The Israeli military said on Wednesday it was opening an additional route for 48 hours that Palestinians could use to leave Gaza City as it stepped up efforts to empty the city of civilians and confront thousands of Hamas combatants.
Hundreds of thousands of people are sheltering in the city and many are reluctant to follow Israel’s orders to move south. This is because of the dangers along the way, including dire conditions, a lack of food in the southern area and fear of permanent displacement.
“Even if we want to leave Gaza City, is there any guarantee we would be able to come back? Will the war ever end? That’s why I prefer to die here, in Sabra, my neighbourhood,” Ahmed, a schoolteacher, said by telephone.
At least 50 people were killed by Israeli strikes and gunfire across the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, including 39 in Gaza City, local health authorities said.
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They said the latest fatalities took the Palestinian death toll from the two-year war between Israel and Hamas past 65,000. Palestinian officials and rescue workers say the true figure is likely to be higher as many people’s remains are trapped under the rubble of destroyed buildings.
The war was triggered by the Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel on October 7th, 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken hostage, according to Israeli tallies.
The Hamas-run government’s ministry of health said an Israeli drone had dropped grenades on one floor of the Rantisi children’s hospital on Wednesday. No casualties were reported but the ministry said 40 families took their children away.
The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Israel estimates about 400,000 people, or 40 per cent of those who were in Gaza City on August 10th – when it announced plans to take control – have already fled. The Gaza media office says 190,000 have headed south and 350,000 have moved to central and western areas of the city.
A day after Israel announced the launch of its ground offensive to seize control of Gaza’s main urban centre, tanks had moved short distances towards the city’s central and western areas from three directions, but no major advance was reported.
An Israeli official said military operations were focused on getting civilians to head south and that fighting would intensify over the next month or two.
The official said Israel expected about 100,000 civilians to remain in the city, which would take months to capture, and the operation could be suspended if a ceasefire was reached with the Hamas militant group.
The prospects of a ceasefire appear remote after Israel attacked Hamas political leaders in Doha last week, infuriating Qatar, a co-mediator in ceasefire talks.
In leaflets dropped over Gaza City, the military said Palestinians could use the newly reopened Salahudin Road to escape towards the south and that they had until lunchtime on Friday to do so.
But the situation remained chaotic and dangerous for civilians, who have been streaming away on foot, by donkey cart or in vehicles in recent days.
Much of Gaza City was laid to waste early in the war in 2023, but about one million Palestinians had returned there to homes among the ruins. Forcing them out would mean confining most of Gaza’s population to overcrowded encampments in the south where a hunger crisis is unfolding.
The United Nations, aid groups and foreign governments have condemned Israel’s offensive and the proposed mass displacement.
In a separate response to the Gaza conflict in general, a UN commission of inquiry concluded on Tuesday that Israel had committed genocide in Gaza. Israel called the assessment “scandalous” and “fake”.
Palestinian and UN officials say no place is safe, including in the southern area designated by Israel as a “humanitarian zone”. On Tuesday, an air strike killed five people in a vehicle as they were leaving Gaza City for the south. - Reuters
