Israel intensified its troop buildup on Tuesday as reservists began responding to call-ups in preparation for an offensive aimed at capturing Gaza City in the north of the besieged and devastated enclave after nearly two years of war with Hamas.

Civil Defense reported that at least 45 people were killed across the Gaza Strip since dawn on Tuesday, as Israel intensified its bombing and operations on Gaza City, the largest city in the Strip, over the past few days. The Jewish state is proceeding with its plan to seize control of the city, despite mounting international and domestic pressure to end the war in Gaza, where the United Nations declared a famine last month.

The United Nations estimates that the population of the Gaza Governorate, which includes Gaza City and the surrounding areas, is approximately one million, although thousands of residents have fled the city in the northern Gaza Strip.

While Israeli media reported that the gradual mobilization of tens of thousands of reserve soldiers began on Tuesday, Channel 12 reported that a second wave of call-up orders was expected in November.

Military spokesman Avichay Adraee said via the X platform on Tuesday that the army is making"logistical and operational preparations in preparation for expanding the scope of the fighting and extensive recruitment of reserve forces."

In late August, Defense Minister Israel Katz approved the army's plan to attack Gaza City and call up approximately 60,000 reserve soldiers.

According to an Israeli military official, the forces leading the next phase of operations in Gaza will be regular forces, not reserves.

“The sound of bombing and destruction”

Civil Defense spokesman in Gaza, Mahmoud Basal, told Agence France-Presse that"at least 45 martyrs have fallen in the Gaza Strip since dawn today as a result of Israeli bombing."

Among the dead were 13 people killed when "occupation aircraft targeted the top floor of a building belonging to the Al-Ashi family... west of the Tal Al-Hawa neighborhood" in southwest Gaza City.

AFP footage from the aftermath of the airstrike in the Tal al-Hawa neighborhood showed massive destruction to an apartment building, where rescue workers and residents searched for those trapped under the rubble before recovering the body of a child.

Sanaa Al-Dreimli, a resident of the neighborhood, said, “We were sleeping safely in our homes. We woke up to the sound of bombing and destruction, only to find all our neighbors killed and injured.”

She added,"They are all lifeless bodies. What is the fault of these children? What did we do to deserve all this?"

Outside the city's Al-Shifa Medical Complex, residents paid their respects to the victims of Israeli strikes, whose bodies filled the morgue and the floor of the room where they lay.

In response to a request from AFP for comment on the incident, the Israeli army asked for the exact timing and locations of the strikes, saying it was investigating reports that four people were killed by its fire near an aid distribution center (central).

AFP cannot independently verify the information provided by the Israeli military or Palestinian civil defense, given the restrictions on journalists operating in Gaza and the difficulty of accessing the targeted sites.

The war erupted following a Hamas attack on the Jewish state on October 7, 2023, which resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli data.

Of the 251 people taken hostage and taken to Gaza in the attack, 47 remain in the Strip. The army said 25 of them were killed.

Israeli attacks and military operations in the Gaza Strip have killed at least 63,633 people, the majority of them civilians, according to the latest figures from the Hamas-run Ministry of Health.

Belgium will recognize the State of Palestine.

Last week, the Israeli military declared Gaza City a “critical combat zone” and declared that evacuating its residents was “inevitable.”

The International Committee of the Red Cross deemed a mass evacuation of the city"impossible," and that evacuation plans were "not only unworkable but incomprehensible."

The vast majority of the Strip's population of more than two million people were forced to flee at least once during the war.

The catastrophic humanitarian conditions in the Gaza Strip have prompted Western countries, some of which are close allies of Israel, to change their tone nearly 23 months after the outbreak of the war.

As calls for an end to the fighting increased, several countries announced their intention to recognize the State of Palestine during the UN General Assembly meetings scheduled for later in September.

Belgium joined these countries, with Foreign Minister Maxime Prévost announcing via the X platform on Tuesday that his country"will recognize the State of Palestine during the UN General Assembly meetings! And there are strict sanctions against the Israeli government."

At the end of July, French President Emmanuel Macron announced that his country would recognize the State of Palestine during the General Assembly meetings, which will be held from September 9 to 23. Since then, more than 10 Western countries have announced a similar move, including Canada and Australia, while Britain announced it would do so unless Israel agrees to a series of demands, including a ceasefire in Gaza.

The Belgian minister added,"Given the ongoing humanitarian tragedy in Palestine, particularly in Gaza, and in the face of the violence perpetrated by Israel in violation of international law, Belgium has been forced to take firm decisions to increase pressure on the Israeli government and Hamas terrorists."