Israeli tanks and jets pounded Gaza City, the target of a major ground offensive, on September 18, prompting Palestinians to flee south. Photo / Maya Levin, AFP
Israeli tanks and jets have pounded Gaza City, the target of a major ground offensive, prompting Palestinians to flee south, where the Israeli military announced the deaths of four soldiers.
AFP journalists and witnesses saw a steady stream of Gazans heading south on foot, in vehicles and on donkey carts – their meagre belongings piled high.
“There is artillery fire, air strikes, quadcopter and drone gunfire. The bombing never stops,” said Aya Ahmed, 32, sheltering with 13 relatives in Gaza City.
“The world doesn’t understand what is happening. They [Israel] want us to evacuate south – but where will we live? There are no tents, no transport, no money.”
Palestinians say the cost of a ride to the south has soared, in some cases topping US$1000 ($1699.67).
“The situation is indescribable – crowds everywhere, the sound of explosions, women and men crying and screaming as they walked while carrying their belongings,” said Shadi Jawad, 47, describing his family’s ordeal as they fled their home on Wednesday.
“God, send a missile to take us out and relieve us,” he said.
The offensive has sparked international outrage, with the territory already devastated by nearly two years of war and the Gaza City area gripped by a UN-declared famine.
It comes before a planned move by several Western countries, including France and Britain, to recognise a Palestinian state later this month at the UN.
US President Donald Trump, currently on a visit to Britain, said on Thursday he had a “disagreement” with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer over this.
The United States on Thursday again vetoed a UN Security Council resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza, shielding its ally Israel from diplomatic pressure.
“The military incursion and evacuation orders in northern Gaza are driving new waves of displacement, forcing traumatised families into an ever-shrinking area unfit for human dignity,” World Health Organisation chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on X.
“Hospitals, already overwhelmed, are on the brink of collapse as escalating violence blocks access and prevents WHO from delivering lifesaving supplies,” he warned.
Gaza City’s Al-Shifa Hospital said it had received the bodies of 33 people killed in Israeli strikes since midnight.
The Israeli military said it continued to target “Hamas terror infrastructure” and was also operating in the southern areas of Rafah and Khan Yunis.
Media restrictions in the territory and difficulties in accessing many areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify the details provided by the civil defence or the Israeli military.
Hamas’ armed wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, warned the military to expect fierce fighting.
“We are ready to send the lives of your soldiers to hell, and we have prepared for you an army of martyrs,” the group said in a statement.
“Gaza will be a cemetery for your soldiers.”
Later on Thursday, the Israeli military said four of its soldiers had been killed using an explosive device in Rafah, in southern Gaza.
Meanwhile, a Jordanian driving an aid truck from Jordan to Gaza shot dead two Israeli soldiers at the Allenby crossing between the Israeli-occupied West Bank and the kingdom.
Israel’s military said one of the men was an officer in the civil administration’s reserve unit, while the other was a soldier.
“This is the result of the echoing of Hamas’ campaign of lies,” the foreign ministry said on X.
Jordan condemned the attack, saying it jeopardised the delivery of aid, with the Israeli military later calling for aid from Jordan to be halted.
The US-backed offensive on Gaza City began on Tuesday and came as a United Nations probe accused Israel of committing “genocide” in the Gaza Strip, saying Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other senior officials had incited the crime.
Israel rejected the findings and slammed it as “distorted and false”.
The United Nations estimated at the end of August that about one million people were living in Gaza City and its surroundings. Israel says 350,000 of them have fled.
The Israeli military, meanwhile, conducted strikes on Thursday targeting Hezbollah sites in south Lebanon shortly after it urged residents of several villages in the region to evacuate.
The families of hostages taken by Palestinian militants in their October 2023 attack protested the Gaza City offensive in front of Netanyahu’s house in Jerusalem on Wednesday.
“My boy is dying over there. Instead of bringing him back, you have done the exact opposite – you have done everything to prevent his return,” Ofir Braslavski, whose son Rom is held captive in Gaza, said addressing the Prime Minister.
Of the 251 people taken hostage by Palestinian militants in October 2023, 47 remain in Gaza, including 25 the Israeli military says are dead.
The attack also resulted in the deaths of 1219 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally of official figures.
Israel’s retaliatory campaign has killed at least 65,141 people, also mostly civilians, according to figures from the territory’s health ministry that the United Nations considers reliable.
-Agence France-Presse