As Israeli occupation forces [IOF] intensify their military assault by air, land, and sea on Gaza City—seeking to destroy the city, dismantle its health system, and forcibly displace its population to the south of Wadi Gaza—they simultaneously violate these same areas, targeting them with airstrikes and committing massacres. This underscores the reality that no place is safe in the Gaza Strip, contradicting Israel’s false claims of so-called “safe” or “humanitarian” zones.

According to information gathered by PCHR field staff, Israeli forces have increased their use of booby-trapped robots laden with tons of explosives in residential neighbourhoods in southern, eastern, and northern Gaza City. At the same time, airstrikes have continued to target homes and shelters across the city, while repeated daily displacement orders continue to demand that residents and the displaced move south of Wadi Gaza.

In recent hours, the ground assault has expanded on several fronts. This morning, Israeli forces advanced to within one kilometre of al-Shifa Medical Complex from the north. Tanks have also been deployed around Al-Quds Open University in al-Nasr neighbourhood and in parts of Sheikh Radwan. Yesterday, the IOF reached the university district in Tel al-Hawa, south of Gaza City. These advances were accompanied by heavy aerial and artillery bombardment and intense gunfire from Israeli vehicles.

The assault has forced al-Rantisi Children’s Hospital and the Eye Hospital out of service, while the Medical Relief Society clinic in Gaza City was destroyed, according to the Ministry of Health. This forms part of Israel’s systematic policy of dismantling the health system and obstructing humanitarian response, aimed at pressuring the hundreds of thousands of remaining residents and displaced people to leave Gaza City.

Since last Tuesday until this afternoon, Israeli forces have killed 561 Palestinians in their attacks on the Gaza Strip, including 446 in Gaza City alone—representing about 85% of the victims killed.

Among incidents documented by PCHR’s researchers in recent days:

• At around 01:15 on Sunday, 21 September 2025, Israeli warplanes bombed a residential block in al-Sabra neighbourhood, southeast Gaza City, killing a large number of residents under the rubble. Civil Defence crews recovered 23 bodies, most of them from the Dughmush family, including 6 women and 11 children. At least 40 more remain trapped under the debris.
• At around 03:30 a.m. the same day, Israeli aircraft bombed a tent sheltering displaced people in al-Yarmouk area in central Gaza City, killing 4 members of the Abu Amsha family, including three siblings (one a young girl) and a child.
• At around 08:30 a.m. the same day, Israeli aircraft targeted the home of the family of Dr. Mohamed Abu Salmiya, Director-General of al-Shifa Medical Complex, in al-Shati’ Camp, west Gaza City. Dr. Abu Salmiya has been repeatedly incited against by Israeli authorities and is currently detained. The strike killed his brother, his brother’s wife, and their two children.

Despite repeated orders by the IOF for civilians to move south of Wadi Gaza, these areas have also been subject to bombardment.

On Monday, 22 September 2025, at around 08:50 a.m., Israeli warplanes attacked a tent sheltering displaced persons west of al-Sawarha, southwest of Nuseirat Camp in the central governorate, killing Shukri Mohamed Kamel Ayash, 42, and injuring two others.

On Sunday, 21 September 2025, at around 14:45, an Israeli drone attacked a crowd of civilians gathered outside an UNRWA health centre in al-Bureij Camp, central Gaza, killing 8 civilians, including 3 children and 3 women, and injuring 22 others.

On Saturday, 20 September 2025, at around 18:05, Israeli aircraft struck another crowd of civilians southwest of Nuseirat Camp, killing 3 people and injuring 5 others.

These crimes are part of Israel’s ongoing policy of systematically targeting civilians and civilian infrastructure—including hospitals, health centres, and displacement camps—in grave violation of international humanitarian law.

Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of civilians remain on the streets without shelter, and tens of thousands more face severe challenges in evacuating due to lack of resources to reach the south, where overcrowding in al-Mawasi makes it impossible.

Displaced persons, including PCHR field staff, reported that even areas designated by the Israeli army as “humanitarian zones,” such as eastern Hamad City in Khan Younis, are subjected to daily artillery fire and gunfire, rendering them uninhabitable.

PCHR’s field teams continue to face serious obstacles in documentation due to the extreme danger, ongoing mass displacement, and relentless Israeli bombardment across all neighbourhoods.

The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights reiterates its warning of the ongoing massacres, systematic destruction, and deliberate targeting of civilians in Gaza City, constituting a crime of genocide against Palestinians and an attempt to erase their physical and cultural existence.

PCHR calls on the international community to fulfil its obligations by halting this military assault and preventing Israel from continuing its destruction of Gaza City—a historic city with hundreds of cultural and historical landmarks that remains home to hundreds of thousands of residents and displaced persons.

PCHR further urges the international community, the United Nations, and the Security Council to act immediately, including:

• Ensuring immediate protection of civilians.
• Opening safe corridors for the entry of medical and food aid.
• Halting the use of methods and weapons that target civilian neighbourhoods.
• Compelling Israel to end its ongoing genocide against the population of the Gaza Strip.