On foot, by bike, or in vehicles, Palestinians are fleeing Gaza City in large numbers, targeted by a major Israeli military offensive whose bombings killed dozens across the territory on Wednesday.
With U.S. support, Israel announced Tuesday the start of a ground and air campaign in Gaza City aimed at destroying the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, whose October 7, 2023, attack in Israel triggered the war in the Gaza Strip.
The Israeli retaliatory offensive has devastated the small territory, causing tens of thousands of deaths and a humanitarian disaster. The roughly two million residents, besieged by the Israeli army, have been repeatedly displaced.
“It’s like living through Judgment Day or hell itself, though even hell would be more merciful,” said Fatima Lubbad, who walked nearly 10 km with her four children to reach Deir al-Balah after fleeing Gaza City the day before.
“We can’t take it anymore,” the 36-year-old woman, who had “to sleep with her children in the street,” told AFP.
Day and night, on foot, by car, in donkey-drawn carts, or in trucks, Palestinians are fleeing Gaza City (north) with only a few personal belongings, following military evacuation calls, AFP images show.
However, 44-year-old Oum Ahmed Younès said she cannot afford the exorbitant transport fees. “There are no tents, or if there are, the prices are outrageous. It’s cheaper to die.”
The Israeli army announced the opening of a new route to allow residents to leave the largest city in the Palestinian territory. The passage, open until Friday noon (09:00 GMT), runs along Salaheddine Street, which cuts through the Gaza Strip from north to south.
“We don’t want to die!”
The UN estimated in late August that around one million people live in Gaza City and its surroundings.
AFP journalists have observed a new exodus from Gaza City to the south in recent days. On Wednesday, the Israeli army said “more than 350,000” people had fled.
The military continued its bombings elsewhere in the Palestinian territory. The Civil Defense under Hamas reported at least 40 deaths, including 23 in Gaza City.
In the Shati refugee camp in Gaza City, a building was destroyed in a bombing, killing four people, including a woman and her child, according to the same source.
Residents rushed to the site to help find survivors under the rubble while ambulances transported bodies to al-Shifa Hospital, AFP images show.
On Tuesday, the army launched a major ground offensive in Gaza City to expel Hamas from one of its last large strongholds in the Gaza Strip. Since then, it has claimed to have “hit more than 150 terrorist targets across the city in support of troops operating in the area.”
Due to media restrictions in Gaza and limited access on the ground, AFP cannot independently verify casualty figures or claims from the Civil Defense or the Israeli army.
The offensive on Gaza City, for which the army recalled tens of thousands of reservists, has drawn widespread international condemnation, as well as concern within Israel over the fate of hostages taken during the October 7 attack.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government aims not only to destroy Hamas but also to establish security control over the entire Palestinian territory.
AFP
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