CAIRO/JERUSALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has threatened Palestinians in Gaza City to “leave now”, as the United Nations human rights chief condemned Israel for what he described as the “mass killing” of civilians and deliberate obstruction of lifesaving aid.
Israeli military calls a final warning to Palestinian militant group that, Gaza would be destroyed if it did not disarm and release 48 hostages seized in the 2023 attacks on Israel that triggered the war in Gaza.
Residents said Israeli forces had bombed Gaza City from the air and blown up old armoured vehicles in its streets. Hamas was meanwhile studying the latest U.S. ceasefire proposal, delivered on Sunday with a warning from President Donald Trump that it was the militant group's "last chance".
"I say to the residents of Gaza (City): you have been warned - get out of there!" Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, adding that Israel had in recent days knocked down 50 "terror towers" in a prelude to an upcoming "ground operation" in Gaza City.
"A mighty hurricane will hit the skies of Gaza City today, and the roofs of the terror towers will shake," Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz wrote on X.
"This is a final warning to the murderers and rapists of Hamas in Gaza and in the luxury hotels abroad: Release the hostages and lay down your weapons - or Gaza will be destroyed, and you will be annihilated."
Katz's post appeared before reports of a shooting at a bus stop in Jerusalem that killed six people including one Spanish citizen. Hamas praised the attackers.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) bombed a 12-floor block in the middle of Gaza City where dozens of displaced families had been housed, three hours after urging those inside and in hundreds of tents in the surrounding area to leave.
In a statement, the IDF said Hamas militants who had "planted intelligence gathering means" and explosive devices had been operating near the building and "have used it throughout the war to plan and advance terror attacks against IDF forces".
Volker Turk, the United Nations high commissioner for human rights, accused Israel on Monday of committing “war crime upon war crime” and said the scale of devastation in Gaza was “shocking the conscience of the world”.
