JERUSALEM: Israel warned more than one million residents of a northern zone around Gaza City to flee to the south as, according to a military spokesman, the Jewish state plans to step up air strikes to “increase pressure on Hamas”.

Israel believes that Hamas leaders and infrastructure are concentrated in the north. But hundreds of thousands of civilians are said to remain in and around Gaza City.

“We have to enter the next phase of the war in the best conditions, not according to what anyone tells us,” spokesman Admiral Daniel Hagari told a press conference.

“From today, we are increasing the strikes and minimising the danger. We will increase the attacks and therefore I call on Gaza City residents to continue moving south for their safety,” Hagari added.

The Israeli military said it aimed to reduce the risks its troops would face as they enter Gaza in the “next phase of the war on Hamas”.

An Israeli siege has cut food, water, electricity and fuel supplies to the densely populated territory of 2.4 million people, sparking fears of a humanitarian catastrophe.

Tens of thousands of Israeli troops have deployed to the Gaza border ahead of an expected ground offensive that officials have pledged will begin “soon”.

Israeli commanders visited frontline units on Saturday in a new sign of military readiness.

“We will enter Gaza,” Israel’s chief of staff Gen Herzi Halevi told an infantry brigade on a visit.

“Gaza is densely populated, the enemy is preparing a lot of things there. But we are also preparing for them,” Halevi said.

“We will enter for an operational mission, a professional one, to destroy Hamas activists,” he added.

Published in Dawn, October 22nd, 2023