(LifeSiteNews) — The U.S.-backed Israeli occupation army is intensifying heavy bombardment of Gaza City, destroying dozens of buildings and massacring civilians.
According to the Gaza Health Ministry, the Israeli army on Sunday alone killed at least 68 Palestinians in the Strip, 32 of whom were slain in Gaza City, with 346 injured overall as well.
Israeli bombs systematically destroyed residential towers, medical facilities, shelters, and homes in Gaza City. A nearby airstrike also caused severe damage to the al-Quds Field Hospital, injuring numerous civilians.
Tel Aviv routinely claims that all of the buildings are used by Hamas, but they rarely provide any verifiable evidence beyond their own statements and generated imagery.
According to Yair Dvir, a spokesman for Israeli human rights group B’Tselem, the ongoing widespread destruction is just another example of how the Israeli army is “directly and systematically attacking the population.”
“The goal is to destroy all Gaza City … and they just use whatever means they use. They [aren’t concerned] about life, people, they [aren’t concerned] about international law,” the human rights activist said.
Satellite imagery analysis reveals that approximately 78 percent of all the structures in the Gaza Strip, including almost 283,000 housing units along with hospitals, churches, schools, and mosques, have been damaged to different degrees. Over half have been completely destroyed.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in May that “(we) are destroying more and more homes, and Gazans have nowhere to return to. The only inevitable outcome will be the wish of Gazans to emigrate outside of the Gaza Strip.”
With the International Criminal Court having issued a warrant for Netanyahu’s arrest – for crimes against humanity and war crimes – the prime minister, who is also indicted at home, has repeatedly said his nation is executing U.S. President Donald Trump’s plan to ethnically cleanse the 2 million people of Gaza from the region, removing them “permanently” with no option to return.
READ: Christian leaders in the Holy Land rebuke Trump’s plan to relocate Palestinians
Additionally, with apparent indifference to the fact that such forced displacement qualifies as a crime against humanity and an act of genocide, Netanyahu has said submission to these most grave international crimes is a very condition of peace in the conflict.
Overcrowded ‘safe zones’ bombed, afflicted with severe famine
As the Israelis continue to destroy Gaza City, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) estimated on Monday that more than 300,000 Palestinians have left since their current military operation began last month. The total population of Palestinians sheltering in the city was around 1 million.
According to the Palestinian Civil Defense, fewer than the IDF estimate have evacuated the city, with 900,000 remaining and 6,000 leaving on Saturday.
Last week, Tel Aviv ordered the complete evacuation of the entire city, forcing displaced Palestinians south into the Mawasi region that the Israeli army has labeled a “safe zone” despite having bombed it several times.
“It’s called a safe zone, but we have been living here for months and we know for sure that it’s not safe,” a displaced journalist told Al Jazeera. “How can I call it safe when Israel killed and bombed my own sister within this ‘safe zone’?”
Furthermore, the conditions in the “safe zone” are horrendous with enormous overcrowding and a severe lack of humanitarian aid. “Not only are missiles pouring down on our heads, but famine is devouring us too,” one displaced Palestinian man said.
READ: Israeli military orders evacuation of entire Gaza City as famine, bombs ravage civilians
Catholic and Orthodox religious pledge to stay behind and care for vulnerable
Due to such conditions, the conviction of many that “there are no safe zones,” and just a common impossibility for the sick and malnourished – as a result of Israel’s man-made famine – to be able to survive the journey, many have remained in Gaza City despite the bombardment.
Additionally, with Israel having made their intentions of a full ethnic cleansing very clear, others refuse to leave knowing they would not be able to return.
Among those who have decided to stay are Catholic and Orthodox religious and clergy who have concluded their responsibility is to remain with the disabled and malnourished of their displaced flocks. These have been taking shelter in their respective Gaza City parishes.
Israeli drones and military strikes heard from inside Holy Family Catholic Church in Gaza City during Eucharistic Adoration yesterday. https://t.co/6DoeeEhHtJ
— Patrick Delaney (@PatrickDDelaney) September 16, 2025
In an August 26 statement from the Latin and Greek Patriarchates of Jerusalem, led by Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa and Theophilos III, respectively, it was stated that, for the disabled and those weakened and malnourished due to the Israeli-imposed famine, leaving Gaza City “and trying to flee to the south would be nothing less than a death sentence.”
For these reasons, St. Teresa of Calcutta’s Missionaries of Charity, along with other religious and clergy, “have decided to remain and continue to care for all those who will be in the compounds.”
Israel’s former military chief affirms Gaza casualty figures: ‘more than 10%’ of the population killed or injured
The Gaza Health Ministry (GHM) reports Palestinians killed by Israel since October 7, 2023 include at least 64,905, approximately 20,000 of them children, with 164,926 injured, and more than 10,000 children having lost at least one leg. These numbers do not include approximately 14,000 individuals who are missing and presumed dead under the rubble.
According to a rationale presented in a Lancet study last July, one can conservatively estimate total deaths, including indirect fatalities due to causes like starvation, lack of medicine or proper medical care, to include 324,525 (142,791 involving children).
While GHM numbers have been judged reliable by international humanitarian organizations, Israeli officials, media and zealous supporters of Israel in the U.S. have cast doubt or denied the validity of these reports.
However, last week confirmation came from former IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halev, who served in his role until last March, that “more than 10%” of the 2.2 million people in Gaza have been killed or injured. This figure of 220,000 is comparable to those released by the GHM and joins other confirmations from Israeli intelligence, the Israeli army, U.S. officials and researchers, and professional accuracy organizations.
In a July 30 interview with Tucker Carlson, political science scholar and popular commentator Dr. John Mearsheimer explained:
[W]hat’s happening here is that the Israelis are systematically trying to destroy the Palestinians as a national group. They’re targeting them as Palestinians, and they’re trying to destroy Palestinian national identity in addition to murdering huge numbers of Palestinians.
I mean, the Israelis are executing a genocide in Gaza, and we (the U.S.) are complicit in that genocide.
60% of American voters want to shut down support for Israel, 50% judge them to be guilty of genocide
A recent poll from Quinnipiac University revealed that 60 percent of American voters now “oppose the United States sending more military aid to Israel for their efforts in the war with Hamas, while (only) 32 percent support it.”
Furthermore, the same poll found 50 percent of voters believe “Israel is committing genocide” in Gaza, while only 35 percent reject this conclusion.
With the ongoing assaults of the Israeli army continuing unabated, Mearsheimer has often affirmed in interviews with Judge Andrew Napolitano that Trump could end this genocide “with a phone call” to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He believes that the United States has massive leverage over Israel due to its enormous financial, diplomatic and military support of the apartheid state.
