IDF troops continued to operate on the outskirts of Gaza City on Wednesday, as a military spokesman urged civilians in the area to evacuate ahead of a planned offensive deeper into the city, dismissing the notion that there was not enough room in the south of the Strip for the displaced.
The comments come as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appears poised to move ahead with the decision approved by the cabinet earlier this month to conquer Gaza City, as Israeli officials continue to dismiss proposals for a partial hostage release deal, saying Jerusalem will only agree to a complete deal to free all hostages and disarm Hamas.
Israeli Ambassador to the US Yechiel Leiter said in a TV interview on Wednesday that Israel was still examining “what the possibilities are” for a ceasefire deal with Hamas, but will not end the war in Gaza until Hamas surrenders or is destroyed. His comments came after mediators Qatar and Egypt expressed frustration that Israel has yet to issue an official response to the latest phased hostage release proposal, which Hamas said last week that it had accepted.
Col. Avichay Adraee, the IDF’s Arabic-language spokesman, rejected on Wednesday what he called “false rumors” that there is no space available in southern Gaza for displaced residents, as IDF troops continued to advance on Gaza City.
In a video message posted on X, Adraee said the army has surveyed large open areas in southern Gaza, including in the central refugee camps and in Al-Mawasi, which he described as empty of tents and ready to receive evacuees.
Adraee said that the evacuation of residents from Gaza City was “inevitable,” and pledged that families moving south would receive increased humanitarian assistance. The statement said that preparations are underway for tent encampments, aid distribution centers and water infrastructure for those being displaced.
#عاجل ‼️بيان مهم إلى سكان قطاع غزة وتحديدًا في مدينة غزة وشمال القطاع بخصوص ما ينشر من إشاعات كاذبة بأنه لا يوجد مكان فارغ في جنوب القطاع لانتقال السكان
⭕️قبيل التحول إلى المرحلة التالية في الحرب أود أن أؤكد بأن هنالك مناطق شاسعة فارغة في جنوب القطاع كما هو الحال في مخيمات… pic.twitter.com/SfApZFZKYb— افيخاي ادرعي (@AvichayAdraee) August 27, 2025
The IDF said Wednesday that Israel will add two humanitarian aid distribution centers in the southern Gaza Strip to receive the new influx of displaced Palestinians. It said in a statement that the work would be completed in the coming days, replacing the Center in the Tel al-Sultan neighborhood and bringing the number of distribution centers to a total of five.
UN spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said earlier this week that roughly 5,000 people had been displaced from northern Gaza to Deir al-Balah in the central Strip and to Khan Younis in the south since August 20. Another 8,000 have been displaced to the west of Gaza City, bringing the total number of new displacements since the end of the March ceasefire to more than 800,000.
Speaking to CNN’s Jake Tapper on Wednesday, Leiter said ceasefire proposals are “under discussion… we’re looking at what the possibilities are for a ceasefire and a temporary deal, but at the same time it has to be very clear — it ends when Hamas ends.”
He said Israel is wary of a partial hostage release because it could mean the deaths of the hostages not freed in the first phase: “If we are not careful, what’s going to happen is we are going to get a few hostages out now, and we’re never going to see the rest of the hostages again.”
Leiter said that Israel “can’t guarantee” that the living hostages in Gaza “will come back soon,” but “we can guarantee that we’re going to do everything in our power to get them out.”
He also averred that mediators Egypt and Qatar “haven’t applied the necessary pressure, if they could” on Hamas.
“Hamas leadership is sitting in Istanbul,” Leiter said. “Where the hell is [Turkish President Recep Tayyip] Erdogan? Why are Hamas leadership sitting in Qatar right now? Why is the international community not saying, the leadership of Hamas is being closed down, period?”
He claimed that Hamas reconstituted during the ceasefire earlier this year, “building up a force of 25,000-30,000 fighters.”
The IDF said Wednesday that troops were continuing to operate on the outskirts of Gaza City, targeting the remaining Hamas strongholds in the enclave.
According to the military, forces from the 99th Division have been striking Hamas infrastructure both above and below ground, and in the past 24 hours they destroyed several observation posts that posed a threat to Israeli troops. At the same time, the 162nd Division has been engaged in fighting in Jabalia and Gaza City’s outskirts in an effort to eliminate operatives from terror groups and dismantle their networks, the IDF said.
Residents of Gaza City in the Strip’s north reported that tanks entered the Ebad-Alrahman neighborhood on the northern edge of the city late Tuesday and shelled houses, wounding several people and forcing many others, who had been taken by surprise, to move deeper into Gaza’s largest city.
“All of a sudden, we heard that the tanks pushed into Ebad-Alrahman, the sounds of explosions became louder and louder, and we saw people escaping towards our area,” Saad Abed, 60, a former construction worker, told Reuters via a chat app from his house in Jala Street in Gaza City, around a kilometer (0.62 miles) from the Ebad-Alrahman neighborhood. “If no truce is reached, we will see the tanks outside our homes.”
Tala al-Khatib, 29, told AFP that there was heavy bombing overnight: “Warplanes struck several times, and drones fired throughout the night,” she said. “Several homes in Zeitoun were blown up. We are still in our house — some neighbors have fled, while others remain. But wherever you flee, death follows you.”
Elsewhere, the 36th Division continued its operations in Khan Younis in southern Gaza, where the IDF said troops — with air support — killed several operatives and destroyed additional infrastructure. The air force, directed by the navy, also struck a naval weapons warehouse and a repair facility for Hamas’s naval armaments in Khan Younis, the IDF said.
Separately, an Israeli Air Force strike, guided by the Military Intelligence Directorate and the Shin Bet, killed Mahmoud al-Asoud, commander of Hamas’s General Security Apparatus in western Gaza. The IDF said al-Asoud played a central role in Hamas’s security apparatus both during the current war and in past years.
The IDF also announced Wednesday that it had established a new engineering battalion under the Givati Brigade, which has already joined the fighting in Jabalia in northern Gaza. The 607th “Mapatz” Battalion was created following lessons learned during the war, with the military citing the need for dedicated engineering forces at the brigade level to support infantry operations, dismantle terror infrastructure, and ensure troop mobility.
Meanwhile, Israel continued to face harsh international criticism for a strike earlier this week on the Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis that killed at least 20 people, including five journalists.
The IDF said Tuesday that its preliminary investigation found that forces had targeted a Hamas surveillance camera the terror group had installed on the hospital grounds, and asserted that six of the people killed were terror operatives. The military also reiterated that it regretted civilian casualties and does not target journalists, while accusing Hamas of “cynically” exploiting medical facilities for military purposes.
The strike was “unjustifiable,” said Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on Wednesday, adding that Israel’s war against Hamas, sparked by the terror group’s October 7 onslaught in Israel, has “gone beyond the principle of proportionality.”
“We condemn the unjustifiable killing of journalists, an unacceptable attack on press freedom and on all those who risk their lives to report the tragedy of war,” she said during her address at an annual Catholic festival in Rimini, Italy.
“We did not hesitate for a single minute in supporting Israel’s right to defense after the horrors of the October 7 massacre,” added the conservative premier. “But we cannot remain silent now in the face of a reaction that has gone beyond the principle of proportionality, claiming too many innocent victims, and even involving Christian communities.”
She said that Italy is “reaffirming its role” in Gaza, highlighting Italy’s involvement in medical evacuations from the Strip.
“There are those who go through the motions and those who save children. I am proud to be among the latter,” she said.
Israel’s UN Ambassador Danny Danon said Wednesday that there will be more information in the “next few days” on the strike on Nasser Hospital.
“We’re still looking into the details of that incident, and so that in the next few days we will have more information about that,” Danon told reporters. “Our goal is to fight terrorists, not journalists, not anyone who is not involved in terrorism.”
