Gaza City presents a challenge. In 2024, it was largely cut off from central Gaza because the IDF held the Netzarim corridor. The IDF left that area in January 2025 and never retook it fully.

Israel is once again targeting Gaza City in operations in Gaza. For many observers of the war, this might seem like a surprise. Some will wonder, wasn’t Gaza City taken from Hamas at the beginning of the war? Others may wonder why it wasn’t taken in the past?

These are good questions. Why is the capital of Gaza still in the hands of Hamas? Why has Israel spent 22 months chipping away at the periphery, losing hundreds of soldiers, while 50 hostages remain in Gaza, and Hamas apparently has the privilege of controlling Gaza City and other parts of Gaza throughout the war?

Hamas likely expected Israel to take Gaza City at the beginning of the war. Instead, what happened was that the IDF cut off Gaza City and northern Gaza from central Gaza in the first days of the ground offensive in late October 2023. Then, the IDF spent a month pushing into neighborhoods and suburbs of Gaza City, but never taking the city itself and holding it. Many of these areas were cleared quickly, and then the tanks and infantry left. This was the raiding strategy and tactic that Israel’s commanders apparently believed would work early in the war.

By mid-November, reports from the IDF claimed that they had broken through ten of the 24 battalions of Hamas in Gaza. The IDF claimed at the time that it had basically shattered Hamas in northern Gaza and dismantled the Hamas battalions there. However, it appears that the Hamas units were not destroyed. There was a brigade in Gaza City and another brigade in northern Gaza. By November 2024, a year after the battalions were supposedly defeated, the IDF had to enter Jabaliya in Gaza for the third time and clear it. Thousands of Hamas members remain, and 70,000 people had to be evacuated in November and December 2024.

During the new operation, Gideon’s Chariots launched in May 2025, the IDF once again vowed to retake Gaza. Politicians said that whole areas would be destroyed in this new operation. However, once again, Hamas was left in control of Gaza City as the IDF basically retook areas in Gaza in June and July 2025 that it had taken in 2023 and 2024.

What is happening in Gaza now? Reports in Israeli media indicate that tanks have entered the outskirts of Gaza City. These reports speak of operations in the Sabra neighborhood in the southern part of the city. There have also been operations in the Zeitoun area between Gaza City and the Netzarim Corridor. The IDF had already taken this area at least four times since the war began.

There have been limited operations in Sabra as well. Israel’s political echelon believes that if Hamas is pushed out of Gaza City, then Hamas might finally collapse. However, Hamas has been pushed out of other key areas such as Rafah and Khan Yunis, and it has not collapsed. Evidence shows it has lost almost all of its company, battalion, and brigade commanders, as well as most of its leadership in Gaza.

However, it continues to replace its fighters, and it has fought on. Hamas mostly retreats and hides in areas where the IDF operates. In Beit Hanoun, for instance, it hid out for 20 months of war near the Israeli border before finally being defeated. It was only defeated in Beit Hanoun in July 2025 because every house there was demolished.

Gaza City symbollically important to Hamas

Some believe that Gaza City is of great importance to Hamas. It is symbolically important, to be sure. Militarily, it is less clear. Hamas has strongholds in the Central Camps, areas where its activists have historically grown up. Hamas is more popular among Gazans who are descendants of Arabs who fled Israel in 1948 and ended up in Gaza. The older clans of Gaza are less supportive. These older Gazans tend to live in parts of Gaza City. Will entering their areas lead Hamas to collapse?

Gaza City presents a challenge. In 2024, it was largely cut off from central Gaza because the IDF held the Netzarim corridor. The IDF left that area in January 2025 and never retook it fully. How many people are in Gaza City today? Several hundred thousand? Whatever the number, fighting among them will be complex. The IDF has always asked people to leave before it enters an area. This gives Hamas time to leave as well. Will Hamas simply leave Gaza City and wait out this offensive as it has in the past?