A missile falls towards a building during an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City, Sept. 8, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas

Israel said it would step up airstrikes on Gaza on Monday in a “mighty hurricane,” to serve as a last warning to Hamas that it will destroy the enclave unless the terrorist group accepts a demand to free all hostages and surrender.

Residents said Israeli forces had bombed Gaza City from the air and blown up old, armored vehicles in its streets. Hamas said it was studying the latest US ceasefire proposal, delivered on Sunday with a warning from President Donald Trump that it was the Islamist group’s “last chance.”

“A mighty hurricane will hit the skies of Gaza City today, and the roofs of the terror towers will shake,” Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz wrote on X.

“This is a final warning to the murderers and rapists of Hamas in Gaza and in the luxury hotels abroad: Release the hostages and lay down your weapons – or Gaza will be destroyed, and you will be annihilated.”

Katz’s post appeared before reports of a shooting at a bus stop in Jerusalem that killed six people including one Spanish citizen. Hamas praised the attackers.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) bombed a 12-floor block in the middle of Gaza City where dozens of displaced families had been housed, three hours after urging those inside and in hundreds of tents in the surrounding area to leave.

In a statement, the IDF said Hamas terrorists who had “planted intelligence gathering means” and explosive devices had been operating near the building and “have used it throughout the war to plan and advance terror attacks against IDF forces.”

According to a senior Israeli official, the latest US proposal calls for Hamas to return all 48 remaining living and dead hostages on the first day of a ceasefire, during which negotiations would be held to end the war.

Hamas has long said it intends to hold onto at least some hostages until negotiations are complete. It said in a statement it was committed to releasing them all with a “clear announcement of an end to the war” and the withdrawal of Israeli forces.

OFFENSIVE IN GAZA CITY

Israel launched a major offensive last month on Gaza City, where hundreds of thousands of residents are living in the ruins having returned after the city experienced the most intense fighting of the war’s early weeks nearly two years ago.

Residents said Israeli forces pounded several districts from the air and ground, and detonated decommissioned armored vehicles laden with explosives, destroying clusters of homes in the Sheikh Radwan, Zeitoun, and Tuffah neighborhoods.

On Sunday, US President Donald Trump suggested a deal could come soon to secure the release of all the hostages held by Hamas. An Israeli official said Israel was “seriously considering” Trump’s proposal but did not elaborate.

The war began with an assault by Hamas-led fighters on southern Israel in 2023. The attackers killed 1,200 people and took more than 250 hostages to Gaza. Most of the hostages were released in ceasefires in November 2023 and January-March 2025, but the group has kept others as a bargaining chip.

Israel responded with a military campaign aimed at freeing the hostages and dismantling Hamas’s military capabilities and political rule in Gaza.