The Israeli military said on Tuesday that it had launched a ground incursion into Gaza City overnight, embarking on a risky operation to take control of a key urban area even as hundreds of thousands of Palestinian residents remain there.

The ground operation and intensifying Israeli bombardment threatens to deepen the humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip, in a nearly two-year-long war that has already killed tens of thousands of people. Palestinians in Gaza City described scenes of panic as Israel pounded the area with heavy airstrikes.

“We are all terrified,” said Montaser Bahja, a former schoolteacher sheltering in an apartment in western Gaza City near the coast. “Death would be more merciful than what we’re living through.”

The operation has been building for weeks, with Israel saying that a takeover of the city was necessary to prevent Hamas from regrouping and planning future attacks. The plans for the ground assault drew fierce international criticism and dimmed hopes for a ceasefire agreement with Hamas that would free some of the hostages that the militants are holding.

After intensifying airstrikes in recent days, on Tuesday morning the Israeli military said that three divisions of active duty and reserve troops had begun “expanded ground operations in Gaza City” over the past day to target Hamas.

The Israeli defense minister, Israel Katz, said that the ground operation was launched “at the most significant test point to complete and defeat this campaign” against Hamas.

“The greater the intensity of the attack here, the more directly it will overwhelm Hamas and it will also create greater leverage for the release of the hostages,” he said in a statement.

More than 20 dead and dozens more wounded people have been brought to Shifa Hospital, a major medical center in Gaza City, since the offensive intensified overnight, according to Mohammad Abu Salmiya, the facility’s director. Zaher al-Waheidi, a Gaza Health Ministry official, confirmed that the hospital had reported receiving more than 20 bodies since midnight.

Local health officials said ambulance and emergency workers were unable to reach injured people stranded on streets or trapped under rubble from Israeli strikes.

Hamas condemned the ground operation and said it would worsen the humanitarian “catastrophe” engulfing Gaza. In a statement, the militant group called on the international community to intervene against Israel and the new ground offensive, which it accused the United States of enabling.

Here’s What Else to Know:

— U.N. inquiry: A United Nations commission investigating the war in Gaza said Tuesday that Israel was committing genocide against Palestinians, the panel’s most sweeping findings yet about the Israeli government’s conduct in the conflict. Israel has repeatedly rejected allegations of genocide from scholars and human rights groups, saying the target of its military campaign is Hamas.

— Humanitarian crisis: After nearly two years of Israel’s retaliatory war against Hamas, the Gaza Strip has been largely leveled and parts of it are experiencing famine, according to a recent report by the United Nations. More than 64,000 Palestinians have been killed, according to the health ministry in Gaza, which does not distinguish between combatants and civilians.

— Diplomacy: Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned on Tuesday that “time is running out” for a negotiated end to the war in Gaza. He spoke minutes before departing Israel for Qatar, and just as Israel was launching a military assault on Gaza City. It is unclear if Rubio knew at the time that the long-awaited ground operation had begun.

— Hostage families’ fears: Even before it began, the new military front in Gaza divided Israelis, many of whom feared it would further imperil about 20 hostages whom Hamas has been holding since the start of the war. A group of family members of the hostages protested outside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s house on Monday night, some of whom set up tents in an ongoing plea to the government against the ground operation in Gaza.

— Yemen: As it moved on Gaza City, Israel’s military said it had also struck a “military infrastructure site” at the Hodeida Port in Yemen that it described as a key conduit for Houthi fighters to receive weapons from Iran and use them to strike Israel. Al-Masirah TV, a Houthi-linked broadcaster, reported a number of strikes had hit the port.

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This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

By Lara Jakes, Gabby Sobelman, Isabel Kershner and Natan Odenheimer/Saher Alghorra
c. 2025 The New York Times Company