The Israeli army announced on Thursday that around 700,000 Palestinians have left Gaza City in the south since the end of August, as air and ground strikes continue in the territory’s urban center.
In a response to AFP, the army stated that “700,000 Palestinians have been evacuated” from Gaza City to the south of the Gaza Strip.
The UN humanitarian agency, OCHA, noted that since mid-August, 388,400 internal displacements have been recorded, most of them from Gaza City. According to the UN, by the end of August, about one million people were living in Gaza City and its surroundings, where the situation has been declared as “extreme famine.”
Israel launched a large-scale air and ground offensive in the main urban center of the Palestinian territory, describing it as an effort to uproot Hamas after nearly two years of devastating war.
“Over the past week, strikes on Gaza City have been particularly intense, affecting tents of internally displaced persons (IDPs), residential buildings, and public infrastructure, many of which resulted in a high number of casualties,” OCHA reported.
The civil defense agency in Gaza reported that Israeli strikes killed 22 people on Thursday, including five in Gaza City. An airstrike on a house sheltering displaced persons in central Gaza killed 11 people.
Due to media restrictions and difficulties in accessing many areas, AFP has been unable to independently verify the figures provided by either the civil defense or the Israeli military.
“The whole country was destroyed and nothing remains suitable for human use,” said Gaza resident Youssef Younis. Another resident of Al-Zawaida, Ahmed Abu Dahrouj, added: “Our message is that the war must end immediately because we are experiencing genocide.”
Over nearly two years, Israeli offensives have killed at least 65,502 Palestinians, mostly civilians, according to Gaza’s health ministry, a figure the UN considers credible.
The conflict began after Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, which killed 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli data.
