Quarter of a million displaced from Gaza City as Israel vows to defeat Hamas
Israel estimates that more than 250,000 residents have fled Gaza City, renewing its pledge to defeat Hamas in the largest urban center of the Palestinian enclave.
In a statement released Saturday, Israeli army spokesman Avichay Adraee declared: “Residents of Gaza, according to IDF estimates, more than a quarter of a million people have left the city to ensure their safety.”
The statement urged civilians to “take Al-Rashid Street and move immediately to the Al-Mawasi humanitarian zone and to the clear areas of central refugee camps, as announced yesterday, where a much better humanitarian response, including medical services, awaits.”
It emphasized that “the IDF is determined to eliminate Hamas in Gaza City and is therefore expanding the pace of its attacks,” accusing the Palestinian movement of “spreading lies and endangering civilians’ lives for its own survival.”
Israel has intensified its military operations in the city, where fifty people were killed on Friday, according to Gaza’s civil defense.
That same evening, Germany, France, and the United Kingdom issued a joint call for “an immediate halt to Israeli military operations in Gaza City, which are causing mass displacement of civilians, mounting casualties, and the destruction of vital infrastructure.”
In New York, nearly two years after the outbreak of war between Israel and Hamas, the UN General Assembly adopted by a large majority the “New York Declaration,” designed to revive the two-state solution, while explicitly excluding Hamas for the first time.
Israel condemned the decision as “shameful,” claiming it encouraged the continuation of the conflict.
The Israeli military meanwhile announced it was continuing “a broad assault on terrorist infrastructure and towers converted into military sites in Gaza City,” as part of its campaign of high-rise demolitions launched the previous week.
According to Gaza’s civil defense, a strike on a residential building in the city’s northwest killed fourteen people, mostly women and children. Journalist Hazem al-Sultan, who lost relatives in the attack, said: “Fourteen bodies were recovered, most of them children and women. Two were intact, the rest were in pieces.”
The UN has repeatedly warned of a “catastrophe” should Israel proceed with its plan, approved last August, to fully seize Gaza City, where about one million people still reside in the city and its surroundings.
Humanitarian organizations have condemned the renewed push to force northern Gaza residents southward. Prospects for a ceasefire or a hostage deal appear more remote than ever, particularly after Tuesday’s Israeli strike in Doha that targeted a Hamas leadership meeting.
On Friday evening, Hamas confirmed that its chief negotiator Khalil al-Hayya had survived the strike and attended the funeral of his son, who was among those killed.
The Forum of Hostages’ Families accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of “recklessly endangering their loved ones and Israeli soldiers, without any clear objective or strategic purpose.”
According to official data compiled by Agence France-Presse, Hamas’s October 2023 assault killed 1,219 people in Israel, most of them civilians. Israel’s subsequent military operations in Gaza have killed at least 64,756 people, the majority women and children, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry.
The Israeli army maintains that 47 hostages remain in Gaza, including 25 confirmed dead, out of the 251 abducted during the attack.
