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GAZA CITY – Massive air strikes erupted over Gaza City on Monday night as Israel’s full scale invasion of the city gained momentum. The Jerusalem Post reports IDF tanks have poured into the city which has been subjected to countless air strikes in recent weeks.

Scores of the remaining high-rise towers in Gaza City have been obliterated in the past two weeks.

“In the past two days, 50 of these towers have fallen. The air force brought them down,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a video statement last Monday.

“Now all of this is just an introduction, just a prelude, to the main intense operation — a ground maneuver of our forces, who are now organizing and gathering in Gaza City.”

“This is just the prelude to the main powerful operation, so I tell Gaza residents: you have been warned, get out of there,” he said.

A week later and the invasion has hit full throttle.

Driving the invasion is IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Eyal Zamir who actually opposes the massive escalation, but has been ordered by Mr Netanyahu to proceed with it.

300,000 Gazans are believed to have fled the city, The Jerusalem Post report said, with around 700,000 remaining. The IDF and the government appear to have little to no concern for the remaining hostages, twenty of whom are still believed to be alive. 

“We will finish the mission, occupy Gaza, encourage voluntary emigration,” Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said Monday, without mentioning the hostages.

The Hostages and Missing Families Forum Headquarters condemned Monday’s intense escalation. 

“After 710 nights of being held captive by terrorists, tonight could be the final night for hostages who are barely surviving, and our last chance to locate and recover the deceased for dignified burial,” a statement issued by the group on Monday night said.

“Prime Minister Netanyahu bears personal responsibility for the fate of the hostages. The people of Israel will not forgive the sacrifice of the hostages and soldiers. The writing is on the wall.”

Monday’s intensification of military activity has come during a visit by U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio to israel. He arrived on Sunday and has met extensively with Mr Netanyahu.

U.S. President Donald Trump ignored Israel’s military build-up Monday, taking aim at Hamas, alleging the group had brought the hostages above ground to use as human shields, without providing any evidence of such a move.

“I have just read a News Report that Hamas has moved the hostages above ground to use them as human shields against Israel’s ground offensive. I hope the Leaders of Hamas know what they’re getting into if they do such a thing,” Mr Trump said.

“This is a human atrocity, the likes of which few people have ever seen before. Don’t let this happen or, ALL “BETS” ARE OFF. RELEASE ALL HOSTAGES NOW!” the president demanded on his social media platform Truth Social.

Earlier in the day the Israeli prime minister invoked the Alamo when appearing with Mr Rubio at a joint press confernce on Monday. You’ve been a remarkable partner, a remarkable – our alliance, I think, is – has been a force for ages.  And President Trump says – he said to me the other day, he said, “Remember October 7th.”  That’s what he said.  It’s like “remember the Alamo.”  Remember October 7th.  And we remember.  We remember the savagery.  We remember the incredible massacre of the innocent.  We remember our hostages.  We are committed to bringing all of them home – the living and the dead.  We appreciate all the help that President Trump and you have given us in this sacred task.  We remember Hamas, and we know that we must defeat them and ensure that they no longer are enabled to turn Gaza into a threat to Israel.  They no longer should be there. ”

The U.S. secretary of state responded: “As far as the President’s been clear on the ongoing issues in Gaza, and that is that every single hostage, both living and deceased, needs to be home immediately.  Hamas can no longer continue to exist as an armed element that threatens the peace and security not just of Israel but of the world, and that the people of Gaza deserve a better future, one that cannot begin until Hamas is eliminated and until all of the hostages – both living and deceased – are home,” Mr Rubio said. 

Asked what the U.S. view was of the rapdi escalation of the military attacks by Israel on Gaza City on Monday night, the secretary of state responded with a total focus on the hostages, without even mentioning the Gazan population, displaced, starved, and under siege, being exposed to even more horrific attacks from the air, and land taking dozens of lives on Monday alone, but in total over the last two years to near 65,000.  “Yeah.  The best way for me to put it to you is that the purpose of our conversations have been about what the President – I’ll restate what the President has repeatedly said.  He wants every single hostage released, he wants Hamas eliminated as a threat, and he wants to then have the United States be helpful in rebuilding Gaza for the future that’s going to be peaceful and prosperous and not have elements like Hamas operating.  That’s the goal,” Secretary Rubio said.

“Now, how do we achieve that?  How do we get there?  That’s what we’re always talking about and that’s what we talked about today.  And that’s going to continue to be the focus of our engagement in this.  We want all the hostages out – all of them, every single one of them, both living and deceased, all of them.  There should never have been hostages.  This should never have happened, okay?  This happened because on October 7th these animals, these barbaric animals, conducted this operation, and against innocent people who had nothing to do with any of this.”

“And that’s why this all started.  We’ve forgotten that.  People have forgotten that that’s where this all began.  That’s why the President keeps saying remember October 7th.  We wouldn’t even be having these conversations right now if these barbarians had not done what they did,” Mr Rubio said.. 

“So this is what brought us to this point.  It needs to end.  And how does it end?  It ends by eliminating the people who did it, by ending them as a threat.  It ends by releasing every single hostage both living and deceased.  There should never have been a hostage.  There should not be a hostage now.”

“And then when all of that is done, then we can begin the work, I hope, internationally to providing the people of Gaza the kind of future that they deserve but that they will never have as long as a group like Hamas exists,” the U.S. secretary of state said. 

“So that’s been our focus, and obviously we are – that has been the focus and at the core of much of what we’ve talked about.  How do we achieve what I believe is a shared goal not just of the United States and Israel but of multiple countries around the world and certainly in the region who want to see the same outcome?  And that’s what we’ve been focused on.  That’s been the President’s focus, and he wants that to all happen as soon and as quickly as possible.”

The Israeli prime minister was asked about his government’s military plans in the face of the escalation. “I’m not going to talk about our tactical plans.  I leave that to our military people in the field,” he said.