The Israeli military warned on Friday that it would act with “unprecedented force” in Gaza City, urging residents to flee south. The military also announced that a temporary evacuation route, opened 48 hours ago, had been closed.
In a post on the X network, the Israeli army's Arabic-language spokesman, Avichay Adraee, addressed the residents of Gaza City.
"From this moment on, the Salah al-Din road is closed to travel south. The Israel Defense Forces will continue to act with unprecedented force against Hamas and other terrorist organizations," he wrote.
He added that the only open road to the south is Al-Rashid Road, and called on residents "to seize this opportunity and join the hundreds of thousands of city residents who have fled to the humanitarian zone."
On Thursday, Gaza City was hit again by Israeli artillery, tanks and warplanes. A United Nations official said “new waves of mass displacement” were taking place, with some 60.000 people fleeing the city in the past 72 hours alone.
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Israeli military officials describe Gaza City as a “Hamas stronghold.” So far, 450 citizens are believed to have fled the city.
Large parts of the Palestinian city, once a commercial and cultural center, are now destroyed and uninhabitable. Until a few weeks ago, more than a million people lived there, many of whom had been displaced several times before.
More than 140 world leaders are expected to discuss the Gaza and Palestinian issues next week at the annual UN General Assembly summit. But there will be no leader. Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, cannot travel to New York after Washington denied him a visa.
And the United States has again used its veto in the UN Security Council, blocking a resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and unrestricted humanitarian access to the besieged enclave. This is the sixth time the US has vetoed a resolution with this content since the start of the Israeli offensive in Gaza in October 2023.
The resolution, proposed by Algeria and supported by the vast majority of Security Council members, was intended to immediately halt the fighting and allow the distribution of vital aid to Palestinian civilians.
Israel has recently launched a new offensive, further escalating the conflict that has roiled the Middle East. The Israeli army, which says it wants to destroy Hamas' military infrastructure, has not given a timeline for the offensive, but there were indications that it could last for months.
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According to Hamas-led authorities in Gaza, more than 65 people have died in the fighting since 2023. Hamas does not distinguish between civilian or militant casualties, but has said that women and children account for about half of the dead.
The Gaza war began when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel on October 7, 2023, killing an estimated 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapping 251 others. 48 hostages, less than half of whom are believed to be alive, remain in Gaza.
