The Israeli military yesterday said it was opening an additional route for 48 hours that Palestinians could use to leave Gaza City as it stepped up efforts to empty the city of civilians and confront thousands of Hamas combatants.
Hundreds of thousands of people are sheltering in the city, and many are reluctant to follow Israel’s orders to move south because of dangers along the way, dire conditions, a lack of food in the southern area and fear of permanent displacement.
At least 63 people were killed by Israeli strikes and gunfire across the Gaza Strip yesterday, with most of the casualties in Gaza City, local health authorities said. They said the latest fatalities took the Palestinian death toll from the two-year war between Israel and Hamas past 65,000.
