JERUSALEM, Sept. 13 — The Israeli military struck a high-rise building in Gaza City on Saturday, saying it housed Hamas command and control centres used to target Israeli forces, in the latest of a series of attacks on residential towers in the densely packed Palestinian city.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said that within the building, Hamas established military infrastructure used to advance and execute attacks against IDF troops in the area.
It provided no immediate evidence to support the claim. Hamas has previously rejected such allegations, calling them “fabricated pretexts” for attacks on civilian infrastructure.
The Palestinian news agency WAFA said Israeli airstrikes destroyed the Al-Noor Tower in Tel al-Hawa, a multi-storey residential building sheltering displaced families.
The IDF said it took measures to limit civilian casualties, including advance warnings to residents, precision-guided munitions, aerial surveillance, and intelligence assessments prior to the strike.
The attack follows a wave of similar strikes on high-rises in Gaza City in recent weeks, as Israel intensifies its ground and air offensive against Hamas in the territory’s largest city.
In previous incidents, residents reported receiving less than an hour to evacuate before strikes.
On Friday, the IDF said it had hit more than 500 Hamas targets across Gaza City in the past week, including sniper positions, tunnel entrances, weapons caches, and other militant infrastructure.
WAFA reported a surge in Israeli bombardment across northern Gaza on Saturday, with strikes on residential buildings and towers in Gaza City.
It said several civilians were wounded when warplanes hit a house on Al-Thawra Street in the Al-Rimal neighbourhood, while drones targeted homes near Al-Yarmouk.
The agency also reported Israeli armoured vehicles firing on Palestinians queuing for humanitarian aid in central Gaza, though the IDF had no immediate comment.
Medical sources cited by WAFA said Israeli strikes killed at least 47 Palestinians and wounded 205 others across Gaza in the past 24 hours.
The war began on Oct. 7, 2023 when Hamas fighters rampaged through southern Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking around 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
Israel’s subsequent campaign in Gaza has killed more than 64,000 Palestinians, according to the enclave’s health authorities. (Xinhua)
