GAZA CITY: The Israeli military destroyed a high-rise in Gaza City on Friday, shortly after announcing it would target tall buildings identified as being used by Hamas ahead of its planned seizure of the urban hub.
Despite mounting pressure at home and abroad to halt its nearly two-year offensive in Gaza, Israel has been calling up reservists, intensifying its bombardments and closing in on Gaza City ever since announcing its intention to capture the Palestinian territory's largest city.
In a statement on Friday, the military said it had "identified significant Hamas activity within a wide variety of infrastructure sites in Gaza City and particularly in high-rise buildings", adding it would target those sites "in the coming days".
Less than an hour later, it said it had struck one such high-rise, accusing Hamas of using it "to advance and execute attacks against troops in the area".
Footage showed the Mushtaha Tower in the city's Al Rimal neighbourhood collapsing after a massive explosion at its base, sending a thick cloud of smoke and dust billowing into the sky.
The army said that before the strike, "precautionary measures were taken in order to mitigate harm to civilians", including prior warnings.
Gaza civil defence agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal accused Israel of carrying out "a policy of forced displacement against civilians" in its targeting of high-rise buildings.
The agency said Israeli strikes in and around Gaza City killed at least 19 people, among at least 32 Palestinians killed across the territory on Friday.
Contacted by AFP, the Israeli military requested timeframes and coordinates to comment on specific strikes.
Media restrictions in Gaza and difficulties in accessing many areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify the tolls and details provided by the civil defence agency or the Israeli military.
"The news about Israel beginning to bomb towers and apartment buildings is terrifying", said Ahmed Abu Wutfa, 45, who lives in his relatives' partially destroyed fifth-floor apartment in western Gaza City.
"My children are terrified and so am I. There is no safe place — we only hope that death comes quickly".
A member of Hamas's political bureau, Izzat al Rishq, said Israeli claims the militant group was operating in the high-rises were "nothing but flimsy pretexts and blatant lies".
The United Nations estimates that nearly one million people live in Gaza City and its surroundings, an area where it last month declared a famine.
World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus urged Israel to stop the "catastrophe" of people starving to death in Gaza, where the health ministry says more than 370 people have died from malnutrition since the war began.
Belgian Foreign Minister Maxime Prevot meanwhile said that the European Union was "not living up to its responsibilities in this enormous humanitarian crisis".
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