Israeli troops press forward into Gaza City as Palestinians flee
[September 17, 2025]
By JULIA FRANKEL and SAMY MAGDY
JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli troops and tanks were pushing deeper into Gaza
City on Wednesday, the second day of a ground offensive that was widely
condemned internationally, as Palestinians fled the devastated area en
masse.
Israel's military said that air force and artillery units had struck the
city over 150 times in the last few days, ahead of ground troops moving
in. The strikes have toppled high-rise towers in areas densely populated
by tent camps where thousands of Palestinians are sheltering. Israel
claims the towers are being used by Hamas to surveil troops.
Overnight strikes killed at least 16 people, including women and
children, hospital officials reported. The death count in Gaza is
nearing 65,000 Palestinians since the war began Oct. 7, 2023, with a
Hamas-led attack on Israel, according to health officials in the
enclave.
Meanwhile, Palestinians streamed out of the city — some by car, others
on foot. Israel pledged to open another corridor along a road hugging
Gaza’s coastline for two hours Wednesday to allow more people to
evacuate.
Children and parents among the latest fatalities
More than half of the Palestinians killed in overnight Israeli strikes
were in famine-stricken Gaza City, including a child and his mother who
died in their apartment in the Shati refugee camp, according to
officials from Shifa Hospital, which received the casualties.
In central Gaza, Al-Awda Hospital said an Israeli strike hit a house in
the urban Nuseirat refugee camp, killing three, including a pregnant
woman. Two parents and their child were also killed when a strike hit
their tent in the Muwasi area west of the city of Khan Younis, said
officials from Nasser Hospital, where the bodies were brought.
The Israeli military said it was looking into the deadly strikes, but in
the past it has accused Hamas of building military infrastructure inside
civilian areas.
The military’s Arabic-language spokesman, Col. Avichay Adraee, wrote on
social media that a new route, along the Salah al-Din street along
Gaza’s coastline, will open for those heading south for two days
starting at noon Wednesday.
But many Palestinians in the north were cut off from the outside world.
The Palestinian Telecommunications Regulatory Authority, based in the
occupied West Bank, said Israeli strikes on the main network lines in
northern Gaza had collapsed internet and telephone services Wednesday
morning. The Associated Press tried unsuccessfully to reach many people
in Gaza City.
An estimated 1 million Palestinians were living in the Gaza City region
before warnings to evacuate began ahead of the offensive, and the
Israeli military estimates 350,000 people have left the city. The U.N.
estimates that more than 238,000 Palestinians of some 1 million believed
living in the city have fled northern Gaza over the past month. Hundreds
of thousands more have stayed behind.
Aid groups and Qatar condemn offensive
A coalition of leading aid groups Wednesday urged the international
community to take stronger measures to stop Israel's offensive on Gaza
City. It came a day after a commission of U.N. experts found Israel was
committing genocide in the Palestinian enclave. Israel denies the
allegation.
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Displaced Palestinians flee Gaza City by foot and vehicles, carrying
their belongings along the coastal road toward southern Gaza,
Wednesday, Sept. 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
“What we are witnessing in Gaza is not only an unprecedented
humanitarian catastrophe, but what the U.N. Commission of Inquiry
has now concluded is a genocide,” read the statement from the aid
groups. “States must use every available political, economic, and
legal tool at their disposal to intervene. Rhetoric and half
measures are not enough. This moment demands decisive action."
The message was signed by leaders of over 20 aid organizations
operating in Gaza, including the Norwegian Refugee Council, Anera
and Save the Children.
Also Wednesday, Qatar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs released a
statement saying they condemned “in the strongest terms” Israel’s
ground offensive in Gaza. The ministry wrote on X that the operation
marked a “extension of the war of genocide” against the
Palestinians.
Qatar is incensed over an Israeli strike last week that killed five
Hamas members and a local security official.
Israel's return to Gaza City
An Israeli military graphic suggested its troops hope to control all
of the Gaza Strip except for a large swath along the coast by the
end of the current operation.
Israeli forces have carried out multiple large-scale raids into Gaza
City over the course of the war, causing mass displacement and heavy
destruction, only to see militants regroup later. This time, Israel
has pledged to take control of the entire city, which experts say is
experiencing famine.
An Israeli military official, speaking on condition of anonymity in
line with military guidelines, said Tuesday they believe there are
2,000 to 3,000 Hamas militants left in Gaza City, as well as tunnels
used by the group. Hamas’ military capabilities have been vastly
diminished. It now mainly carries out guerrilla-style attacks, with
small groups of fighters planting explosives or attacking military
outposts before melting away.
The war has killed more than 64,900 Palestinians, according to
Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not say how many were civilians
or combatants. The ministry, which is part of the Hamas-run
government and staffed by medical professionals, says women and
children make up around half the dead.
The war in Gaza began when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern
Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing around 1,200 people, mostly
civilians, and abducting 251 others. Forty-eight hostages, fewer
than half believed to be alive, remain in Gaza.
___
Magdy reported from Cairo.
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