GAZA CITY, Palestine

The Israeli army on Friday destroyed several buildings in the Hamad City residential area of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip.

Israeli warplanes conducted a series of bombings on Hamad City buildings, destroying many of them, local sources told Anadolu, who also reported plumes of smoke rising from the area following the airstrikes.

Earlier on Friday, the Israeli army ordered residents of Hamad City and others in Khan Younis to evacuate in preparation for the military.

So far, there is no information on casualties from the airstrikes as people had already fled their apartments following the evacuation orders, which Hamas described in a statement as another attempt by Israel to genocide Palestinians by forcing them into "safe zones."

Hamad City is named after Qatar's former emir, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani, who laid the foundation stone during a 2012 visit to Gaza. The residential area, which included 2,500 apartments, was built with a $407 million Qatari grant.

Flouting a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire, Israel has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal offensive on Gaza since an Oct. 7, 2023 attack by Hamas.

The Israeli onslaught has since killed over 40,000 people, mostly women and children, and injured over 92,000 others, according to local health authorities.

Over 10 months into the Israeli onslaught, vast tracts of Gaza lie in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water and medicine.

Israel is accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which ordered it to immediately halt its military operation in the southern city of Rafah, where more than a million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on May 6.

*Writing by Ahmed Asmar in Ankara