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AMMAN, Jordan (AP) — Israeli ground forces tightened their hold on the southern part of the Gaza Strip on Monday, setting up a new checkpoint outside the key town of Khan Younis as residents scrambled to stay away from the advancing army A nationwide communications blackout hampered humanitarian assistance.
A focus of Monday’s operations was the Salah al-Din Road in the Gaza Strip, which Israel had previously designated as an evacuation route for civilians fleeing from north to south. The Israeli Defense Forces announced for the first time on Monday that a stretch of road north of Khan Younis was a “battlefield” and that residents were no longer allowed to approach it.
The IDF identified “bypass roads” that it said residents should continue on instead, adding to the thicket of evacuation orders Israel has issued in recent days that are said to be aimed at reducing civilian casualties. But aid groups have warned that the guidelines are becoming increasingly unworkable, while Palestinians in Gaza say the guidelines are of little use in a place where danger reigns almost everywhere.
Late Monday evening, the Palestinian Red Crescent said it had lost contact with its medical teams in Gaza after the main phone and internet provider Paltel said all telecommunications services had been suspended.
“The scale of human suffering is unbearable,” Mirjana Spoljaric Egger, president of the International Committee of the Red Cross, said in a statement on Monday during her visit to Gaza. “It is unacceptable that civilians in Gaza do not have a safe place to go. Given the military siege, an appropriate humanitarian response is currently not possible.”
Since a week-long humanitarian standoff ended Friday with Hamas and Israel blaming each other for the collapse, Israel has “entered a new phase in our war against Hamas,” Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, an Israeli military spokesman, said on Monday.
“We pursued them in the northern Gaza Strip, now we are pursuing them in the southern Gaza Strip,” Hagari said in a recorded press statement. “We will act with maximum force against Hamas terrorists and infrastructure, while minimizing damage to the civilian population that Hamas places as shields around them.”
Separately, the Israeli army said in a statement on Monday that it had attacked hundreds of locations in Gaza by land, air and sea, including an arms depot and a vehicle carrying mortar shells, rockets and other weapons. The statement did not specify when the strikes occurred.
Hundreds of Palestinians have been killed by Israeli strikes since Friday, according to Gaza’s health ministry. Gaza’s Health Ministry said on Monday that at least 15,899 people have been killed since October 7, when Hamas launched a deadly attack on Israel that killed at least 1,200 people.
Despite the rising death toll, the White House said Monday it was “too early” to assess whether Israel was doing enough to limit civilian casualties as its forces advanced into southern Gaza.
“Over the course of the weekend we basically saw 48 to 72 hours of activity. So it’s too early for me to sit here and tell you that I’m going to make a full judgment,” White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters at a briefing on Monday.
But as fighting increased across the Gaza Strip, dangers to civilians increased, including along Salah al-Din Street, the main highway connecting the northern and southern parts of the enclave.
According to Hani Abu Mustafa, 39, who lives near the road north of Khan Younis, heavy shelling began in the area on Friday, shortly after the break ended. “We were bombed by F-16s in such a devastating and frightening way that we thought it would be our last night,” he said.
On Saturday morning, scores of residents fled after the Israeli military dropped leaflets urging them to evacuate, he said.
Abu Mustafa’s family was reluctant to leave. They remained in their home for the past few weeks, aware of the “bitterness” that awaited them in the shelters, he said. They only left their home when he saw Israeli tanks with his own eyes on Saturday morning, he added.
“We didn’t have time to carry our personal items,” he said. On Sunday, he said: “We received news from neighbors who live near our house that the army has turned it into a military barracks and is shooting at passers-by on Salah al-Din Street.”
Witnesses said on Monday that Israel had set up a checkpoint at the intersection of Al-Matahen and Salah al-Din streets. Israeli forces had previously operated a checkpoint in the same area when they occupied Gaza before withdrawing in 2005.
Sondos Daloul, 25, who lives with her family at a school on Salah al-Din Road in the Deir al-Balah area, said tanks had taken up positions in the area in recent days. Artillery fire injured people who sought protection there, she said.
According to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNWRA, more than 80 percent of Gaza’s population had already been displaced as of Monday. According to the UN, overcrowded homes, hospitals, shelters and tent camps have also contributed to the spread of diseases and ailments such as diarrhea and skin infections.
Damage density based
on satellite images
The Israeli
Defense Forces
issued one
evacuation
command
for North
Gaza continues
Oct 13
Witnesses
See report
Israeli tanks
Entry into Gaza
in Kissufim
Goal, moves
to
Matahin
Crossing.
On Monday
the IDF said
residents
in these areas
evacuate
to areas.
Kerem Shalom
commercially
Crossing
Damage density based on satellite images
The Israeli defense
The armed forces gave one
Evacuation order
for the northern Gaza Strip
on Oct. 13.
Witnesses report
see Israeli tanks
Moving into the south
Gaza near Kissufim
Goal, moves
Towards Matahin
Crossing
On Monday the
IDF told residents
in these areas
evacuate
to the areas in the south
and east.
Kerem Shalom
commercially
Crossing
Damage density based on satellite images
The Israeli defense
The armed forces gave one
Evacuation order
for the northern Gaza Strip
on Oct. 13.
Witnesses report seeing an Israeli
Tanks enter the southern Gaza Strip
at the Kissufim Gate, towards
Matahin Junction
On Monday the IDF
told the residents
in these areas
evacuate
Areas south and
East.
Kerem Shalom
Trade Transition
The Israel Defense Forces “have actually taken the quite unusual step of a modern military and identified exactly the area in which they want to conduct ground maneuvers,” Sullivan said of the evacuation notices. “And they asked people in this area to move away.”
However, the instructions issued Monday did not contain specific instructions for civilians heading south from Gaza City and the northern Gaza Strip – areas that Israeli forces had largely cut off since ground operations began in late October.
Nir Dinar, an IDF spokesman, said on Monday that there was “still an open corridor from north to south” along the Gaza coastal road west of Salah al-Din, which was open from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Monday
He said civilians had been informed of the route through records, leaflets and text messages, but added that no records had been released Monday and there was no immediate response to a request for copies of text messages and leaflets.
Muhammad al-Natour, 42, a displaced Gaza resident staying north of Khan Younis near Salah al-Din Street, said he received Israeli evacuation notices: a call to the owner of the house where he was staying , urging them to leave, and leaflets dropped from planes urging them to fly to Rafah, on the border with Egypt.
His family complied with evacuation orders and moved west, away from the army. “If military operations expand into this area, we could suddenly be displaced for a third time,” he said.
Harb reported from London, Fahim from Beirut and Berger from Jerusalem. Cate Brown in Washington and Heba Farouk Mahfouz in Cairo contributed to this report.