Gaza, 26 September 2025 – Israel is intensifying its military operations in Gaza City, subjecting residents to relentless aerial and ground attacks that are devastating entire residential neighborhoods, shelters, and makeshift tents, and forcibly transferring Palestinians south of the city, toward the Middle Area and Khan Younis.

M.A., a resident of Tal Al-Hawa neighborhood, told Al Mezan: “I fled my home due to the intensification of the continuous bombardment and the sound of tanks approaching Tal Al-Hawa neighborhood. Fearing for my children’s lives as quadcopters drew near and fired randomly in our area, it felt like the Day of Judgment. At that moment, I fled with my family to Saint Porphyrius Church in Gaza.”

As part of Israel's plan to permanently takeover Gaza City, Palestinians are being forcibly displaced from the city under life-threatening conditions. Those fleeing do so under heavy bombardment and with no safe routes or destinations to go to. Families  that can afford transportation are forced to move in overcrowded vehicles or, due to the soaring cost of transportation, by foot, carrying only what they can.

Z.A., displaced from Tal Al-Hawa neighborhood in Gaza City, told Al Mezan: “My family and I fled to Deir Al-Balah in the Middle Area after the bombardment intensified and residential towers around our neighborhood were destroyed. The cost of transportation was extremely high, and the rent for the house we found is nearly $1,000 per month. We are now living in very difficult conditions—it is extremely overcrowded, there is no access to water, and we walk long distances to fetch it, while the sound of bombardment continues at all times.”

Israel's so-called 'humanitarian zones' are plagued by mounting pollution, infectious diseases, and severe shortages of safe drinking water and food. At the same time, they remain under heavy bombardments and attacks by the Israeli military. For example, on 24 September 2025, Israeli forces bombed a house belonging to the Abu Dahrouj family north of Al-Zawaida town, in the Middle Area, which was sheltering displaced families, killing 11 Palestinians, including four children and a woman.

This latest escalation has completely overwhelmed what remains of Gaza City’s health system, with hospitals facing a huge influx of bodies and patients amidst a severe shortage of blood units, transfusion kits, testing equipment, and laboratory equipment. Within just 72 hours, hospitals—including Al-Shifa, Al-Ahli Arab Hospital, and the Red Crescent’s field hospital—have received more than one hundred bodies and are grappling with a severe shortage of medical supplies as hundreds of injured Palestinians, many of them women and children. The Ministry of Health has warned that hospitals are only days away from shutting down completely, placing hundreds of patients and the wounded at immediate risk of death. On 26 September, Médecins Sans Frontières (MFS) announced the suspension of their medical activities in Gaza City due to the relentless Israeli offensive.

Alongside the bombardment and mass displacement, Israel has deliberately denied the entry of life-sustaining goods since March 2025, including desperately needed food, medicine, and fuel. In the process, Israel has dismantled the basic means of survival for more than two million people, and caused a man-made famine. According to the Women’s Refugee Commission (WRC), by August 2025, 100 percent of Gaza’s population faced acute food insecurity, with nearly one in three Gazans projected to face famine conditions by the end of September 2025. Palestinians are unable to secure even minimal nutrition, and starvation related deaths are rising at an alarming rate. As of 25 September 2025, Israel has also killed 2,538 Palestinians seeking aid and injured more than 18,500.

Scarce medical supplies means that malnutrition cannot be properly treated, leaving children in the most severe stages of hunger without access to therapeutic treatment or infant formula. Pregnant women lack proper nutrition and medicines, with grave consequences for newborns—particularly premature infants. As of 19 September 2025, the overall death toll from famine and malnutrition has risen to 440, including at least 147 children.

Vital civilian infrastructure, such as water wells, sewage systems, and waste collection, has ground to a halt, threatening a full-scale public health disaster. At the same time, Israel has deliberately cut off water supplies. With desalination plants and water wells out of service due to fuel shortages and damage incurred by deliberate Israeli attacks, families are forced to walk long distances to fetch untreated water from unsafe sources. Israel's policy of starvation and dehydration is fuelling the spread of disease, creating life-threatening living conditions that are intensified by the influx of Palestinians being forcibly transferred from their homes.

Al Mezan strongly condemns Israel’s ongoing genocide against the Palestinian people in Gaza and the forcible transfer of Palestinians from Gaza City. Israel's campaign of starvation, destruction, and forcible transfer are not isolated policies but part of a deliberate genocide sustained for nearly two years and carried out in full view of a complicit international community. Al Mezan urgently calls on the international community to meet its binding obligations under the Genocide Convention to compel Israel to immediately end its genocidal campaign and impose a permanent ceasefire. Effective mechanisms of accountability and justice must be unequivocally supported by the international community to ensure that those responsible for these crimes are prosecuted and do not escape punishment.

Time is running out. Silence and inaction at this stage constitutes a shameful complicity in this genocide. Every day of delayed action means tacit approval of the collective death of Gaza’s population. The survival of Palestinians in depends on urgent, concrete action.