IDF has just Ordered the Largest Gaza Push off since the War

IDF drops leaflets on Gaza City warning residents of the Old City and Al-Tuffah neighborhoods to evacuate on September 9, 2025.

(photo credit: TPS-IL)

The scope and immediacy of the order signaled that the military's full-scale invasion may finally be close.

 

Past evacuation orders were localized in a specific area or used wording that suggested that an invasion was coming soon, but was less imminent.

To date, Israeli political and military officials have spent weeks trying to get Palestinian civilians to evacuate Gaza City, but only around 100,000 out of around one million have left, leaving the timing of the invasion in question.

A senior defense official has said that Hamas was actively blocking many Palestinian civilians from evacuating.

At the start of the war in October 2023, the IDF spent around three weeks pounding Gaza City and nearby areas with aerial bombardments and artillery and tank fire before sending five divisions (between 25,000-50,000) of ground forces in, along with a much larger group of forces which surrounded portions of Gaza.

So far, the IDF has increased its pace of targeting large high rises in Gaza City, but has not yet struck the area with the same level of bombardment.

War plans have disclosed that the IDF plans to use up to five divisions again in the full-scale invasion, although some of that may depend on the degree of Hamas resistance.

In October and November 2023, Hamas resisted heavily with around 10,000 fighters, more than half of whom were killed by the IDF in a short period.

However, Hamas has not put up a large-scale defense against an Israeli invasion since the battles of Khan Yunis from December 2023 to February 2024.

Rather, it has been fighting a guerrilla-style war of small terror cells carrying out localized ambushes, such that the five divisions may not be necessary in the end.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that taking over Gaza City will convince Hamas to give up the remaining hostages and will lead to the group's defeat.

Much of the IDF disagrees and believes that even if taking over Gaza City will harm Hamas's overall strength, that the group will manage to continue its guerilla style tactics, that the invasion may lead to deaths of Israeli hostages, and that the cost to IDF soldiers who will die, Palestinian civilians who may get caught in the cross-fire, and the harder humanitarian situation which may be created will harm Israeli legitimacy more than the expected gain from the operation.

Gaza Humanitarian Forum stated: "The forced displacement of an entire population - including children, the elderly, and people with disabilities - after months of deteriorating health conditions, food insecurity, and even malnutrition, into overcrowded areas lacking the resources to absorb them, only heightens the risk to their health and to public health overall. Such sweeping evacuations deepen the humanitarian crisis and may also undermine the possibility of creating safe and agreed conditions for the release of the hostages held by Hamas. The only viable solution is the establishment of a humanitarian space that meets international standards for the reception of displaced populations, enabling UN agencies, experienced in this field of work, to prepare.