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JERUSALEM: The Israeli military said it struck a high-rise in Gaza City on Friday, shortly after announcing it would target a range of structures identified as being used by Hamas, particularly tall buildings.
Israel has been expanding its forces, intensifying its bombardments and operating on the outskirts of Gaza City ever since announcing its plans to capture the Palestinian territory’s largest urban center after nearly two years of devastating war.
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.”
“In the coming days, the (Israeli military) will strike structures that have been converted into terrorist infrastructure in Gaza City: cameras, observation command centers, sniper and anti-tank firing positions, command-and-control compounds,” the statement said.
Less than an hour later, the army issued another statement announcing it had struck one such high-rise, adding Hamas had used it “to advance and execute attacks against (Israeli) troops in the area.”
An animated infographic accompanying the first statement showed a video camera on top of a tower block with a Hamas “observation command center” in the building and an “underground tunnel route” below.
The army said that before Friday’s strike, “precautionary measures were taken in order to mitigate harm to civilians,” including prior warnings.
“The news about Israel beginning to bomb towers and apartment buildings is terrifying. Everyone is scared and doesn’t know where to go,” said Ahmed Abu Wutfa, 45, who lives in his relatives’ partially destroyed fifth-floor apartment in western Gaza City.
“My children are terrified, and so am I. There is no safe place — we only hope that death comes quickly,” he told AFP by telephone.
Gaza’s civil defense agency said Israeli strikes killed 19 people on Friday in and around Gaza City, an area which the United Nations estimates is home to nearly one million people.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said in a statement on Friday that: “the bolt has now been removed from the gates of hell in Gaza.”

DUBAI: The UAE has warned Israel that any move to annex parts of the occupied Palestinian territories would cross a “red line” and destabilize the region, underscoring the UAE’s support for Palestinian statehood despite its normalization of ties with Israel in recent years.

The Emirates News Agency (WAM) reported that Khalifa Shaheen Al-Marar, a UAE minister of state, confirmed the Emirati stance on Thursday following the conclusion of the 164th session of the Council of Arab Foreign Ministers.

The rebuke had been circulating in the press after statements made by Emirati special envoy Lana Nusseibeh in a Times of Israel interview earlier in the week.

“Israel’s annexation of the West Bank or any part of the occupied Palestinian territories represents a red line, and taking such a step would undermine regional security,” Al-Marar said.

He said the Emirates were committed to protecting Palestinian rights and pursuing a two-state solution as the only viable path to a comprehensive peace.

He added that the Cairo meetings, chaired by the UAE, produced a consensus among Arab states on the urgent need to halt the war in Gaza, reject Israeli displacement policies, and prevent any attempt to erase the Palestinian cause through annexation.

“The UAE continues to deliver humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip and is proceeding, within the framework of its relations with sisterly Arab states, to find a solution that ensures halting the war and restoring stability in the Strip, followed by necessary political and humanitarian arrangements,” Al-Marar said.

The UAE normalized relations with Israel in 2020 under the US-brokered Abraham Accords, becoming the first Gulf state to formally establish diplomatic ties with the Jewish state. The move opened avenues for trade, investment, and technology cooperation, according to WAM, non-oil bilateral trade volume between the UAE and Israel reached more than $2.5 billion in 2022.

But the relationship has been complicated by Israel’s military campaigns in Gaza and the stalled peace process with the Palestinians.

Emirati officials have repeatedly balanced deepening economic and diplomatic engagement with Israel against firm rhetorical support for Palestinian rights.

In recent years, the UAE has also used its position as a regional mediator — engaging with the US, European powers, and Arab states to press for de-escalation in Gaza and for renewed international commitment to a two-state solution.

The long road to Palestinian statehood

An Arab News Deep Dive

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