Palestinians scrambled to flee northern Gaza on Saturday after the Israeli military ordered nearly half the population to evacuate south and carried out limited ground forays ahead of an expected land offensive a week after Hamas’ bloody, wide-ranging attack into Israel.
Israel renewed calls on social media and in leaflets dropped from the air for some 1 million Gaza residents to move south, while Hamas urged people to stay in their homes. The U.N. and aid groups have said such a rapid exodus would cause untold human suffering, with hospital patients and others unable to relocate.
Families in cars, trucks and donkey carts packed with possessions crowded a main road heading away from Gaza City as Israeli airstrikes continued to hammer the small, besieged territory. Palestinian witnesses said Israel struck cars rushing south, and Hamas said the strikes killed more than 70 people.
The Israeli military, which has not commented on the strikes, posted a message in Arabic on social media saying Palestinians could travel along two main routes without being harmed from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. local time. The military said Saturday that “hundreds of thousands” of Palestinians had already streamed south.
Thousands of people who fled their homes crammed into a U.N.-run school-turned-shelter in Deir al-Balah, a city south of the evacuation zone. Many slept outside on the ground without mattresses, or in chairs pulled from the classrooms.
“I came here with my children. We slept on the ground. We don’t have a mattress, or clothes,” Howeida al-Zaaneen, 63, who is from the northern town of Beit Hanoun, said. “I want to go back to my home, even if it is destroyed.”
The military said its troops conducted temporary raids into Gaza to battle militants and hunted for traces of some 150 people — including men, women and children — who were abducted during Hamas’ shocking Oct. 7 assault on southern Israel.
Families in Gaza faced agonizing dilemmas in deciding whether to leave or stay. Israeli strikes have leveled entire city blocks, and Gaza has been sealed off from food, water and medical supplies — all under a near-total power blackout.
The Gaza Health Ministry said Saturday that 2,215 people have been killed in the territory, including 724 children and 458 women. The Hamas assault killed more than 1,300 Israelis, most of them civilians, and roughly 1,500 Hamas militants were killed during the fighting, the Israeli government said.
Palestinians and some Egyptian officials fear Israel’s ultimate aim is to push Gaza’s people out of the territory through its southern border with Egypt.
AP
