Displaced Palestinians, fleeing northern Gaza.
Credit: Reuters
The Israeli military said it would open another evacuation route Wednesday for people fleeing Gaza City as international alarm grew over the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians still sheltering there amid Israel’s heavy bombardment and widening ground assault.
Before the expanded offensive was announced Tuesday, the military ordered people in Gaza City to go to what it described as a humanitarian zone in the south. The Israeli military said that more than 350,000 people had fled the northern city as of Tuesday evening, cramming onto the enclave’s coastal road, but roughly half a million were believed to still be there.
On Wednesday, the military announced the opening of another “temporary route” heading south along Salah al-Din Road. In an Arabic-language statement posted on social media, it said the route would be open for 48 hours, starting at noon local time Wednesday.
The start of the long-planned ground offensive drew fierce condemnation from allies of Israel and aid agencies, who said it would worsen an already dire humanitarian situation and derail any diplomatic resolution to the nearly two-year war.
Israel’s government has said seizing Gaza City is necessary to prevent Hamas from regrouping and planning future attacks like the assault on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, that ignited the war.
Heavy airstrikes continued to pound the Gaza Strip, with Israel’s military saying Wednesday morning that more than 150 strikes had been launched over the previous 48 hours.
In a report on Wednesday, the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said no food aid had entered northern Gaza since Friday, when it said Israel’s military had closed an important border crossing, Zikim.
Aid groups, the report said, had “grave concerns over fuel and food stock depletion in a matter of days as there are now no direct aid entry points into northern Gaza and resupply from south to north is increasingly challenging due to mounting road congestion and insecurity.”
Nearly 100 people have been killed and nearly 400 wounded over the past 24 hours, Gaza’s health ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants, said Wednesday afternoon. It added that emergency workers had been unable to reach a number of people trapped under the rubble.