Israeli Defence Minister Katz says anyone who stays in Gaza City will be considered ‘terrorists and terror supporters’.
At least 13 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks since dawn across Gaza as Israel threatened tens of thousands remaining in Gaza City with a forced order to leave, saying it was their “last opportunity” to flee or face the “full force” of Israel’s assault.
Defence Minister Israel Katz wrote on X on Wednesday that anyone who stayed would be considered “terrorists and terror supporters”.
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The continuous bombardment of Gaza City has razed the territory’s largest urban centre, killing dozens of people daily, destroying numerous residential buildings and schools, and forcing tens of thousands of Palestinians to flee to an unknown fate to the south, often targeted on the way.
On Thursday, a child was killed by Israeli drone fire in the Ansar area, west of Gaza City, according to emergency and ambulance services.
Nine people were killed and 13 were injured due to Israel’s targeting of displaced people in the central Gaza Strip, medical sources told media.
A Palestinian and his wife were killed in an Israeli drone strike on a house in the al-Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza.
Another Palestinian was killed and more than 10 were injured in an Israeli drone attack south of Deir el-Balah. In Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, eight people were injured when an Israeli drone bombed a tent for displaced people inside the Al-Aqsa University campus in the al-Mawasi area, west of the city, which Israel has repeatedly targeted despite declaring it a “safe zone”.
Despite the relentless Israeli carpet bombing of Gaza City, aimed at forcing civilians to flee south, some are making the dangerous choice to return to the north. Thousands of Palestinians have been forced by Israeli bombardment to flee from the north to the south on this perilous route.
On Wednesday, the Gaza Government Media Office said that the Israeli military had shut al-Rashid Street, which it described as “one of the vital arteries that civilians rely on for travel between Gaza’s governorates”.
As a result of the escalating hostilities, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said on Wednesday that it had temporarily suspended operations in Gaza City, just as the NGO Doctors Without Borders (known by its French acronym, MSF) did last week.
“The ICRC will continue to strive to provide support to civilians in Gaza City, whenever circumstances allow, from our offices in Deir el-Balah and Rafah, which remain fully operational,” it said in a statement.
In the meantime, Hamas continues to deliberate over a United States ceasefire plan to end Israel’s genocidal two-year war. Their acceptance of terms viewed as mostly favourable to Israel’s stated goals remains uncertain.
