The Israeli Defense Forces on Friday designated Gaza City a “dangerous combat zone” and said they had begun the preliminary phase of an assault on the enclave’s largest urban area. The army simultaneously suspended the daily mid-day pauses that had allowed humanitarian convoys to move through the city, saying the measure would no longer apply from 10:00 a.m. local time. Military spokespeople said troops were operating “with great force” on Gaza City’s outskirts as part of an effort to dismantle Hamas positions entrenched there. Separately, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office announced that soldiers recovered the body of 56-year-old Ilan Weiss along with the remains of another, still-unidentified hostage during an operation inside the Strip. Weiss, a member of Kibbutz Be’eri, was killed during Hamas’s 7 Oct. 2023 attack and his body had been held in Gaza for nearly two years. Israeli officials said roughly 48 hostages remain in the territory, about 20 of whom are believed to be alive. The intensifying military push comes a week after a UN-backed assessment declared famine in Gaza City. Aid organisations warn that renewed fighting could forcibly displace up to one million people and further restrict deliveries of food, medicine and fuel. Israel disputes responsibility for the territory’s hunger crisis but faces mounting international pressure to balance its military objectives with the region’s deepening humanitarian needs.