JERUSALEM/GAZA, Sept. 8 — Israeli forces intensified airstrikes on Gaza City on Monday, including the demolition of a multi-story office building in the western part of the city, after warning residents to evacuate.
According to video footage and eyewitnesses, the 14-story “Vision” tower was struck twice before collapsing.
Mahmoud Basal, spokesman for the Civil Defense in Gaza, told Xinhua that the repeated targeting of residential buildings is forcing civilians to flee their homes under military pressure. “There is no safe place, and everyone is a target,” he said.
Israel’s Haaretz newspaper reported that the building housed media outlets, including the Qatar-based TV channel Al-Araby.
Nearby were tent camps for displaced Palestinians, many uprooted multiple times, as well as offices for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, government facilities and educational institutions.
The Israeli military said in a statement that the building was targeted because Hamas had planted “intelligence-gathering means, explosive devices, and positioned observation posts” there.
Less than two hours before the strike, the military called on residents to evacuate the area.
The demolition followed a warning by Defense Minister Israel Katz that Israel would step up the strikes on Gaza City.
“A mighty hurricane will hit the skies of Gaza City today, and the roofs of the terror towers will shake,” he wrote on social media platform X.
He said the attacks were “a final warning” to Hamas to release hostages and lay down their weapons, or “Gaza will be destroyed, and you will be annihilated.”
The strikes also came as Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar confirmed Israel had accepted a Gaza ceasefire proposal from U.S. President Donald Trump.
“We are ready to accept a full deal that would end the war based on the cabinet’s decision.
Two things must happen: One, the return of our hostages … Second, Hamas must lay down its arms,” Sa’ar said at a news conference in Budapest alongside his Hungarian counterpart.
Over the past days, Israel destroyed several high-rise buildings in Gaza City, where hundreds of displaced families have taken shelter.
Israeli officials said the strikes were part of an offensive to destroy what they described as Hamas’s last remaining stronghold in Gaza.
The military has urged hundreds of thousands of Gaza City residents to move south.
Gaza health authorities said Israeli strikes over the past day killed 67 people and wounded 320. The latest casualties brought Gaza’s death toll since Oct. 7, 2023, to 64,522, with 163,096 injured.
