Two Israeli army divisions launched attacks on the outskirts of Gaza City on Wednesday, as part of a plan to occupy the city amid a genocide that has continued for nearly 23 months.
اضافة اعلان
In a statement, the Israeli army said: “In northern Gaza, the 162nd Division continues fighting in Jabalia and on the outskirts of Gaza City.”
It added: “Simultaneously, the 99th Division is operating on the outskirts of Gaza City to detect and destroy what it claimed were military structures above and below ground.”
The statement continued: “In recent hours, our forces attacked and destroyed several sites that posed threats to them.”
On August 8, the Israeli government approved a plan proposed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to gradually reoccupy the entire Gaza Strip, starting with Gaza City.
Regarding southern Gaza, the army said Wednesday that “the 36th Division is operating around Khan Younis.”
Separately, the army announced the assassination of a Hamas security official, stating: “On August 22, 2025, a warplane struck Mahmoud Al-Aswad, head of the western Gaza area in Hamas’s General Security Service.”
As of 08:20 GMT, Hamas had not commented on the report.
Also on Wednesday, two Palestinians were killed and others injured in an Israeli airstrike targeting a house in the Al-Daraj neighborhood in central Gaza City, according to medical sources cited by Anadolu Agency.
Nine other Palestinians were injured in another airstrike targeting a tent near the Sheikh Radwan Cemetery north of the city.
Since August 11, the Israeli army has waged a large-scale offensive in the Al-Zaytoun neighborhood southeast of Gaza City, which has included demolishing homes with booby-trapped robots, artillery shelling, random gunfire, and forced displacement.
Backed by the United States, Israel has been committing genocide in Gaza since October 7, 2023, involving killings, starvation, destruction, and forced displacement, while ignoring all international appeals and International Court of Justice orders to halt the campaign.
The genocide has resulted in 62,819 Palestinians killed, 158,629 wounded—most of them women and children—more than 9,000 missing persons, hundreds of thousands displaced, and a famine that has killed 303 Palestinians, including 117 children, as of Tuesday.
For decades, Israel has occupied Palestine as well as territories in Syria and Lebanon, refusing to withdraw or allow the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital, based on the pre-1967 borders.
(Agencies)
