On foot, by bike or on vehicles, the Palestinians flee the city of Gaza in number, targets of a major offensive of the Israeli army whose bombing killed dozens of deaths on Wednesday.
With American support, Israel announced the start on Tuesday of a land and air military campaign in Gaza-Ville to destroy the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, whose attack on October 7, 2023 in Israel sparked the war in the Gaza Strip.
The Israeli reprisal offensive has devastated the small territory, made tens of thousands of deaths and caused humanitarian disaster. The two million inhabitants besieged by the Israeli army have been moved there many times.
“It is like living the last or hell judgment, but even hell would be more lenient,” exclaims Fatima Lubbad, who traveled almost on foot with his four children about ten km to arrive at Deir Al-Balah after his escape from Gaza-Ville the day before.
“We can no longer,” said AFP this 36 -year -old woman who “had to sleep with her children on the street”.
Day and night, on foot, by car, aboard carts pulled by donkeys or trucks, Palestinians, taking away some personal effects, flee the city of Gaza (North), after military evacuation calls, according to AFP images.
But Oum Ahmed Younès, 44, says that she cannot afford to pay staggering transportation. In addition, “there are no tents or the prices are exorbitant. It costs less to die. ”
The Israeli army has announced the opening of a new axis to allow residents to flee the largest city in Palestinian territory. The passage, which will be opened until Friday noon, crosses rue Salaheddine which cuts the Gaza strip in the middle of the north to the south.
“We don’t want to die!”
The UN estimated the number of Palestinians in Gaza-Ville and its surroundings at the end of a million inhabitants.
For several days, AFP journalists have observed a new exodus from Gaza-Ville to the south. On Wednesday, the Israeli army said that “more than 350,000” people had fled.
The army continued its bombings elsewhere in the Palestinian territory. The civil defense operating under the authority of Hamas reported at least 40 dead, including 23 in Gaza-Ville.
In the Chati camp in Gaza-Ville, a building was destroyed in a bombing that killed four people including a woman and her child from the same source.
Residents came to the site affected to help find survivors under the rubble while an ambulance transported bodies to the Al-Chifa hospital, according to AFP images.
“Enough, we want to be free. We want to live, we don’t want to die, who told you that we wanted to die? Say in Netanyahu: We don’t want to die! ”Said a witness to the scene, Mohammed al-Danf.
On Tuesday, the army launched a major terrestrial offensive in Gaza-Ville aimed at hunting Hamas from one of its last large bastions in the Gaza Strip.
Since then, she said that she had “struck more than 150 terrorist targets across the city in support of maneuvering troops in the area”.
Given the restrictions imposed on the media in Gaza and the difficulties of access in the field, AFP is not able to independently check the balance sheets and affirmations of the Civil Defense or the Israeli army.
Tens of thousands of reservists
The offensive on Gaza-Ville, for which the army recalled tens of thousands of reservists, is largely condemned abroad, but also in Israel where a large part of the population is worried about the fate of the hostages removed during the attack on October 7.
The government of Benjamin Netanyahu, in addition to destroying Hamas, take security control of the entire Palestinian territory.
The attack on October 7 led to the death of 1219 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP count based on official data. Of the 251 people kidnapped that day, 47 are still retained in Gaza, 25 of which were declared dead by the Israeli army.
Since then, the Israeli military campaign has cost 65,062 Palestinians, mainly civilians, in the Gaza Strip, according to the Ministry of Health under the authority of Hamas.
The UN declared famine in the Gaza Strip, which Israel demented which besieges the territory and controls access.
On Tuesday an independent commission of inquiry mandated by the UN established that Israel commits a genocide against the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. The Israeli government has also denied.
