Israel says ‘last opportunity’ for Palestinians to leave Gaza City as it ramps up attacks
Dozens of Palestinians have been killed as Israel intensifies its deadly airstrikes across the besieged Gaza Strip, particularly targeting Gaza City, as the regime issued new orders for people to leave for the south.
Media reports on Wednesday said Israeli warplanes and tanks pounded residential neighborhoods throughout the night as regime forces ramped up attacks on Gaza City.
Local health authorities reported that at least 17 people were killed by the Israeli military across Gaza, with most casualties occurring in Gaza City.
Medics reported that a strike on the old city in northwestern Gaza City killed seven people, while six others sheltering in a school elsewhere in the city were killed in a separate strike.
The Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza said at least 51 people have been killed across the besieged region in the past 24 hours, and 180 were taken to hospitals for treatment.
Meanwhile, the Israeli military has issued new orders for people to leave for the south, saying that they would no longer be allowed to return.
Israel’s minister of military affairs, Israel Katz, threatened Palestinians to either leave Gaza City or be deemed as 'terrorists'. He said the Israeli military would tighten its encirclement of Gaza City, giving residents a "last opportunity" to flee to the south.
The measure is deepening fears of permanent displacement in Gaza. It would also halt the transfer of goods by local merchants from the south to the north, potentially worsening food shortages in Gaza City.
The Israeli military had taken similar measures in the early months of the genocidal war, completely separating the north and the south of the coastal enclave.
Meanwhile, the Red Cross said in a statement on Wednesday that it has temporarily suspended its operations in Gaza City due to the intensified Israeli military offensive and relocated the staff to its offices in southern Gaza.
"The intensification of military operations in Gaza City has forced the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to temporarily suspend operations at its Gaza City office and relocate staff to ICRC offices in southern Gaza to ensure staff safety and operational continuity," the statement read.
The move comes as tens of thousands of people residing in Gaza City face worsening humanitarian conditions.
US President Donald Trump on Tuesday gave the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas “three or four days” to respond to the ceasefire plan outlined this week with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Hamas has yet to publicly comment on Trump’s plan.
The plan sees Israel making a few concessions in the near-term and does not lay out a clear path to an independent Palestinian state.
A source close to Hamas said on Tuesday that the plan was heavily biased in Israel’s favor.
“Hamas is keen to end the war and end the genocide, and it will respond in the way that serves the higher interests of the Palestinian people,” he said, without elaborating.
Meanwhile, the death toll from the US-Israeli genocidal war since October 2023 has climbed to over 66,200.
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