Netanyahu orders Gaza City residents to ‘leave now’ as six killed in attack

On The Ground newsletter: Get a weekly dispatch from our international correspondentsGet a weekly dispatch from our international correspondentsGet a weekly international news dispatchIsraeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned residents of Gaza City to “leave now” ahead of a ramped up military offensive, after at least six Israelis were killed in a shooting at a busy intersection in occupied east Jerusalem. The Israeli military has pushed ahead with a controversial plan to seize complete control over the largest city in Gaza, where Palestinian health authorities said 65 people had been killed in the last 24-hours alone. Israeli defence minister Israel Katz also vowed that a “powerful hurricane” would be unleashed there soon. In Jerusalem, meanwhile, Israeli police said on Monday that two Palestinian attackers opened fire around 10.15am local time at people waiting at a bus stop near Ramot Junction at the northern entrance to the city on a road leading to a settlement. The junction is located in a part of Jerusalem that Israel captured in the 1967 war and later annexed in a move that the United Nations and most countries do not recognise.Paramedics described a chaotic scene, with victims lying wounded and unconscious on the road and pavement. Israel’s Shin Bet internal security agency said the two attackers were 20 and 21-year-old Palestinians from the West Bank with no prior arrest. Calling it a “terror attack”, Israeli police said they were killed swiftly after the shooting began.Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrived at the scene some two hours after the shooting. The premier was supposed to be in court on Monday for his ongoing corruption trial, which was delayed due to the attack. He warned that Israel is “fighting a war on multiple fronts,” including Gaza, the West Bank, and Israel. open image in gallery(AFP/Getty)Later he warned residents of Gaza that Israel would be ramping up its devastating strikes. ”I say to the residents of Gaza, I take this opportunity and listen to me carefully: you have been warned ‘leave now’,” he said at the air force command centre in Tel Aviv on Monday. Netanyahu said forces are now organising and assembling into Gaza City for a ground “manoeuvre”.The shooting took place against the backdrop of nearly two years of Israel’s devastating bombardment of Gaza launched in the aftermath of Hamas bloody 7 October 2023 attacks which killed over 1000 people and saw over 250 people taken hostage. Since then Israel’s bombings have killed over 64,000 people, according to local officials, destroyed most of the besieged strip and pushed the enclave into famine. In parallel in the West Bank, Palestinians have faced crippling Israeli military restrictions and a surge in deadly attacks by Jewish settlers, as well as military raids and arrests, and the largest forced displacement since 1967, according to rights group like Oxfam. In tandem there has also been a spike in Palestinian militant activity. On Monday, Israel’s paramedic service Maged David Adom said a 50-year-old man and three men in their 30s were among the people that died. A woman in her 50s was pronounced dead after being taken to a hospital in critical condition. Seven people were in serious condition with gunshot wounds and several others were “lightly injured by glass”, Magen David Adom said. A pregnant woman was amongst those injured, Mr Saar said. Spain’s foreign ministry said a Spanish citizen was among those killed and condemned the attack. France, the EU and the United Arab Emirates also issued statements of condemnation.A security officer and a civilian who were at the scene shot and killed the attackers, police said.Officers at the scene recovered weapons used by the attackers, including ammunition and a knife, police added.Witnesses in the occupied West Bank described mass raids by Israeli security forces and shared footage of armoured vehicles heading to different towns. The Israeli military said it was encircling Palestinian villages on the outskirts of the nearby West Bank city of Ramallah. In a statement, Hamas said: “We affirm that this operation is a natural response to the occupation’s crimes and war of extermination it is waging against our people.” It did not claim the attack.open image in gallery(Reuters)Israel Katz wrote on X before the shooting: “This is a final warning to the murderers and rapists of Hamas in Gaza and in luxury hotels abroad: Release the hostages and lay down your weapons—or Gaza will be destroyed, and you will be annihilated.“The IDF continues as planned—and is preparing to expand the manoeuvre to decisively defeat Gaza.”Over the past few days, Israel has ordered people to flee ahead of its ground offensive into the city of some 1 million residents, which experts say is experiencing famine. US President Donald Trump said that he was giving his “last warning” to Hamas regarding a possible ceasefire, as Arab officials described a new U.S. proposal for the immediate release of all the remaining hostages in exchange for 3,000 Palestinians and a temporary ceasefire.



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