GAZA CITY: The Israeli military has warned it will operate with unprecedented force in Gaza City while instructing residents to evacuate immediately.
This announcement comes as Israel intensifies its ground offensive on the territory’s largest urban centre nearly two years into the devastating conflict.
Gaza City has endured continuous air strikes and tank fire as Israeli forces attempt to seize control amid a United Nations-declared famine.
The assault precedes a planned move by several Western governments including Britain and France to recognise a Palestinian state at an upcoming UN summit.
Despite military instructions to head south, many Palestinians report being unable to evacuate due to prohibitive costs and uncertainty about destinations.
Khaled al-Majdalawi, a displaced Palestinian in western Gaza City, described intense and continuous shelling while attempting to arrange transportation.
The 32-year-old explained his family packed belongings and waited hours for a driver who never arrived and stopped responding to communications.
United Nations estimates indicated approximately one million people were living in Gaza City and surrounding areas at the end of August.
Military officials stated 480,000 people had fled since late August while Gaza’s civil defence agency reported 450,000 evacuations.
The military’s Arabic-language spokesman announced the closure of a temporary evacuation route opened 48 hours earlier.
Avichay Adraee declared the Al-Rashid road along the Mediterranean coast as the only remaining route south while addressing residents on social media.
The military continues urging Palestinians to head toward the Al-Mawasi humanitarian area on the coast where aid and medical care are supposedly available.
Israel previously designated this area as a safe zone early in the war but has conducted repeated strikes there while targeting Hamas.
Nivin Ahmed described walking more than 15 kilometres with seven family members from Gaza City to Deir el-Balah while dragging a small cart with belongings.
The 50-year-old recalled her youngest son crying from fatigue as the exhausted family crawled toward their destination.
Mona Abdel Karim reported sleeping on Al-Rashid road for two nights with her family while waiting for transportation south.
The 36-year-old explained her inability to evacuate due to elderly and sick in-laws and children too weak to walk on foot.
Photographic evidence from the coastal road shows long lines of Palestinians heading south on foot or in vehicles piled with meagre belongings.
Civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal reported artillery shelling and intermittent gunfire in Tel al-Hawa neighbourhood alongside drone attacks in northwestern areas.
Gaza hospitals reported at least 41 people killed across the territory on Friday with 11 fatalities occurring in Gaza City.
The Israeli military stated its troops were targeting militants using tank fire, armed drones and air strikes while dismantling terrorist infrastructure.
Media restrictions and access difficulties prevent independent verification of details provided by either the civil defence or Israeli military.
This US-backed offensive coincides with a United Nations probe accusing Israel of committing genocide in the Gaza Strip.
The investigation specifically cited Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other senior officials for inciting the crime.
Israel rejected these findings as distorted and false while maintaining its military operations.
Hamas’s October 2023 attack on Israel resulted in 1,219 deaths according to official figures while Israel’s retaliatory campaign has killed at least 65,174 people according to Gaza’s health ministry. – AFP
