Israel issues evacuation orders, tells Palestinians to flee for humanitarian zone as it targets more Gaza City high-rises

Israeli military officials issued evacuation orders Saturday urging Palestinians to flee south, shortly before warplanes obliterated a second Gaza City high-rise building in as many days.

The warning went out to residents of a 15-story residential tower and the adjacent encampments on social media at 1 p.m. local time.

“The Defense Army will attack the building soon due to the presence of Hamas terrorist infrastructure inside or near it,” Israeli military spokesperson Avichay Adraee wrote on X.

“For your safety, you are required to evacuate building immediately southward toward the humanitarian zone in Mawasi Khan Younis.”

About 40 minutes later, Adraee said the operation was complete. Defense Minister Israel Katz later posted a video of the building topple in seconds, along with the words: “We continue.”

Katz shared a similar video on Friday of another Hamas-suspected high rise in Gaza City collapsing to the ground with the caption: “We’re starting.”

The Israeli Defense Forces said Hamas had installed surveillance equipment in the building blasted Saturday to collect intelligence about its movements, and that it had planted explosive devices nearby to target the Israeli military.

Palestinians, however, claimed it had been used to shelter citizens displaced by the ongoing war.

“We were sitting at home and people started shouting,” said resident Aida Abu Kas. “We went out and didn’t know what to do.”

The bombing comes as the IDF advances deeper in Gaza in preparation to seize its largest city in the coming days.

The IDF estimates 70,000 Palestinians — out of roughly 1 million in Gaza City — have fled south over the last few days. Palestinian officials say the number is closer to 35,000.

Meanwhile, President Trump said the US is involved in “very deep negotiations” with the terror group to free the 20 remaining Israeli hostages believed to still be alive.

“We said let them all out, right now … and much better things will happen for them but if you don’t let them all out, it’s going to be a tough situation, it’s going to be nasty,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Friday, adding that Hamas was “asking for some things that are fine,” but did not elaborate.

The president added that of the 20 captives “there could be some that recently died, is what I’m hearing. I hope that’s wrong.”

It echoed similar comments Trump made last month. According to Israeli officials, 48 hostages are still being held by the terror group — 26 of whom have been declared dead, while authorities have expressed “grave concern” about the lives of two others.

Anat Angrest, the mother of hostage Matan Angrest, a 21-year-old IDF soldier captured by Hamas, said she received a call Friday night that her son’s life was in “immediate danger.”

“My Matan’s life is in immediate danger,” she posted on X Saturday, as she called on Israelis to join her in moving their weekly Saturday rally to Jerusalem to protest outside the home of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

With Post wires