The IDF on Sunday night destroyed a third high-rise building in the Gaza City area in as many days, as the countdown to a full-scale invasion continues.
On Friday, the military destroyed one such building, and on Saturday, a second one, all leading to the third building being destroyed on Sunday, after the IDF had warned residents to evacuate the area surrounding each of them.
Although the IDF has said that Hamas or other terror groups are using the buildings as lookout posts to follow the movements of its forces and to potentially plan or direct ambushes, it seems that the military is also destroying buildings to increase the stream of evacuees southward from Gaza City.
For weeks, the IDF has been warning Palestinians to evacuate Gaza City and head south.
However, last week, a senior defense official said that only up to 80,000 out of over one million Palestinians had evacuated.
It appears that striking the buildings is one way that the military has been trying to increase the evacuation trend.
IDF only struck high-rise buildings if Hamas officials, assets located there
During other points in this war and other years of conflict with Gaza, the IDF only struck high-rise buildings if a top Hamas commander or some other strategic Hamas asset was contained there – not merely to eliminate one more modest lookout post.
The reason that the military was always careful not to attack such buildings, absent some very high-profile target, was the high level of potential harm to civilians, as well as the massive diplomatic pressure globally against such targeting.
However, in the new situation where the government wants to get all Palestinian civilians to evacuate from Gaza City in order to take it over, the specific humanitarian issue works in the opposite way of how it would normally work.
Now, anything that can get civilians afraid enough to leave is advancing Israel’s current strategy of emptying the city of anyone other than hardcore Hamas fighters.
Likewise, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu seems to have decided that, as long as he has support from the Trump administration, he is willing to thumb his nose at the rest of the world.
In addition, IDF ground forces intensified their invasion of Zeitun, which is adjacent to parts of Gaza City.
Predictions about when a larger invasion of Gaza City will take place range from the coming weeks to months, with tensions between Netanyahu and IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Eyal Zamir about how to run the invasion.
Zamir is still hoping for a partial hostage deal in place of the invasion and for a slow invasion, avoiding risks to the hostages, IDF soldiers, and Palestinian civilians where possible.
Netanyahu prefers the invasion option and for it to be wrapped up rapidly.