IDF Strikes Hundreds of Hamas Targets As Troops Gear Up For Gaza City Offensive
“The Israeli Air Force struck over 500 targets in Gaza City this week in five main waves,”
The Israeli Air Force (IAF) carried out hundreds of strikes in Gaza City as ground troops prepare for a major offensive to capture the Hamas stronghold.
Israeli fighter jets “struck over 500 targets in Gaza City this week in five main waves,” the Israeli TV channel i24NEWS reported Friday evening. The strikes are “part of the military’s preparations for an imminent major ground offensive against Palestinian jihadists of Hamas in the area, the military said on Friday.”
The military “continues its wide-scale strikes on terrorist infrastructure and high-rise structures that had been converted into military infrastructure in Gaza City,” the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a press release Friday.
The air force carried out multiple waves of strikes, hitting Hamas observation points, jihadi fighters, and terror tunnels during the course of this week. The military described the strikes as being “part of the next stage of Gideon’s Chariots II,” referring to the impending offensive to take over Gaza City.
Hamas’s most combat-ready terrorist fighters are believed to be hiding in the area. According to a recent Israeli intelligence assessment, an estimated 10 out of 20 living hostages are being held in and around the city.
The IDF says it struck a high-rise tower that was being used by Hamas in Gaza City a short while ago, shortly after issuing an evacuation warning for Palestinians in the area.
According to the military, Hamas placed military infrastructure in the building to advance attacks on… https://t.co/qYmbWsgnoS pic.twitter.com/JzVJleQfNx
— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) September 13, 2025
“This week, the IDF completed five waves of strikes in Gaza City,” the statement said. “After the first three waves focused on the Daraj Tuffah and al-Furqan area, the IAF completed two additional waves that expanded to the al-Shati area and further areas in al-Furqan.”
🎯STRUCK: A Hamas high-rise building that was used by the terrorist organization in Gaza City.
The building included military infrastructure used to advance and execute terrorist attacks against IDF troops in the area.
Prior to the strike, several steps were taken in order to… pic.twitter.com/8qtQCnBFGp
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) September 13, 2025
The IDF continued its strikes on Saturday, hitting a high-rise building in Gaza City. Hamas has been using the city’s towers and tall buildings as observation points and command centers.
“A short while ago, [Israeli fighter jets] struck a high-rise building that was used by the Hamas terrorist organization in the area of Gaza City,” the military disclosed on Saturday. “Within the building, Hamas established military infrastructure used to advance and execute terrorist attacks against IDF troops in the area.”
As the IDF prepares for a ground offensive in the area, these elevated positions can be used by Hamas to hit advancing tanks and infantry. “There has been a focus on multi-story buildings that have been converted into terrorist infrastructure,” The Jerusalem Post noted Friday, ahead of the latest strike.
Despite Hamas threats, civilians follow IDF’s call to evacuate Gaza City
Amid reports that Hamas was threatening Gazans to stay in the city and setting up ambushes to target people leaving for safety, the IDF was doing everything possible to prevent civilian casualties during the airstrikes. The Israeli military took “extensive measures” to “minimize the risk of harming civilians as much as possible,” the IDF statement added.
The IDF has begun dropping leaflets over western Gaza City urging residents to leave.
The leaflets warn: “For your safety, evacuate immediately.”
— Aviva Klompas (@AvivaKlompas) September 13, 2025
The Israeli efforts to evacuate Gaza City appear to be bearing fruit, with hundreds of thousands of civilians leaving the Hamas-infested area, Israel’s Ynetnews reported Saturday:
As Israel prepares for a possible ground operation in Gaza City under the ongoing Operation Gideon’s Chariots, more than 250,000 residents have fled the city in recent days, IDF Arabic-language spokesperson Lt. Col. Avichay Adraee said on Saturday, citing military estimates.
In an X post, Adraee urged civilians to evacuate via al-Rashid Street to designated humanitarian zones in the al-Mawasi area and the built-up refugee camps in the enclave’s central region. He emphasized that those areas offer significantly better humanitarian conditions, including medical services.
“The IDF is determined to defeat Hamas in Gaza City and is expanding its strikes to that end,” Adraee wrote. “Hamas’s attempts to spread falsehoods and prevent your evacuation reflect its willingness to risk your lives for its survival. For your safety, leave now and report any roadblocks set up by Hamas terrorists.”
The Israeli military dropped leaflets on Gaza City ordering its 1 million residents to evacuate immediately amid intensifying strikes.
Palestinians say they have been instructed to go to a "humanitarian zone" that does not exist. pic.twitter.com/gfwMl3TxTx
— DW News (@dwnews) September 9, 2025
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Comments
The important part was the warnings to get out.
Yes. The residents were warned. If they -choose- not to leave it’s on them. If Hamas won’t let them leave it’s on Hamas…. whom the residents had previously chosen to follow.
Because it can’t swim, a scorpion asks a passing frog to carry it on its back across a river. The frog hesitates and says, “You’ll sting me!” The scorpion says, “Oh no, I wouldn’t do that, because if I sting you, we’ll both drown.” So the frog is convinced, and agrees to the arrangement, and halfway across the river, the scorpion stings the frog. “Why did you do it?” gasps the frog. “I couldn’t help it,” says the scorpion. “It’s my nature.”
Level it.
Good. Don’t stop until the job is done!
Israel has already done this in the previous years of this war, and Netanyahu literally just said evacuation to start next month to allow the operation.
Netanyahu is by far the biggest advocate of Sitskrieg since Daladier. He is so out of touch he thinks prolonging the war in a way to try and pander to the left will win over Europe it won’t.
Here is how to win over Europe to Israel’s existence to prevent Israel from becoming a South Africa under apartheid level rogue state
1. Surrender, beg for forgiveness, do show trials by the tens of thousands, all people who had a senior level in government or military commit suicide.
2. END THE WAR IN VICTORY TODAY, removing the Hamas Ministry of Health and providing the real information about casualties and food supplies..
Did I say today? I meant yesterday
Did I say yesterday I meant last year.
The longer this goes on the worst it is for Israel. The fake images are doing exactly the same thing real images would the difference is the ZERO advances being made NO land being taken, and LIMITED damage to tunnels is not winning the war.
If clearing Hamas out of Gaza isn’t worth spending a billion dollars on a transitional government to post Gaza and they are oh soooo too pure to start a temporary occupation the time to surrender was yesterday
Did I say yesterday?
I meant last year.
The ONLY thing Netanyahu is achieving right now is making Israel a pariah state.
Hamas operates in the most radicalized population on Earth, and only uses canon fodder it doesn’t have to train and is easily replaced as in kill Hamas personnel and they are replaced within minutes.
Trump isn’t a god, and he isn’t a king his term is 4 years and he is term limited, and there is a good chance J.D. Vance will join the anti-Israel side when he comes into office.
If Netanyahu is serious it is time for him to do it NOW.
His claiming next month has convinced me he is acting.
Victory now or surrender now, Israel has no other options compatible with survival in the long term.
Israel has never gone this hard for this long against Hamas in the 6 or 7 other wars started by them. It is different this time as I suspect the Juices have finally realised that no one else is going to save them.
Israel is out of time right now. The price in western public opinion for continuing under the media landscape is severe.
The only way to debunk the media is to win and dismantle the Hamas ministry of health, have a few months of total control showing they are not out to kill Palestinians, and have a real count of the war damage done that isn’t performed by Hamas.
Failing that the longer the west thinks Israel is performing a genocide the less likely recovery is.
Africa and Asia outside of India hate Israel today, and South America and Central America is largely anti-Israel despite a few notable exceptions, Canada and Mexico are firmly in the anti-Israel column as is Australia.
Europe is not replaceable if Israel wishes to continue her existence.
Hamas has taken targeted strikes inflicting casualties for years at this point. Everyone is easily replicable and they want martyrdom.
If Israel isn’t serious about winning it is time for them to stop.
This is coming from someone 100% convinced Israel is in the right, that it should be supported both by America and the West, and who takes pride in Trump being an Israel supporter.
Israel apparently does not care about your sensibilities or that of Europe, but its own survival.
Let’s watch how the Europeans deal with the growing threats they face. Bet Israel will come out smelling like a rose in comparison.
Measure the position Israel would be in if it employed blitzkrieg in Gaza to end the war with Hamas removed quickly to the position it is in today.
What’s your point. Compare something that did not happen? To prove what? It’s not Israel’s fault that Biden’s crowd was in charge. What are you trying to prove with all these suggestions? Was Israel ever free to do what you seem to suggest?
Hell, the EU has been trying to pick a fight with Putin for four years. (The US played its roll too, during the Biden administration.) They’re in no position to lecture Israel about damage and destruction when they’re itching to do the same to Russia and for less cause. Who believes that in a fight with Russia the EU would do half of what Israel does in an attempt to prevent civilian casualties?
I was not making a moral argument but a practical one.
Lets do this thought experiment
At the start of the war Israel enjoyed over 3/4 of American support.
That has plummeted due to depictions of the war in media and tik tok.
Would Israel be more secure in America with the genocide blood libel debunked by a temporary occupation of Gaza leading to a peaceful independent autocracy that prepares the next generation for deradicalization (Blitzkrieg outcome)
Or another year if this with further plummets in American opinion (the current Sitskrieg outcome because Hamas loves martyrdom and everyone in Hamas is easily replaced).
The same cure Israel has to her crisis in America cures her crisis in Europe.
If Israel wants to extirpate Hamas but wants no occupation she is effectively asking for the impossible.
To put it into simple terms if heavy casualties for Hamas (people who want to become martyrs) didn’t do it for two years why would it do it two years from now?
On the other hand the downward trajectory of public perceptions of Israel is continuing with no end in sight.
Hamas loves the status quo. They have good reason to.
Israel is in a struggle for its long-term survival. It has learned that putting a band-aid on the Palestinian problem doesn’t help and that the Muslim world has been completely unhelpful (along with everyone else, but the Muslims have a responsibility to take care of their own, as Israel absorbed most of the 740,000 Jews who were expelled from Muslim countries when Israel declared its independence) when it comes to solving it. It’s decided that the world’s opinion no longer matters, because the world is more concerned with maintaining an asp in Israel’s bosom than it is in solving the problem. It’s about time that Israel came to this realization. Good luck to them in finally solving this problem for themselves.
Thought experiments are useless. The type of stuff of think tanks from people removed from what occurs on the ground. The great ideas have often been considered and rejected because they fail to account for issues never fathomed by the advice givers.
Like with Trump, no matter what path is followed, the regulars will find fault. They cannot dictate doing what is necessary and right, even if it is tragic that it must happen.
‘….join the anti Israel side’? Surely you don’t believe that means joining with Hamas which is what the ‘anti Israel side’ means in the context of the, IMO, absolutely necessary Israeli military operation in Gaza to clean out terrorists. You may as well write off Europe, the EU Nations are too intimidated by their domestic ‘migrant’ population to back Israel. Even if those Nations didn’t retain most of their historic antisemitism they’d be constrained by their moral cowardice.
The sum total of countries outside of Europe that support Israel are assuming Argentinians agree with their government Argentina, Tonga, and India.
Europe isn’t replaceable to them if they wish to avoid rogue state status.
Europe also has plenty of anti-migrant and anti-immigration people. Meloni is openly anti-immigration and does not support the Israeli side today, and it is not clear if she will be among those vetoing the EU requested boycott of Israel and cancellation of all ties with Israel. Viktor Orban will veto it.
You also underestimate the psychological impact of being placed in the same position as Apartheid South Africa.
Israel has two options for how to defeat the genocide charge in Europe and so not be a constant drain on America
1. Win the war, let a real count happen, let Europeans see what happens when Israel win overtly defeating the genocide lie
2. Lose the war and try to slowly recover (which is unlikely and effectively asking for a miracle).
Extending the war indefinitely is an alternative to Israel surviving.
Danny,
The problem with your argument is that you keep insisting on ‘not genocide’ as a precondition for an Israeli victory while also claiming victory won’t take decades. IMO, at minimum, the more expansive definition of ‘genocide’ is gonna be required to achieve it; displacement of the existing population in Gaza.
Failure to remove the population out of Gaza, following a concerted effort to ID, locate and kill as many Hamas affiliated/sympathizers as possible will result at best in a decades long occupation resembling what Britain faced in Northern Ireland.
As for your insistence that the opinion of the European Nations matters…in the long run maybe but not in short term survival decisions. In any event the leaders of those Nations ain’t gonna be ‘pro Israel’. In longer term at best they would continue to allow trade with Israel and assume a more honest public position of neutrality. Expecting anything more from EU Nations is foolish.
Newflash, Danny – Any country that considers Israel a pariah state today wasn’t Israel’s friend at the start of the war anyway. Why does Israel have to be the one to stop the fighting when Hamas could surrender and lay down their weapons this instant? Any outcome that doesn’t include Hamas’ surrender and removal from power is a win for Hamas. That’s just the way it is. Hamas cannot be allowed to survive after what it did to Israel. No other country would tolerate such an attack and not fight until its enemy (especially one with which a border is shared) was destroyed. (The Pearl Harbor attack and the demand for Japan’s unconditional surrender comes to mind immediately. Should the US have settled for anything less and just chased the Japanese back to their home islands?)
“I pursued my enemies and overtook them; I did not turn back until they were destroyed. I crushed them so that they could not rise; they fell beneath my feet.”
Psalm 18:37
At issue is I think Israel could win any time at this point.
I think it is in Israel’s power to send in the ground forces and end the war by WINNING.
Continuing the war indefinitely bleeds Israel of support and turns people against it.
If Israel doesn’t want to win and fears being left in an occupation more than it cares about extirpating Hamas and debunking the blood libel it is time to end the war now. If it wants to extirpate Hamas it is time to do it now.
It does not take decades to capture an area smaller than Salt Lake City.
Israel wants the war to continue? Well, that’s insane. Until now, they’ve been too timid to do what’s necessary to destroy Hamas. They were hoping for a better resolution that unilaterally ceasing hostilities, which would serve no purpose except to set up another October 7th some time in the future. Netanyahu has finally figured out that Israel’s interests are best served by the destruction of Hamas and (probably) the removal of the “Palestinians” from Gaza.
Rules of engagement have changed? IDF rules of engagement don’t allow burning of atlanta like sherman? So IDF is forced to play wack-a-mole game chasing hamas from building to building until all buildings are destroyed, or hamas surrenders. Difficult to understand as armchair general keyboard warrior on the internet.
Thanks for update, Vijeta.
hate to say it but selective targets might not really do the job….
ww2 wasnt won with that strategy
we are in a different era now but that fact remain the same
👍