JERUSALEM: After a night of heavy airstrikes, the Israeli military announced Tuesday that its expanded operation in Gaza City “to destroy Hamas’ military infrastructure” has begun and warned residents to move south.
Israel’s Arabic language spokesperson Avichay Adree announced the expansion of Israel’s operation on X, after a night of heavy strikes against northern Gaza that killed at least 20 people.
Israel has been warning the famine-stricken Gaza City residents to evacuate for the past month ahead of the operation but many have said they are unable to evacuate due to overcrowding in Gaza’s south and the high price of transport.
Earlier in the day, Defense Minister Israel Katz said that “Gaza is burning” as US Secretary of State Marco Rubio left Israel for Qatar, where he planned to meet with officials there still incensed over Israel’s strike last week that killed five Hamas members and a local security official.
While Arab and Muslim nations denounced the strike at a summit Monday, they stopped short of any major action targeting Israel, highlighting the challenge of diplomatically pressuring any change in Israel’s conduct in the grinding Israel-Hamas war.
