Israel has started Gaza City invasion and is annihilating one of its most historic neighborhoods
Israeli army tank deploys near the Gaza border, 20 May 2025
Tareq S. Hajjaj reports in Mondoweiss on 21 August 2025:
Earlier this month, the Israeli army confirmed its plans to occupy Gaza City, with the invasion reportedly set to start on October 7. But on the ground, the invasion has already started.
On August 10, the Israeli army began invading the eastern parts of Gaza City, with Israeli ground forces moving into one of the city’s largest neighborhoods, al-Zaytoun. The neighborhood borders the Netzarim corridor to the south.
Locals from the Zaytoun neighborhood told Mondoweiss that they had received orders via phone calls to evacuate their homes to the southern Gaza Strip. Shortly after, the Israeli army started relentlessly bombarding the neighborhood.
Based on the pace of the carpet-bombing, locals in Gaza are now speculating that October 7 would not be the date Israel’s occupation of the city began, but the deadline for when Gaza City would be completely erased.
Mahmoud Basal, a spokesperson for the Gaza Civil Defense, says that the Israeli army has been present in the Zaytoun neighborhood since the beginning of the war. He explains that the Israeli army had conducted an operation in the eastern parts of Gaza City two months ago, when the Shuja’iyya neighborhood, adjacent to al-Zaytoun, was completely leveled.
Basal explains that the Israeli army’s most recent operation in the eastern areas began nine days ago with the intensive targeting of buildings overlooking the Netzarim corridor, starting on August 10. “We are talking about 450 buildings in the al-Zaytoun area that were destroyed in just nine days,” Basal said.
Then the ground forces began to approach. Basal says that on Tuesday night, Israeli tanks advanced 150 meters into al-Zaytoun until they reached the Sabra clinic, under cover of heavy artillery fire.
The tanks withdrew at dawn on Wednesday, Basal says, but the artillery shelling continues, destroying buildings and homes in the al-Zaytoun neighborhood. He confirms that residents of the area fear that a sudden invasion of the entire neighborhood is next, noting that 80% of Zeitoun’s residents have been evacuated, with those left behind remaining for lack of a better option.
“Not everyone will leave their homes,” Basal told Mondoweiss. “Some families don’t have tents or places to seek shelter, especially those who experienced displacement for the first time and experienced the bitterness of living in camps and tents. They have no intention of repeating that experience.”
“Previously, the displaced would head to Rafah and Khan Younis, but now those places no longer exist. The occupation destroyed them,” Basal said, adding that the only remaining place for the displaced is the coastal Mawasi area, which already suffers from overcrowding. “If the occupation were to occupy Gaza City, the lives of over a million people would be directly threatened.”
At least 75% of Gaza City’s infrastructure has been destroyed, Basal says, leading to a “catastrophic” collapse of the service system.
Israeli tanks roll into neighborhoods
Huda Abdul Rahman, a former resident of the al-Zaytoun neighborhood, explains the difficult situation facing residents, noting that shelling began falling randomly on homes above the heads of residents on Tuesday.