Israeli airstrikes and gunfire have killed at least 18 people in and around Gaza City, according to local health officials, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s security cabinet prepared to discuss plans to seize control of the city.
Residents of Sheikh Radwan, one of Gaza City’s largest neighbourhoods, said the area had come under heavy tank shelling and airstrikes from Saturday through to Sunday morning, forcing many families to flee.
Health authorities reported that 13 of those killed were attempting to collect food near a distribution site in central Gaza, while at least two others died in a house in Gaza City. The Israeli army said it was reviewing the reports.
Meanwhile in Barcelona, a humanitarian flotilla carrying activists, including climate campaigner Greta Thunberg, prepared to set sail for Gaza. The initiative comes two days after Israel ended temporary pauses that had allowed limited aid deliveries. The military has described Gaza City as a “dangerous combat zone”.
Rezik Salah, a father of two from Sheikh Radwan, told Reuters: “Israeli troops are crawling into the heart of the city from the east, north and south, while bombing those areas from the air and ground to scare people to leave.”
Israeli officials said Netanyahu’s cabinet would meet on Sunday evening to discuss the next stages of the planned offensive, though a full-scale operation is not expected for several weeks. Israel has stated its intention to evacuate civilians before expanding ground operations, a move the International Committee of the Red Cross has warned could trigger mass displacement that other parts of Gaza cannot absorb.
Local sources estimate that about half of Gaza’s 2 million residents are currently sheltering in the city, though thousands are attempting to flee to central and southern areas.
On Saturday night, large crowds in Tel Aviv demonstrated against the war, while on Sunday morning families of hostages still held by Hamas protested outside ministers’ homes.
Hamas confirmed on Sunday the death of Mohammed Sinwar, its presumed Gaza leader, more than three months after Israel said it had located his body in a tunnel beneath the European hospital in Khan Younis.
The conflict began with Hamas’s assault on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, in which around 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken hostage. Forty-seven hostages remain in Gaza, of whom about 20 are believed to be alive.
Israel’s subsequent offensive has killed at least 63,000 Palestinians, mostly civilians, according to figures from Gaza’s health ministry that are regarded as reliable by the United Nations. The war has left much of the territory in ruins and pushed it into a deep humanitarian crisis. Earlier this month the UN declared a state of famine in Gaza, warning that 500,000 people faced “catastrophic” conditions.
The flotilla from Barcelona, organised under the banner Sumud (“Perseverance” in Arabic), is expected to reach Gaza in mid-September. Organisers, including European lawmakers and former Barcelona mayor Ada Colau, said it aimed to “break the illegal siege of Gaza” and “open a humanitarian corridor”. Brazilian activist Thiago Ávila described it as “the largest solidarity mission in history, with more people and more boats than all previous attempts combined”.
Additional boats are due to depart from Tunisia and other Mediterranean ports on 4 September. Israel intercepted two previous flotilla attempts in June and July.
Separately, the Israeli army said on Sunday it had struck a Hezbollah site in southern Lebanon, claiming its operation targeted activity that violated existing agreements between the two countries.
