The assault threatens to displace hundreds of thousands of Palestinians sheltering there from nearly two years of fighting. Before the war, around a million people, nearly half of Gaza’s population, lived in the city.

The military has been carrying out heavy strikes on the city for weeks, advancing through outer suburbs, and this week forces were within a few kilometres of the city centre.

Landmark Gaza City tower targeted

The military did not provide any evidence that militants were using the building.

Smoke rises following an Israeli airstrike on a high-rise building in Gaza City, after the Israeli army issued a prior warning. Source: AAP / Yousef Al Zanoun

Photos of the building taken before Friday’s strike showed that its roof was already heavily damaged from earlier raids.

Across the strip, 30 Palestinians were killed by the Israeli military on Friday, including 20 in Gaza City, Gaza’s health ministry said.

New Hamas hostage video released

Palestinian militants took 251 hostages into the enclave after its cross-border attack on southern Israeli communities in 2023 that killed about 1,200 people, triggering the war.

Guy Gilboa-Dalal was attending the Nova music festival in southern Israel when he was abducted by militants during their unprecedented attack nearly two years ago. Source: Supplied

The video was edited and featured an exhausted-looking Gilboa-Dalal speaking for about three-and-a-half minutes. He is seen in the back seat of a car for some of the video dated 28 August.

Gilboa-Dalal was seen in a video in February being forced to watch other hostages being freed under a temporary ceasefire. Hostages who were filmed in similar videos and have since been freed have said their captors had dictated to them what to say.