The Israeli military said it would open another evacuation route on Wednesday for people fleeing Gaza City as international alarm grew for the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians still sheltering there under heavy bombardment and Israel’s widening ground assault.
Before the expanded offensive was announced on Tuesday, the military ordered people in Gaza City to go to what it described as a humanitarian zone in the south, where it said aid would be provided. While the Israeli military said that about 350,000 people had fled Gaza City as of Tuesday evening, cramming onto the enclave’s coastal road, roughly half a million were believed to still be there.
On Wednesday, the military announced the opening of another “temporary route” heading south along Salah al-Din Road. In an Arabic-language statement posted on social media, it said the route would be open for 48 hours, starting at noon local time on Wednesday.
The start of the long-planned ground offensive in Gaza City drew fierce condemnation from allies and aid agencies, who said it would worsen an already-dire humanitarian situation and derail any diplomatic resolution to the nearly two-year war.
Israel’s government has said seizing Gaza City is necessary to prevent Hamas from regrouping and planning future attacks, such as the assault on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, that ignited the war.
Many people still in Gaza City have said they are unable or unwilling to leave, citing the cost of transportation and lack of space in the south. Heavy airstrikes continued to pound Gaza overnight, with Israel’s military saying that more than 150 strikes had been launched over the past 48 hours.
Salah al-Din Road, which runs roughly north to south through the enclave, links Gaza City to the southern cities of Khan Younis and Rafah for a journey that can take up to seven hours by foot. Israel’s military designated it an evacuation corridor earlier in the war, but a report from Human Rights Watch last year found that it was “rarely, if ever, safe” from Israeli fire.
The assault on Gaza City is compounding a humanitarian disaster in Gaza. Since the war began, tens of thousands of Gazans have been killed and most people have been displaced multiple times. Hunger is rampant in the enclave, and last month, a U.N.-backed panel of food experts found famine in Gaza City, in a report that Israel has criticized.
On Tuesday, a U.N. commission investigating the war said Israel was committing genocide against Palestinians, which Israel has denied.
That announcement prompted the leaders of 20 leading aid organizations to demand “urgent invention” in Gaza on Wednesday.
The aid officials said that “the inhumanity of the situation in Gaza is unconscionable” and listed a catalog of human suffering: death, maiming, famine, widespread destruction, “children so traumatized by daily airstrikes that they cannot sleep” and others who “want to die to join their parents in heaven.”
The lengthy statement was signed by leaders of organizations including Doctors Without Borders, Oxfam International and Save the Children. It said that their efforts to provide aid had been “obstructed every step of the way,” accusations that Israel has consistently rejected.
With Israel’s evacuation orders for Gaza City, they warned, “we are on the precipice of an even deadlier period in Gaza’s story if action is not taken.”
Arab nations joined the calls for action, with Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Qatar condemning the ground offensive on Wednesday. Qatar said the Gaza City operation was a “flagrant violation of international law” that would “undermine the prospects for peace in the region.” The country has acted as a mediator between Israel and Hamas, and it was the site of an Israeli strike on Hamas officials last week.
Amid mounting outrage over the ground assault, the European Commission planned to present a proposal on Wednesday to suspend trade ties and impose sanctions on some Israeli ministers, aimed at signaling demands for an end to the war. Israel’s foreign minister, Gideon Saar, issued a public letter calling the plans “profoundly disturbing.”
Abu Bakr Bashir contributed reporting.
Gabby Sobelman is a reporter and researcher for The Times, covering Israeli and Palestinian affairs, based in Rehovot, Israel.
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