DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israel's military warned Gaza City residents on Tuesday to evacuate ahead of its planned offensive to take control of what it portrays as Hamas’ last remaining stronghold and where hundreds of thousands of people remain struggling under conditions of famine.
The warning came hours before Israel launched a strike targeting Hamas’ leaders in Qatar, officials said, intensifying its campaign against the militant group and endangering negotiations over ending the war in Gaza.
The warnings directed at Gaza City were the first calling for a full evacuation. Until now, the military has only told specific sections of the northern city to evacuate ahead of operations or strikes.
Associated Press reporters saw lines of cars and trucks leaving, more than previous days passing from northern to southern Gaza on Tuesday. Children and adults sat atop piles of blankets, pillows, chairs, and clothing stacked on trucks and wagons.
Israel says multiple towers destroyed in Gaza City
As part of Israel's ramped up offensive, it said it has demolished 50 high-rise buildings in Gaza in the past two days. Israeli leaders have accused Hamas of using the buildings for military infrastructure. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday said demolition of the high-rises was “only the beginning of the main intensive operation — the ground incursion of our forces.”
First responders rescued two survivors and pulled two bodies from one of the demolished buildings on Tuesday, according to the civil defense, part of the Hamas-run Interior Ministry. It said others were trapped under the rubble.
Israel urged Palestinians to flee parts of Gaza City for a designated humanitarian zone in the territory’s south.
Despite warnings, few Palestinians have left
Israel's previous warnings to leave specific neighborhoods have had little impact on a population that is exhausted from multiple displacements and unclear if moving to southern Gaza will really be safer.
There are an estimated 1 million Palestinians in the area of north Gaza around Gaza City, according to both the Israeli military and the United Nations, around half of Gaza's population of 2.1 million. As of Sept. 7, a coalition of humanitarian groups tracking movement in northern Gaza said they had tracked 50,000 movements of people fleeing south. A similar number were people moved within northern Gaza.
The data from the coalition, called the Site Management Cluster, tracks movement from eyewitness accounts, social media posts and information from partners on the ground, because access to northern Gaza is heavily restricted.
Military spokesperson Col. Avichay Adraee warned last week that the full evacuation of Gaza City was "inevitable,” saying families who move south would receive humanitarian assistance. But aid groups warned there was little infrastructure to support them.
Palestinians and hostage survivors protest Israeli operation
Dozens of Palestinians, including doctors and medical staff, took part in a protest Tuesday in Gaza City to reject the Israeli warnings.
“We will never leave our land … health care workers won’t leave and we are calling for protection,” said Dr. Muneer al-Boursh, the general director of Gaza’s Health Ministry.
Dr. Rami Mhanna, managing director of Shifa Hospital, said the facility was still open despite the uneasy situation and that he didn't notice displacement in and around the hospital.
“So far, things are as usual,” he told the AP after the evacuation warning. “But the atmosphere is tense and there is great psychological pressure on the staff and patients.”
In Jerusalem, families of hostages and former captives in Gaza pleaded with Israel to halt the Gaza City offensive.
“I was held captive by Hamas for 498 days and was released in a deal in February,” Iair Horn, whose brother, Eitan, is still in captivity, told the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee. “If I was released through a deal, then apparently that’s the right way to free the rest of the hostages who remain.”
UN says it costs at least $1,000 to evacuate to southern Gaza
The United Nations humanitarian agency said many families can't evacuate even if they want to, because displacement sites are overcrowded and it can cost more than $1,000 in transportation and other costs to move to southern Gaza, a prohibitive amount for many.
A U.N. initiative to bring temporary shelters into Gaza said more than 86,000 tents and other supplies were still awaiting clearance to enter Gaza as of last week.
The U.N. agency that oversees Palestinian refugees said Tuesday said the attacks on residential towers in Gaza City had displaced dozens of families, with many of them left “on the streets without shelter or basic necessities.”
COGAT, the Israeli defense body overseeing humanitarian aid to Gaza said 1,500 humanitarian aid trucks primarily containing food entered Gaza last week, and there are plans to bring in 100,000 tents in the coming weeks, many of which are waiting in Jordan.
The war in Gaza began when Hamas-led militants abducted 251 people on Oct. 7, 2023, and killed some 1,200 people, mostly Israeli civilians. Forty-eight hostages are still inside Gaza, around 20 of them believed to be alive.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least more than 64,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not say how many were civilians or combatants. It says around half of those killed were women and children. Large parts of major cities have been completely destroyed and around 90% of the population of some 2 million Palestinians have been displaced.
2 Palestinian teenagers killed in the West Bank
Two 14-year-old Palestinian boys were killed in the Israeli-occupied West Bank on Monday, according to the Ramallah-based Palestinian Health Ministry.
The Israeli military said the incident happened in the northern West Bank City of Jenin, where several people approached Israeli soldiers in a way that “posed a threat.” The area was under military closure and entry was prohibited at the time, the military said, without providing further information.
Ahmad Majarmeh, a resident of Jenin, said Israeli soldiers started shooting “randomly” at a group of people collecting belongings from their homes, which they were forced to leave months ago. Majarmeh said his nephew, Islam Majarmeh, was one of two people killed by the gunfire.
Also in the West Bank, an Israeli investigation continued into two Palestinians who opened fire at a bus stop in Jerusalem on Monday, killing six people. It was the deadliest attack against civilians in Israel in nearly a year.
Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack, though Israel’s Shin Bet internal security service said the two attackers had no known militant ties and no prior arrests.
Defense Minister Israel Katz said Tuesday he placed sanctions on the relatives and residents of the towns where the two attackers are from and canceled 750 work visas for town residents.
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Magdy reported from Cairo and Lidman from Tel Aviv, Israel. Associated Press writer Julia Frankel in Jerusalem contributed to this report.
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Follow AP’s war coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war
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