On the morning of September 16, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said troops had entered Gaza City. According to him, the Israeli army was striking what he described as “terrorist infrastructure” in the Gaza Strip with an “iron fist.”
“Gaza is burning. IDF soldiers are fighting bravely to create the necessary conditions for freeing the hostages and defeating Hamas. We will not surrender and we will not retreat until our mission is completed,” Katz wrote on X.
The operation began several hours after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio held personal talks with Israel’s leadership. During a meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Rubio said the White House supported a ground operation in Gaza but hoped it would end as quickly as possible.
Before the offensive began, the IDF called on Palestinian residents to leave the city and move south to designated “humanitarian zones.”
“The Israel Defense Forces have begun dismantling Hamas terrorist infrastructure in Gaza City. Gaza City is a dangerous combat zone. Remaining in the city is dangerous. For your safety, evacuate as soon as possible to the declared safe zones by vehicle or on foot through the Al-Rashid corridor south of Wadi Gaza,” the military said.
The army also said that by that point more than 40% of the city’s residents had already left.
Military journalist Sergey Auslender told Novaya-Europe that, on the eve of the operation, Hamas had, in his account, moved hostages held in tunnels beneath the city to the surface and was using them as a human shield. He said that if the army learned where the captives were being held, it would be unlikely to bomb those areas, though it might try to free them by force. According to Auslender, a chain of hills lies to the northeast of the city, from which Israeli tanks are firing directly at urban neighborhoods, while IDF artillery also struck Gaza overnight into Tuesday. He added, citing an acquaintance in the military, that intelligence had identified many targets where militants were located.