Annihilation in Gaza City as Israel escalates ground offensive, Katz declares 'Gaza is burning'

Israel continued its brutal ground offensive on Gaza City on Tuesday, relentlessly pounding the area, as Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz declared that "Gaza is burning" and vowed that Israel would "not relent, and we will not go back – until the completion of the mission".

The escalation came as US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that Hamas has only a matter of days or weeks to accept a ceasefire deal.

Rubio, who was in Israel on Monday meeting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said that Israeli forces had commenced ground operations in Gaza City.

"So I think we have a very short window of time in which a deal can happen," he told reporters, adding "we don’t have months anymore, and we probably have days and maybe a few weeks to go".

This comes despite Hamas previously having said they agreed to a ceasefire deal, but were met with Israel rejecting the proposal and escalating the offensive.

In his remarks, Rubio said that the US would like to see a negotiated settlement agreed on, where Hamas demilitarises.

“If any country in the world can help mediate [the conflict], Qatar is the one,” he continued, on the same day Doha lambasted Israel’s attack on their capital while officials were discussing the terms of a truce deal.

'Annihilation'

Meanwhile, the attacks on Gaza City have been so fierce, Israeli political commentator Ori Goldberg said on Monday, that the bombardment "can be heard in central Israel", calling it "annihilation" and a "genocide".

According to the UN, around 70,000 people have left Gaza City due to forced evacuation orders from Israel and being targeted by Israeli bombs. Displaced Palestinians have no access to transport or essentials such as food and water.

The attacks on Gaza City have systematically targeted high-rise buildings and residential blocks, levelling them to the ground.

At least two more children died from hunger on Tuesday due to the Israeli-imposed blockade on the Strip. The total number of Palestinians who have died due to malnutrition and hunger has now reached 425, according to the Palestinian health ministry.

Hamas on Tuesday issued a statement criticising US President Donald Trump’s administration, stating it "blatantly favours Zionist propaganda and condones ethnic cleansing".

The group added that Trump has "overlooked the crime of ethnic cleansing and the martyrdom of some 65,000 innocent civilians in the Gaza Strip".

"The US administration knows that the war criminal Netanyahu is working to destroy all chances of reaching an agreement that would lead to the release of prisoners and halt the brutal war of extermination on the Strip, the latest of which was the criminal attack on Qatar and the attempted assassination of the negotiating delegation," the statement continued.

The latest developments come as UN investigators have called on member states of the UN to end the genocide in Gaza, allow full access to humanitarian aid, and end policies which are causing starvation in the Strip.

Israel’s war on Gaza has killed 64,871 Palestinians since October 2023 and wounded an additional 164,610 others in the same time frame. Thousands more are believed to be still trapped under the rubble.

The war on Gaza has been determined to be a genocide by leading rights groups, including Amnesty International. Israel has also killed over 200 journalists in the Strip since the start of the war.