The Israeli military on Friday reliant residents in the central Gaza Strip to immediately advance further south as his troops continued their slow advance through the enclave and expectations of an imminent victory over Hamas appeared bleak.
The call to evacuate Al Bureij – an area in the center of the Gaza Strip where Israel has not yet focused its offensive – comes as the military operates in the northern Gaza Strip and has waged heavy fighting in and around the southern city of Khan in recent weeks Younis.
Previous evacuation
Zone boundary
New evacuation
Zone boundary
New evacuation
Zone boundary
Previous evacuation
Zone boundary
“Our forces continue to intensify ground operations in the northern and southern Gaza Strip,” Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, the Israeli military’s chief spokesman, said on Thursday evening.
Israel says it has gained operational control in some areas in the north, but the huge progress is prompting some prominent Israeli military analysts and political commentators to point to a growing gap between the reality on the ground and the rhetoric Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised on Wednesday. that the war will continue “until the elimination of Hamas – until victory.”
As the death toll in Gaza has soared and civilians have been pushed into a small southern corner of the enclave, Israel has come under increasing pressure from the United States and other countries to scale back its operations and move into a less intense phase of fighting in the coming weeks.
The military's goal is to overthrow Hamas's rule in Gaza, destroy or weaken its military capabilities to the point where it no longer poses a threat to Israel, and recover approximately 120 hostages who remain in Gaza.
But Hamas' top leaders have so far managed to evade capture, and Gaza's armed groups continued to fire rockets into Israel, including two bombings that hit Tel Aviv and its surrounding areas this week.
Izzat al-Rishq, a member of Hamas' political bureau, dismissed Mr. Netanyahu's comments about destroying Hamas as “foolish” and “absurd propaganda.”
“Netanyahu raises the slogan of victory and the elimination of Hamas,” Mr. Rishq said in a statement on Friday. He added: “It is an illusion and a mirage that cannot be achieved and will fail because of the steadfastness of our people.”
Political commentators and some military experts have lowered expectations of a quick and decisive victory.
“Nobody should imagine that there will be a situation where we raise a flag on a hill and say, 'Okay, we won and now Gaza will be peaceful and safe'. That’s not going to happen,” said Gabi Siboni, a colonel in the reserves and fellow at the conservative-leaning Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security. “The reality is that we will be fighting in Gaza for many years to come.”
Others shared this assessment. “There will be no 'victory image,'” Ben Caspit, a political columnist and long-time critic of Mr. Netanyahu, wrote in the Maariv newspaper on Friday. He added: “There is a growing realization that 'eliminating' Hamas is an unrealistic short-term goal.”
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant stressed Friday that Israel's campaign will be lengthy and “requires patience.” In the north of the Gaza Strip, he said in a video statement, the military was “gradually achieving the goals we set, including, first of all, disbanding the Hamas battalions and depriving them of their underground capabilities.”
Israel has used thousands of airstrikes, heavy bombs and artillery to crush Hamas and its infrastructure, and Gaza's health ministry said Thursday that the death toll in Gaza was more than 20,000.
During the first six weeks of the war, she regularly used 2,000-pound bombs — some of her largest and most destructive — in areas she deemed safe for civilians, according to a New York Times analysis of visual evidence. While bombs of this size are used by several Western militaries, U.S. forces almost never drop them in densely populated areas anymore, according to munitions experts.
Gaza residents who have left their homes and moved south say they do not feel safe there and that no area is off-limits to Israeli bombing. Israel on Friday urged people to leave Al Bureij and seek refuge in Deir al-Balah, a short distance further south in central Gaza.
“It’s not safe here either,” Nevin Muhaisen, 35, a teacher from the northern Gaza Strip who moved to Deir al-Balah at the start of the war and shares an apartment with about 30 members of her extended family, said via WhatsApp message. “I keep hearing explosions in the coastal part of the city and in Khan Younis,” she added.
Abu Bakr Bashir contributed reporting.