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JERUSALEM: Israeli military spokesman Effie Defrin said on Tuesday the ground offensive in Gaza City would take “months,” after the assault began overnight and forced thousands more Palestinians to flee the enclave’s largest urban center.
“We are not constrained by time,” Defrin told reporters.
He said Israeli forces were in control of “widespread” areas of Gaza City after the operation was launched overnight, following weeks of bombardments on the city’s neighborhoods of Jabalia, Zeitoun and Sheikh Radwan.
Palestinians inspect the damage to several homes in the Al-Nasr neighborhood, in Gaza City, after an Israeli air strike, on Sept. 12, 2025. (Photo by Rizek Abdeljawad/Xinhua)According to figures and aerial images previously released by the Palestinian Civil Defense, much of Zeitoun has been flattened since the beginning of the operation in August, with more than 1,500 homes destroyed and no buildings left standing in the southern part of the neighborhood.
Defrin said it would take several months to seize Gaza City “and several more months, perhaps longer, to clear the city, because (Hamas) infrastructure is deep-rooted and entrenched.”
“We will operate as long as required,” he added.
He also said the military had “sufficient munitions,” a day after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Israel was sliding into isolation and would need to strengthen its weapons industry and reduce dependence on foreign suppliers. Several Western countries have declared full or partial arms embargoes on Israel due to the Gaza onslaught.
Displaced Palestinians with their belongings flee from northern Gaza Strip toward south, on Sept. 9, 2025. (Photo by Rizek Abdeljawad/Xinhua)
By Tuesday morning, between 300,000 and 350,000 people had fled the city to head to southern Gaza, with more than half a million people remaining in the city, the Israeli media quoted security officials as saying.
Rejecting a United Nations commission finding that Israel has committed genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, military’s Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir issued a statement, saying the army does “our utmost to mitigate harm to civilians,” and that they are acting to defeat a “terrorist organization” that wants to “eliminate the very existence of the State of Israel.”
Israel launched its retaliatory offensive in Gaza almost two years ago, killing more than 64,000 people, destroying much of the enclave and causing famine.
