'Israel' Ramps up Evacuations in Gaza City Ahead of Decisive Days

Gaza | Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu convenes a closed session of the war cabinet to discuss the prospect of a temporary ceasefire in Gaza, while the Israeli military is applying maximum field pressure across the entire Strip. Israeli media describe the coming days as “decisive,” emphasizing a rare and golden opportunity

Having already displaced residents from around 75% of Gaza’s territory, confining nearly 1.8 million people to less than a quarter of its original area, the Israeli army launched a new wave of evacuations on Sunday, targeting central districts in Gaza City. Residents of al-Zaytoun, al-Shujaaiya, al-Tuffah, al-Daraj, and East Zaytoun neighborhoods, core areas of the city’s historic center and now sheltering hundreds of thousands of displaced families, were ordered to evacuate. Similar instructions were issued for several neighborhoods in al-Nuseirat refugee camp, central Gaza.

Evacuation orders coincided with one of the most intense waves of aerial bombardment and urban demolition since fighting resumed in mid-March. Now, every evening, dozens of airstrikes and large-scale detonations target residential blocks. The town of Jabalia in northeastern Gaza has suffered the most from this destruction. According to Ahmed Abu Warda, a resident of Jabalia, the Israeli army’s strategy appears focused on total demolition.

Speaking to Al-Akhbar, Abu Warda described how “Israeli tanks advance during the night, planting explosive barrels throughout entire residential blocks, then withdraw before detonating dozens of homes at once. The warplanes follow up with relentless bombardment.” He noted that many so-called “combat zones” lack any “permanent Israeli army presence, only sporadic incursions aimed at destruction.”

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This same approach has been used in the eastern neighborhoods of al-Tuffah, al-Zaytoun, and al-Shujaaiya, echoing the devastation previously inflicted on Jabalia, Beit Lahia, Beit Hanoun, and Rafah. The result: over a million people in these densely populated areas are now without shelter.

A report by Haaretz revealed that the Israeli army contracted demolition firms, offering $1,500 per destroyed building, to accelerate the pace of leveling Gaza’s urban landscape. Parallel to this, the Israeli army intensified its campaign of mass killings. In the past 48 hours, dozens of massacres have been recorded, particularly in western Gaza City. On Sunday, warplanes struck around 20 tents sheltering families near the Palestine Square intersection, carving a 25-meter-wide crater, 10 meters deep. The attack killed at least 13 people and injured dozens more, with residents and medical teams spending over 10 hours digging through rubble in the dark in search of survivors and bodies.

Further airstrikes targeted a bustling market in al-Tuffah, killing 15 civilians and injuring dozens. On the same day, an Israeli strike on a residential home belonging to al-Sadiq family in Jabalia killed 15 people and caused the injury of many others. In southern Gaza, similar strikes hit tents and homes, bringing the two-day death toll to approximately 150 martyrs, with hundreds more injured, according to medical sources.

On the political front, US President Donald Trump is promoting a potential prisoner exchange deal that could end the war, as part of a broader agreement that includes normalizing relations with several Arab countries in the region. To push this deal, Trump is reportedly intervening directly to stop the trial of Netanyahu, even going so far as to threaten to halt arms shipments to the Israeli entity if the trial continues. According to Israeli Channel 13, Netanyahu told close associates that “dramatic days lie ahead,” with the prospect of normalizing relations with the new Syrian authorities and moving forward with a prisoner swap deal, especially as the Israeli army informed the political leadership that the fighting in Gaza has reached its limit.

Yet, unresolved internal divisions, which were paused by the war with Iran, now reemerge as obstacles to progress. Israeli Channel 12 reported that Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich harshly criticized Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir for backtracking on a previous pledge to evacuate Gazans from the north to so-called “cleansed zones.” Smotrich insisted the plan should have resulted in Hamas’s defeat within 100 days.

This is an edited translation of an article originally published in Arabic.

(Al-Akhbar)