The Israeli army begins the main operation in Gaza City… Expanding its ground advance toward the center of the city

The Israeli army has begun the main operation in its offensive to seize control of Gaza City, expanding its ground advance toward the center, a military official said Tuesday, a day after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio declared full support for Israel to “achieve its goals in the Gaza Strip”.

This comes on a day when an independent international commission of inquiry commissioned by the United Nations accused Israel of committing genocide in the Gaza Strip during the war that began following Hamas’s attack on October 7, 2023.

Gaza City was subjected to heavy Israeli bombardment at dawn on Tuesday.

“What we began last night is the first major step toward Gaza City,” an Israeli military official told reporters, noting that the army estimates there are between 2,000 and 3,000 Hamas fighters in the city.

He confirmed that forces are advancing towards the city center, which has been subjected to intense Israeli bombardment over the past few weeks.

“Last night, we moved to the next stage, the main stage of the army’s plan to take control of the city,” he explained, adding, “The Southern Command expanded the ground operation into Hamas’s main stronghold in Gaza, which is Gaza City”.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said that Gaza City is burning, noting that the army is “striking the terrorist infrastructure with an iron fist, and soldiers are fighting bravely to create the conditions for the release of the hostages and the defeat of Hamas… We’ll not stop and we won’t retreat until we accomplish our mission”.

The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio visited Israel days after the Jewish state targeted Hamas leaders in Doha.

Before departing for Qatar on Tuesday, he warned that Hamas had a “very short window” to accept a ceasefire agreement.

“The Israelis have started carrying out operations there (Gaza), so we believe we have a very short window to reach an agreement… We no longer have months, it could be days, or a few weeks,” Rubio told reporters.

Most of Gaza City has been reduced to rubble after nearly two years of Israeli strikes.

The Israeli army has intensified its bombardment of Gaza City in recent weeks, destroying several multi-story buildings under the pretext that Hamas was using them for military purposes.

The intensification of the Israeli offensive has raised concerns about the fate of the Israeli hostages in the Gaza Strip.

The Hostages’ Families Forum said in a statement that they are terrified for their relatives, believing that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is doing everything he can to ensure that no agreement is reached and to prevent their return.

The majority of the Gaza Strip’s population, which exceeds two million people, has been forced to flee at least once due to the widespread destruction inflicted on the besieged territory.

The war has also caused a catastrophic humanitarian crisis, leading the United Nations to declare a famine in Gaza in August.

The Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory concluded that Israel is committing genocide aimed at eliminating the Palestinians.

“We’ve concluded that genocide is taking place in Gaza and is still taking place, and that the State of Israel bears responsibility”.

A report by the committee on Tuesday indicated that Israeli authorities committed four of the five acts defining genocide under the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide: “killing members of the group, causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group, deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part, and imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group”.

The Israeli Foreign Ministry “categorically rejected this distorted and false report,” calling for the “immediate dissolution of this investigative committee”.

It accused its authors of operating as “agents of Hamas” and of being “known for their open anti-Semitic statements”.

The Israeli military campaign in Gaza has killed at least 64,905 people, most of them civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run Health Ministry, which the United Nations considers reliable.

For his part, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu began his appearance before the Tel Aviv District Court on Tuesday to respond to corruption charges against him by announcing the launch of an intensive offensive by the army on Gaza City.

“We’ve launched an intensive operation in Gaza City,” Netanyahu was quoted as saying in court by the Israeli Broadcasting Corporation.

This coincided with a violent Israeli assault on Gaza City, where Palestinians endured a bloody night during which 35 people were killed, while others were injured or missing, amid intense aerial and artillery bombardment, and the detonation of explosive robots that destroyed homes and residential buildings northwest of the city.

In the morning, Netanyahu appeared again before the Tel Aviv District Court to answer the corruption charges against him.