JERUSALEM/ISTANBUL 

The Israeli army destroyed 25 residential towers in Gaza City in two days, Defense Minister Israel Katz said Wednesday, as Tel Aviv expanded an offensive to occupy the city.

“(This is) a huge and significant number in order to remove any threat of sniping for the maneuvering forces,” Katz said on his account on US social media company X.

“If Hamas does not release the hostages and disarm, Gaza will be destroyed and become a monument to the atrocities and murderers of Hamas,” he said.

On Tuesday, the Israeli army launched a new phase of its ground offensive in Gaza City as part of a broader strategy to reoccupy the entire city. Yet eyewitnesses and local sources told Anadolu there has been no broad incursion, only intensified shelling, drone fire and remote-controlled explosives that forced thousands of residents to flee.

On Wednesday, the army said that it had carried out more than 150 air and artillery strikes on Gaza City in two days.

According to Gaza’s Government Media Office, the Israeli army has completely or severely destroyed more than 3,600 buildings and towers in Gaza City since launching its latest offensive on Aug. 11.

The Israeli army has killed almost 65,000 Palestinians, most of them women and children, in Gaza since October 2023. The relentless bombardment has rendered the enclave uninhabitable and led to starvation and the spread of diseases.