters in Nicosia on Friday.<\/p>\n

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Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty, ahead of a meeting in the US State Department Building in Washington, DC, on February 10, 2025. (Anna Moneymaker \/ Getty Images via AFP)<\/p>\n

\u201cDisplacement means liquidation and the end of the Palestinian cause and there is no legal or moral or ethical ground to evict people from their homeland,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He continued, \u201cWhat is happening on the ground is far beyond the imagination. There is a genocide in motion there, mass killing of civilians, artificial starvation created by the Israelis.\u201d<\/p>\n

Israel adamantly rejects the accusations that it is causing starvation in Gaza and committing a genocide there, saying it makes efforts to facilitate humanitarian assistance and to avoid civilian casualties. It blames Hamas for fighting among civilian populations and accuses it of stealing aid.<\/p>\n

The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says more than 64,000 people in the Strip have been killed or are presumed dead in the fighting so far, though the toll cannot be verified and does not differentiate between civilians and fighters. Israel says it has killed over 22,000 combatants in battle as of August and another 1,600 terrorists inside Israel during the October 7 onslaught.<\/p>\n

Israel has said it seeks to minimize civilian fatalities and stresses that Hamas uses Gaza\u2019s civilians as human shields, fighting from civilian areas including homes, hospitals, schools, and mosques.<\/p>\n

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