Israeli tanks blocked the main road to Gaza City yesterday, preventing those who have left the besieged city from returning, and Defence Minister Israel Katz said it was now the last chance for hundreds of thousands of people still inside to escape.
Israel has told the entire million-strong population of Gaza City to head south as it mounts one of the biggest offensives of the war this month, vowing to root out Hamas fighters in what it says are their last bastions in Gaza’s biggest urban area.
Residents told Reuters that tanks had set up sand barriers on the main road south out of Gaza City. People were being allowed out, but those who had left in search of food or temporary shelter were no longer being permitted to return.
“This is the last opportunity for Gaza residents who wish to do so to move south and leave Hamas operatives isolated in Gaza City itself in the face of the IDF’s continuing full-scale operations,” Israeli Defence Minister Katz said in a statement.
Those leaving would be subjected to vetting by the military, Katz said.
The military said in a statement on Wednesday it had begun an operation to strengthen and maintain “operational control of the Netzarim Corridor”, an area it controls dividing northern and southern Gaza. It did not respond to a request for further comment yesterday.
The United Nations estimates that 600,000-700,000 people are still inside Gaza City, after up to 400,000 fled in the past few weeks as Israeli forces have advanced, destroying buildings in their path.
Some residents reached by Reuters said the move to prevent people from returning to Gaza City had increased their determination to stay.
Israeli planes and tanks continued to pound Gaza City. Gaza’s healthy ministry said Israeli fire killed at least 77 people in the past 24 hours.
Medics said one of those strikes yesterday killed nine people, including five from one family, near a community kitchen in Al Mawasi, a southern coastal area which Israel has designated a “humanitarian zone” for hundreds of thousands of residents forced to flee from other parts of Gaza.
l Egypt’s foreign minister said yesterday that Cairo was working with Qatar and Türkiye to convince Hamas to accept US President Donald Trump’s plan to end a nearly two-year-old war in Gaza, and warned the conflict would escalate if Hamas refused.
Speaking at the French Institute of International Relations in Paris, Badr Abdelatty said it was clear that Hamas had to disarm and that Israel should not be given an excuse to carry on with its offensive in Gaza.
“Let’s not give any excuse for one party to use Hamas as a pretext for this mad daily killings of civilians. What’s happening is far beyond the seventh of October,” he said, referring to the Hamas’ 2023 attack on Israel.
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