Daijiworld Media Network – Gaza
Gaza, Sep 19: The Israeli military on Friday warned it would unleash “unprecedented force” on Gaza City and announced the closure of Salah al-Din Road, a main north-south corridor, just 48 hours after it had opened as a temporary evacuation route. Residents were urged to flee south via the Al-Rashid coastal road.
Military spokesperson Avichay Adraee, posting in Arabic on X, said: “From this moment, Salah al-Din Road is closed for southbound travel. The Israel Defense Forces will continue to operate with unprecedented force against Hamas and other terrorist organisations. Take this opportunity and join the hundreds of thousands who have moved south to the humanitarian area.”
The move comes as Israel’s push to capture Gaza City enters a new phase, amid nearly two years of war and a UN-declared famine, drawing mounting international condemnation. Several Western nations, including France and Britain, are expected to move toward recognising a Palestinian state at a UN summit next week.
According to UN estimates from late August, about one million people were living in Gaza City and its surroundings, though Israel claims hundreds of thousands have already fled.
Footage from AFP showed long columns of Palestinians carrying belongings along Al-Rashid Street on Thursday, many on foot. In western Gaza City, displaced resident Sami Baroud, 35, described “relentless and intense shelling,” adding, “We have lost everything—our lives, our future, our sense of safety. How can I evacuate when I can’t even afford transportation?”
Umm Mohammed Al-Hattab, 49, said her family remained in tents after their home was destroyed. “The bombing hasn’t stopped. My children are terrified, and I don’t know what to do,” she said.
The offensive began Tuesday and coincides with a UN investigation accusing Israel of committing genocide, alleging that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and senior officials incited the crime. Israel has rejected the findings as “distorted and false.”
The conflict was triggered by Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack, which killed 1,219 people in Israel, mostly civilians, according to official figures. Israel’s retaliatory campaign has killed at least 65,141 people in Gaza, also mostly civilians, according to the territory’s health ministry figures regarded as credible by the UN.