Israel blocks main road to Gaza City, gives residents last chance to leave

Cairo: Israeli tanks blocked the main road to Gaza City on Thursday, 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 Defense 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 on Thursday.

'We are not leaving'

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.

"We are not leaving. Yesterday a drone dropped grenades on the rooftop of our building, but we are not leaving," said Hani, 24, who lives in Gaza City, who asked to be identified only by his first name because of security concerns.

"We are afraid if we leave, we will never see our Gaza City again."

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 on Thursday 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.

Ground offensive damages health facilities

Gaza's health ministry said Israel's intensifying ground assault was crippling the ability to treat the sick and wounded, after four medical facilities were forced to shutter.

Doctors at Gaza City's main hospital, Al Shifa, said they had been forced to scale back services because of constant Israeli bombardment around the facility, as vulnerable patients worried that the hospital would soon have to shut.

"If this department is closed, it will mean the death of the patients. Our lives would end. This department represents life for us," Medhat Elewah, a kidney patient, said in a video filmed inside the hospital, obtained by Reuters.

He said he used to receive four hours of dialysis sessions three times a week, but this had been cut back to two hours.

Israel began its Gaza offensive after the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack on Israel in which some 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken as hostages back to Gaza, according to Israeli tallies.

Israel's two-year-long campaign has killed over 66,000 people in Gaza, according to Gaza health authorities.