By Beatitude
A six-hour window issued by the Israeli military warning Palestinian civilians to finish evacuating from Gaza City to the southern part of the strip ended at 4 p.m. local time (9 a.m. ET) on Saturday.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) told residents to move toward the Gaza Valley, in a message posted on X, formerly known as Twitter. It is unclear how widely the messaging has been received on the ground given the current electricity and internet blackout.
The advisory from the Israeli military came a day after it told 1.1 million people living in northern Gaza to evacuate their homes. The IDF has saturated the border with troops and military equipment amid a relentless onslaught on the territory, in retaliation to a large-scale incursion by the militant group Hamas on October 7.
Earlier on Saturday, IDF spokesperson Lt. Col. Richard Hecht said Israel’s air, land and sea blockade on Gaza will continue into a seventh day. “We are preparing for the next stages,” he added, but shared no information if that could be a ground incursion and when.
The IDF’s Arabic spokesperson, Avishay Adraee, said the military will permit safe movement on specified streets between the hours of 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. local time (3 to 9 a.m. ET). Residents were advised to use this window to move southward from Beit Hanoun to Khan Yunis. Additionally, residents of the Al-Shate, Al-Rimal and West Al-Zaytoun areas are “permitted to move” along Daldul and Al-Sana streets towards Salah Al-Din and Al-Bahr streets, Adraee said.
Communications blackout: Israel launched a complete blockade on food, fuel and water entering Gaza on Monday. Human Rights Watch (HRW) criticized Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant’s call for a complete siege on Monday as a form of “collective punishment” and a “war crime.” Thinning electricity supplies have severely damaged communication along the strip. In an interview with CNN, IDF Spokesperson, Maj. (Res.) Doron Spielman said the IDF is dropping leaflets about the new safe passages, given most people in Gaza City don’t have internet access now. However, CNN has talked to a United Nations Relief and Works Agency school official, a paramedic and a journalist on the ground who were all unaware of this latest advisory.
Explosion rocks evacuation route: CNN has geolocated and authenticated five videos from the scene of a large explosion along an evacuation route for civilians south of Gaza City. The videos show many dead bodies amid a scene of extensive destruction. Some of those bodies are on a flat-bed trailer that appears to have been used to carry people away from Gaza City. They include at least several children. There are also a number of badly burned and damaged cars. It is unclear what caused the widespread devastation; the explosion occurred on Salah Al-Deen street on Friday afternoon. CNN has reached out to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) for comment on any airstrikes in the same location.
Evacuees killed: Hamas media office told CNN Israeli military airstrikes killed 70 and injured 200 evacuees in Gaza. The airstrikes hit evacuees at three locations: Salah Al-Din street, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin street, and near Wadi Gaza, Hamas said. Earlier, the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza confirmed that “large numbers” of dead and injured people, including women and children, arrived at Al-Shifa’ Hospital—located in Al-Rimal neighborhood —after they were shelled on their way from northern Gaza to the south.
UN shelters forced to relocate: The UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) was forced to move its central operations from Gaza City to a location in southern Gaza following the Israeli evacuation warning issued on Friday. The agency warned that water is now “also running out” at its new location, as thousands of displaced civilians from northern Gaza continue to arrive.
“War crime”: On Friday, the Norwegian Refugee Council said Israel’s advisory for 1.1 million people living in northern Gaza to evacuate their homes – ahead of a potential ground invasion – would “amount to the war crime of forcible transfer.” The relocation advisory “must be reversed,” the Secretary General of the council Jan Egeland added. Egeland called Western and Arab Nations “who have influence over the Israeli political and military leadership” to “demand that the illegal and impossible order to relocate is immediately rescinded.”
