Israeli Defense Minister Says Gates of Hell Are Opening in Gaza

The Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said the bolt has now been removed from the gates of hell in Gaza, vowing to intensify operations until Hamas accepts Israel’s terms to end the war.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said, the bolt is now being removed from the gates of hell in Gaza.

When the gate is opened, it will not be closed, and Israeli military activity will intensify, he wrote on X.

After Israeli forces levelled the 12-storey Mushtaha tower in Gaza, another five-storey building has received a forced evacuation order.

Israeli military spokesman Ephraim Defrin said it has taken over 40 percent of Gaza City and that its military operation is expected to escalate.

Israel expects its new offensive will displace around a million people towards the south.

Israel’s defence minister says the gates of hell are opening in Gaza as the military destroys a high-rise tower in a densely populated part of Gaza City as it attempts to seize control.

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 Friday, the military said it had identified significant Hamas terrorist 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.

The army said that before the strike, precautionary measures were taken in order to mitigate harm to civilians, including prior warnings.

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.