Tens of thousands flee as ground troops ‘reach depth of Gaza City’

More than 70 per cent of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have already left their homes but the pace has quickened since Israeli forces ­entered the city.

Palestinians take the road south from Gaza City on Wednesday. Picture: AFP

Tens of thousands of civilians poured along an evacuation route from north to south Gaza overnight on Wednesday as Israel’s military said ground forces had reached “the depths of Gaza City” where Hamas militants are fighting from a network of tunnels.

More than 70 per cent of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have already left their homes but the pace has quickened since Israeli forces ­entered the city, raising the spectre of house-to-house combat after weeks of air strikes.

As the fighting raged between Hamas’s armed wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, the Israeli army said 50,000 people on Wednesday left north Gaza for the south of the narrow coastal strip, using the main north-south road, during a daily four-hour window announced by Israel. It was triple the number of the day before.

“We saw today how 50,000 ­Gazans moved from northern Gaza to southern Gaza,” said Israel Defence Forces spokesman ­Daniel Hagari. “They’re leaving because they understand that Hamas lost control in the north, and in the south it’s safer.”

Around 15,000 people had fled on Tuesday, compared with 5000 on Monday and 2000 on Sunday, said the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

UN rights chief Volker Turk condemned Israel over the forced evacuations during a visit to the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt, the only way out of the besieged territory that is not controlled by Israel.

“The collective punishment by Israel of Palestinian civilians amounts also to a war crime, as does the unlawful forcible evacuation of civilians,” he said.

“The aid getting through is a trickle,” Mr Turk said, adding it was Israel’s obligation to “ensure a maximum of basic necessities of life that can reach all who need it”.

The UN said there were now no longer any bakeries functioning in northern Gaza due to the lack of fuel, water and flour, contributing to the exodus south. The UN said “desperate people” had broken into the last three remaining bakeries, taking 37 tonnes of wheat flour after running out of food.

Eylon Levy, an Israeli government spokesman, said only 100,000 civilians remained in northern Gaza out of a population of 1.1 million. Israel said it extended the evacuation window by an hour in response to the rising number seeking to cross.

Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu urged civilians to take the evacuation route. He said: “Complete the move to the south because Israel will not stop.

“There’s no entry of workers and there will be no ceasefire ­without our hostages being back home.”

Those seen leaving northern Gaza on Wednesday included children, elderly people and some with disabilities, on foot and carrying only a few belongings.

Those reaching the south spoke of seeing others arrested at Israeli checkpoints along the route, while others carried white flags or put their hands up as they passed Israeli tanks.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the number of ­civilians killed in Gaza showed that there was something “clearly wrong” with Israel’s military operations, after the death toll reported by the Hamas-run health ministry rose towards 11,000, with 2300 missing presumed dead.

“There are violations by Hamas when they have human shields. But when one looks at the number of civilians that were killed with the military operations, there is something that is clearly wrong,” Mr Guterres said.

“It is also important to make ­Israel understand that it is against the interests of ­Israel to see every day the terrible image of the ­dramatic humanitarian needs of the Palestinian people.”

Israel claims to have destroyed 130 Hamas tunnels in the Gaza Strip since it began its ground ­operation, posting videos to social media of what it said were the ­results of the operation.

Troops had discovered connections to water and oxygen supplies, suggesting Hamas had made ­preparations to stay in the tunnels for long periods of time.

On Wednesday night the IDF said that Sergeant Jonathan ­Chazor, 22, of the air force’s elite Shaldag Unit, had been killed in fighting inside Gaza. The unit specialises in clandestine operations, suggesting that he could have been engaged in operation to locate top level Hamas figures or hostages.

The Times