The Israeli military announced on Friday that around 480,000 Palestinians have fled south from the city of Gaza since the end of August, as the ground offensive to take control of the territory's largest city continues. According to the UN, approximately one million people lived in and around the city of Gaza in August.
"To the residents of Gaza City, the Salah al-Din road is now closed to traffic heading south," writes Israel's Arabic-speaking spokesman Avichay Adraee on X. "From now on, it is only possible to travel south via the al-Rashid road."
Blocked traffic
The message came despite reports in, among others, Al Jazeera earlier on Friday of completely blocked traffic on the Coastal Road, also known as the al-Rashid road, which runs along the Mediterranean coast towards the Egyptian border. The approximately three-mile journey to al-Mawasi, which Israel calls a humanitarian zone, was said to take up to seven hours.
To facilitate the escape, the military gave the go-ahead on Wednesday for desperate Palestinians to use the alternative route, Salah al-Din or Saladin. But even then, it was said that the opportunity would only be available for two days.
"Unprecedented force"
Now Adraee threatens that the army "will continue to act with unprecedented force against Hamas and the rest of the terrorist groups". He urges the population of Gaza to "not let Hamas use you as human shields".
Israel's ongoing offensive has been called an attempt to completely capture the city of Gaza, with a population of one million. It includes both air strikes and ground forces and began on Monday evening. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have fled the city, but there are also residents who are exhausted, sick, have nowhere to go or stay for other reasons.
The ongoing Gaza war began when the extremist Islamist group Hamas attacked Israel almost two years ago. This week, Hamas-loyal health authorities in Gaza announced that the war there has claimed 65,000 Palestinian lives.
