Israel expels 250,000 Palestinians

By Emad Drimly and Jan-Uwe Ronneburger

At least 39 people have died since Saturday morning in Israeli military attacks in Gaza City and other parts of the coastal strip, Palestinian medical sources reported.

Israel has intensified its attacks, particularly on Gaza City, said Mahmud Basal, the spokesman for the Hamas-controlled civil defense.

In early August, Israel announced that its military planned to take control of the entire city to target Hamas units believed to be operating there.

Around 1 million people were previously believed to be in the city, some of whom had fled there from other parts of Gaza.

Israeli military spokesman Avichay Adraee on Saturday again called on all residents of Gaza City to flee immediately to so-called humanitarian zones further south.

Adraee wrote on X that an estimated 250,000 people had left the city.

Separately, the Hamas-run media office in the Gaza Strip estimated that the number of people that had fled to nominally safer areas had risen to 350,000, up from an earlier report of around 65,000.

None of these figures, or other information from the conflict zone, could be independently verified at the time.

In a later post on X, the spokesman also called on residents of a high-rise building and surrounding tents to flee immediately, as Israeli forces were preparing to attack Hamas “military infrastructure” there.

Shortly afterwards, the military said the building had been hit.

Although the city’s internet is barely working after Israeli forces destroyed many buildings with transmission masts, Adraee’s appeals were spreading quickly.

They can also be received on mobile phones with Israeli SIM cards.

Many residents do not want to move to designated safe zones, citing past attacks on such areas.

Israel’s military campaign in Gaza was triggered by the Hamas-led attacks on Oct. 7, 2023, in which around 1,200 people were killed in southern Israel and more than 250 were abducted to the Gaza Strip, including children.

There are still 48 hostages in Gaza, 20 of whom are still alive according to Israeli information.

More than 64,600 Palestinians have been killed in the Gaza Strip since the start of the conflict, according to Palestinian sources.

The figures do not differentiate between civilians and fighters and cannot be independently verified, but the U.N. considers them credible.

Large parts of the densely populated coastal strip have been destroyed in the fighting.

The U.N. and several humanitarian organizations have criticized Israel for the high number of civilian casualties — particularly among women and children — and the dire humanitarian situation across Gaza.