The Government Media Office of the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), which controls the Gaza Strip, issued a statement on the 19th saying that despite brutal Israeli bombings and destruction, over one million Palestinians are holding their ground in Gaza City and other areas in northern Gaza, refusing to move south.
According to Xinhua News Agency, the statement said that Israel is attempting to concentrate Gaza residents into the southern city of Khan Younis and the Mawasi area, but the “safe zone” in Khan Younis is continuously being targeted by Israeli airstrikes. The so-called Mawasi humanitarian aid zone demarcated by Israel accounts for only 12% of the entire Gaza Strip’s total area and is already overcrowded.
Including Gaza City, the population of northern Gaza exceeds 1.3 million. Recently, many residents have been forced to move south due to the Israeli military expanding operations in Gaza City and other areas, but the southern areas lack basic living guarantees and are extremely harsh, causing many people to return to the north.
“It feels like they (the Israeli military) are strangling this city from all sides,” said Abu Khaled, a 55-year-old taxi driver in Gaza City, to a Xinhua reporter. “I have already moved twice, but every place we go is bombed. We are now living at a relative’s house, but even here, every explosion makes the windows rattle.”
On the 19th, an Israeli military spokesperson stated that the Israeli military will launch military action in Gaza City with “unprecedented” force, and urged Gaza City residents to evacuate south via the sole remaining route, the Rashid Road. According to The Times of Israel, the Israeli military estimates that about 480,000 Palestinians have already left Gaza City.