Israel’s army has said that it is giving civilians in northern Gaza another window to flee to the southern region of the coastal strip.
The army would open a four-hour window on a specific road to the south, a spokesman wrote on Monday on platform X, formerly Twitter, accompanied by a map.
The spokesman called on people to move south as quickly as possible for their own safety.
About a week ago, the military expanded its ground operations in the war against Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip.
On Sunday night, the army said it had divided up the territory, and that there is now “a northern Gaza and a southern Gaza.”
Israel’s army has repeatedly called on people in the north to flee to the south.
According to the military, about 700,000 people have already left.
The United Nations said there are about 1.4 million internally displaced people and has described dire humanitarian conditions in Gaza.
In total, more than 2.2 million people live in the densely populated Gaza Strip.
The Israeli military is currently fighting Hamas mainly in the north, however, there have also been Israeli airstrikes in the south.
The south is not a “safe zone” but is safer “than any other place in Gaza,” an army spokesperson said last week.
The current fighting started after the Palestinian Islamist Hamas movement launched a terrorist attack from the Gaza Strip against Israel on Oct. 7, killing 1,400 mainly civilians and taking some 240 people hostage.
Israel then launched a retaliatory bombing campaign to eliminate Hamas that has killed at least 9,770 Palestinians in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry there.
Israel steps up Gaza strikes, pressure grows over civilian casualties
Israel’s military said on Monday Israeli fighter jets struck 450 Hamas targets in Gaza and troops seized a militant compound in the past 24 hours in attacks that killed dozens of people.
A Reuters journalist in the Gaza Strip described the overnight bombardment from the air, ground, and sea as one of the most intense since Israel launched its offensive in response to a surprise attack by Hamas on southern Israel a month ago.
Health officials in Hamas-controlled Gaza said more than 9,770 Palestinians have been killed in the war since Hamas killed 1,400 people and seized more than 240 hostages on Oct. 7.
Israel, which said its forces have encircled Gaza City, faces mounting pressure to avoid civilian casualties after refusing to countenance a ceasefire until the hostages are released.
However, the U.S. diplomatic blitz in the region is intended to reduce the risks of the conflict escalating.
The health ministry in Gaza said dozens of people were killed by the Israeli air strikes in Gaza City and further south in Gaza neighbourhoods such as Zawaida and Deir Al-Balah. Hamas-affiliated Al-Aqsa TV quoted medical sources as saying at least 75 Palestinians were killed and 106 hurt in the attacks.
The Israeli army said its strikes hit “tunnels, terrorists, military compounds, observation posts, and anti-tank missile launch posts”.
Ground troops killed several Hamas fighters while taking a militant compound containing observation posts, training areas, and underground tunnels, it said.
Reuters could not independently verify these accounts.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken was due to meet Turkey’s foreign minister in Ankara, hours after hundreds of people at a pro-Palestinian protest tried to storm an air base that houses U.S. troops in southern Turkey.
Blinken made an unannounced visit to the West Bank on Sunday to meet Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who joined international calls for an immediate ceasefire.
Blinken reiterated U.S. concerns that a ceasefire could aid Hamas, but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ruled one out for now.