Gaza (AFP) – Smoke billows after an Israeli airstrike levelled the Al-Kawthar Tower in western Gaza City, as Israeli forces press on with their assault on the territory’s main urban centre. Israel has said it intends to capture the city, which it describes as one of the last strongholds of the Palestinian militant group Hamas, whose October 2023 attack sparked the Gaza war. As of late August, the UN estimated that around one million people were living in the city and its surrounding areas, where it has declared a famine it blamed on Israeli aid restrictions. Gaza’s civil defence agency says at least 38 people have been killed since dawn on 14 September in Israeli strikes around the territory.
