At least 18 people were killed in and around Gaza City after Israeli airstrikes and gunfire over the weekend, local health officials said. Thirteen of the dead were trying to collect food near a distribution site, as Israel’s government weighed the next stage of its military campaign.
Residents of Sheikh Radwan, one of Gaza City’s largest neighborhoods, described hours of heavy shelling and airstrikes from Saturday through Sunday morning, forcing families to flee. Officials also reported two people killed inside a Gaza City home. The Israeli army said it was reviewing the reports.
The violence comes as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s security cabinet prepared to meet Sunday night to discuss plans to seize Gaza City. A full-scale offensive is not expected for weeks, but residents say Israeli forces are already closing in.
“They are crawling into the heart of the city from the east, north and south,” said Rezik Salah, a father of two from Sheikh Radwan, “while bombing those areas from the air and ground to scare people to leave.”
Israel has said it will try to evacuate civilians before expanding its ground assault. The Red Cross has warned that such a move would force mass displacement that other parts of Gaza cannot handle. Local estimates suggest about half of Gaza’s two million people are still sheltering in the city, though many have fled south.
Meanwhile, a humanitarian flotilla prepared to set sail from Barcelona on Sunday carrying activists, including climate campaigner Greta Thunberg and former Barcelona mayor Ada Colau. Organizers said the mission, called Sumud (“Perseverance”), aims to break the siege of Gaza and create a humanitarian corridor. Dozens of additional boats are expected to leave Tunisia and other ports on September 4. Israel has already intercepted two similar missions this summer.
Back in Israel, thousands protested against the war in Tel Aviv on Saturday night, while families of hostages held in Gaza demonstrated outside cabinet ministers’ homes on Sunday.
Hamas also confirmed the death of Mohammed Sinwar, its presumed Gaza leader, months after Israel said it had identified his body in a tunnel beneath a hospital in Khan Younis.
The war began on October 7, 2023, when Hamas-led fighters attacked southern Israel, killing about 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and taking 251 hostages. Forty-seven hostages remain in Gaza, with about 20 believed to be alive.
Israel’s military response has devastated the territory. Gaza’s health ministry says more than 63,000 Palestinians, most of them civilians, have been killed. The UN, which treats the ministry’s numbers as credible, declared famine in Gaza earlier this month, warning that half a million people face “catastrophic” conditions.
In a separate development, Israel said Sunday it struck a Hezbollah site in southern Lebanon, accusing the group of violating security arrangements between the two countries.
