JERUSALEM (AP) — The Israeli military began a ground offensive targeting Gaza City on Tuesday, slowly squeezing in on the Palestinian territory’s largest city that has seen block after block already destroyed in the Israel-Hamas war. Residents still in the city were warned they must leave and head south.
The push marks yet another escalation in a conflict that has roiled the Middle East as any potential ceasefire feels even further out of reach despite months of diplomacy. While the military wouldn’t offer a timeline for the offensive, Israeli media outlets suggested it could take months.
Earlier in the day, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz declared that “Gaza is burning” while independent experts commissioned by the United Nations’ Human Rights Council announced that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, joining a rising international chorus of such accusations.
srael fiercely rejected the claim, calling the experts’ report “distorted and false.”
Meanwhile, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio left Israel and then made a brief stop in the energy-rich nation of Qatar where he met with its ruling emir whose country is still incensed over Israel’s strike last week that killed five Hamas members and a local security official.
