Tens of Thousands Flee Northern Gaza Strip, as Israel’s Invasion Advances

Tens of thousands of desperate civilians, some waving white flags, have fled the northern Gaza Strip this week, marching along a road pocked with airstrike craters and lined with ruined buildings, as Israeli officials reported that their troops had pushed into the heart of the densely populated Hamas stronghold of Gaza City.

The United Nations estimated that through Tuesday, 40,000 people had walked out of northern Gaza along the only route south, after Israeli officials told residents of the besieged enclave to evacuate “for their own safety,” and thousands more streamed out on Wednesday.

The evacuations have accelerated in part because of the sharply deteriorating humanitarian situation in northern Gaza, with food and clean water now nearly nonexistent. Israeli forces have also intensified their ground assault in the north, “tightening the noose around Gaza City” and carrying out coordinated attacks deep inside the city, Israel’s defense minister, Yoav Gallant, said in televised remarks on Tuesday night.

As the ground invasion has expanded, the Israeli military said it was offering a daily window of time in which it would guarantee safe passage for civilians.

News photographs as well as a video released by the Israeli military on Wednesday, the fifth day the evacuation corridor was open, showed men, women and children trudging past half-destroyed buildings. Some rode on donkey carts but most were walking, down Salah Al-Din Road, named for the 12th century Muslim sultan and conqueror — known in the West as Saladin — who captured Jerusalem from the Crusaders. They carried small bags, but no suitcases.