Israeli tanks and troops are now pushing on the northern edges of Gaza City, pounding neighborhoods with heavy shelling and drone fire, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu signals he is ready to greenlight a long-planned offensive to seize Gaza’s largest population center.

On Wednesday, Israeli forces rolled into the Ebad-Alrahman neighborhood on Gaza City’s northern flank, blasting homes and sending panicked residents fleeing deeper into the city. “All of a sudden, we heard that the tanks pushed in,” said Saad Abed, 60. “The explosions grew louder and louder… If no truce is reached, we will see the tanks outside our homes.”

Another resident, Tala al-Khatib, 29, described an overnight of relentless airstrikes: “Warplanes struck several times, and drones fired throughout the night. Wherever you flee, death follows you.”

As the battle grinds on, the IDF is urging civilians to flee before the assault begins in earnest. In a fiery video message, Col. Avichay Adraee, the IDF’s Arabic-language spokesman, dismissed claims that Gaza’s south cannot absorb more people.

“The evacuation of residents from Gaza City is inevitable,” he said, pointing to open areas in Al-Mawasi and central refugee camps that, he claimed, are “empty of tents and ready to receive evacuees.”

The IDF says it is racing to add two new humanitarian aid centers in southern Gaza, boosting the total to five, as hundreds of thousands continue to flee. UN figures estimate more than 800,000 Gazans have been displaced since the collapse of the March ceasefire.

The military push comes as Netanyahu’s government rejects international pleas for a phased hostage release deal with Hamas. Israel insists only a total surrender of hostages and Hamas’s disarmament will bring the war to an end.

Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter doubled down in an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper: “We’re looking at what the possibilities are for a ceasefire and a temporary deal, but it has to be very clear — it ends when Hamas ends.”

Leiter warned against partial hostage deals, arguing they could doom captives left behind: “We’ll get a few out now, and we’re never going to see the rest again.” He lashed out at Hamas’s foreign backers, blasting Turkey and Qatar for sheltering the group’s leaders. “Where the hell is Erdogan? Why are Hamas leaders sitting in Qatar right now?”

Inside Gaza, Israeli forces are intensifying attacks on Hamas strongholds. The IDF said its 99th Division destroyed multiple Hamas observation posts in the past 24 hours, while the 162nd Division fought gunmen in Jabalia. Meanwhile, the 36th Division, backed by air power, struck Khan Younis in the south, killing several operatives and smashing Hamas naval weapons facilities.

In a targeted strike, Israel said it eliminated Mahmoud al-Asoud, commander of Hamas’s General Security Apparatus in western Gaza, accusing him of orchestrating militant operations during the war.

And in a sign of lessons learned from the grinding urban campaign, the IDF announced it had created a brand-new engineering battalion under the Givati Brigade to dismantle tunnels and terror infrastructure on the front lines.

But Israel’s offensive has come at a heavy diplomatic cost. This week, a strike on the Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis killed at least 20 people — including five journalists — drawing fierce condemnation.

The IDF admitted it had targeted a Hamas surveillance camera on hospital grounds but insisted that six of the dead were militants. Still, international fury has grown. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, once a staunch supporter of Israel’s war, declared the strike “unjustifiable” and accused Israel of crossing the line of proportionality.

“We cannot remain silent in the face of too many innocent victims,” she said, pointedly noting the deaths of Christians in Gaza.

Israel’s UN Ambassador Danny Danon said more details about the hospital strike will be released “in the next few days,” insisting, “Our goal is to fight terrorists, not journalists.”

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