DaysofPal – Gaza’s Government Media Office (GMO) said on Saturday that Israeli occupation forces (IOF) have demolished 1,600 residential buildings and more than 13,000 tents that sheltered displaced families since launching their assault on August 11. The campaign has forcibly uprooted over 350,000 residents from eastern Gaza City neighborhoods toward its central and western areas.
In its statement, the GMO condemned the IOF’s targeting of civilian neighborhoods, describing it as “brutal” and part of a systematic policy of “genocide, ethnic cleansing, and forced displacement.”
The office rejected claims by Israeli war minister Yisrael Katz that “the gates of hell in Gaza have been opened on the resistance,” stressing that reality shows the occupation “systematically opening fire on unarmed civilians, destroying homes, hospitals, schools, mosques, and tents, not military targets.”
According to the GMO, the offensive has resulted in the complete demolition of more than 1,600 multi-story residential towers, severe damage to another 2,000 buildings, and the destruction of over 13,000 tents where displaced families had taken refuge. In September alone, 70 buildings were razed to the ground, 120 more were severely damaged, and 3,500 tents were destroyed.
The demolished towers had contained over 10,000 housing units that were home to more than 50,000 residents. Meanwhile, the tents wiped out by IOF strikes had sheltered over 52,000 displaced people.
In total, the GMO said, over 100,000 people have been stripped of their homes, and more than 350,000 residents have been forced to flee from eastern neighborhoods such as Shuja’iyya, Zeitoun, Tuffah, Daraj, Sheikh Radwan, Sabra, Al-Nasr, Tel al-Hawa, and Sheikh Ajleen, as well as areas in al-Shati camp and subdivisions of Shuja’iyya, including Harazin, Turkman, and al-Muntar.
“The occupation deliberately targets civilians, their homes, and displacement sites, committing clear and systematic genocide, ethnic cleansing, and forced displacement,” the statement said, urging the international community to intervene immediately to protect Gaza’s population.
The Civil Defense reported continuing airstrikes on Saturday, while IOF aircraft dropped new leaflets ordering residents in western neighborhoods of Gaza City to evacuate. The United Nations estimates that more than one million people were living in Gaza City and its surroundings before Israel escalated its offensive, including a series of strikes last week that destroyed several residential towers.
The IOF has justified the demolitions by claiming it seeks to “intensify targeted strikes to damage Hamas’s infrastructure and reduce the threat posed by its fighters.” But humanitarian organizations and UN agencies have repeatedly warned that the policies amount to war crimes and risk creating an irreversible humanitarian catastrophe.
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