The Israeli military has targeted a 14-story building in a missile attack on Gaza City, causing the building to collapse.
Footage showed the Mushtaha Tower in the city's Al-Rimal neighbourhood collapsing after a massive explosion at its base, sending a thick cloud of smoke and dust billowing into the sky.
Arej Ahmed, a 50-year-old displaced Palestinian who lives in a tent in the southwest of Gaza City, said that her husband "saw residents of the Mushtaha Tower throwing their belongings from the upper floors to take them and flee before the strike".
"Less than half an hour after the evacuation orders, the tower was bombed," she said by telephone.
Israel, she added, "orders the residents of towers to evacuate, claiming it wants to avoid civilian casualties. But what about us - hundreds of thousands of displaced civilians in the tents surrounding these buildings?"
Israeli strikes have killed at least 19 people today in and around Gaza City, Gaza's civil defence agency has said, an area the United Nations estimates is home to nearly one million people and where it has declared a famine.
The Israeli military destroyed the high-rise, shortly after announcing it would target tall buildings it claimed were being used by Hamas.
Israeli missile attack strikes and destroys high-rise in Gaza City
The management of the Mushtaha Tower has denied Israeli claims that it was being used by Hamas fighters, Al Jazeera Arabic has reported.
The building's management added that the building was only accessible to displaced people, the news agency said.
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'Everyone is scared and doesn't know where to go'
Residents of Gaza City and areas surrounding high-rise apartment buildings have expressed fear as Israel intensifies its bombing of the city.
"The news about Israel beginning to bomb towers and apartment buildings is terrifying. Everyone is scared and doesn't know where to go," said Ahmed Abu Wutfa, 45, who lives in his relatives' partially destroyed fifth-floor apartment in western Gaza City.
"My children are terrified, and so am I. There is no safe place -- we only hope that death comes quickly."
Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said in a statement that "the bolt has now been removed from the gates of hell in Gaza", vowing to intensify operations until Hamas accepted Israel's terms to end the war.
Israeli military spokesman Nadav Shoshani said yesterday that the start of the campaign to seize Gaza City would not be announced in advance to "maintain the element of surprise".
Another army spokesman, Effie Defrin, said that Israeli troops already controlled 40% of the city.
Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories, including its expansion of offensives in Gaza, is illegal under international law.
Yesterday, European Commission vice president Teresa Ribera called the war a genocide, ramping up criticism of Israel and slamming the EU for failing to act to stop it.
On Monday, the world's biggest academic association of genocide scholars passed a resolution saying the legal criteria have been met to establish Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.
Global hunger monitor IPC determined this month that an entirely man-made famine is currently taking place in Gaza, while UN human rights chief Volker Turk said the famine was the direct result of Israeli government policies.
Israeli attacks have killed at least 64,300 Palestinians, mostly civilians, since October 2023, according to figures from the health ministry in Gaza that the United Nations considers reliable.
The current stage of the war in Gaza was sparked by Hamas's October 2023 attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures.
