Israel opens ‘temporary’ route for residents to flee as troops and tanks push deeper into Gaza City
Israel announced on Wednesday a “temporary” new route for residents to flee Gaza City, as it launched an intense ground offensive after massive bombardment of the Palestinian territory’s main city.
The Israeli military “announces the opening of a temporary transportation route via Salah al-Din street”, spokesperson Avichay Adraee said in a statement, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP). Adraee added that “the route will be open for 48 hours only”.
On Tuesday, Israel unleashed its long-threatened ground offensive in Gaza City, sending tanks and remote-controlled armoured cars packed with explosives into its streets, in defiance of international criticism and the findings of a UN commission that it was committing genocide in the Palestinian territory. Israel’s foreign ministry rejected the commission’s report as “distorted and false”.
Israel’s military said that it expects its Gaza City offensive to take “several months” to complete, marking the first timeline it has given for its plan to take control of the territory’s largest population centre.
srael’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said the goals of the offensive were “defeating the enemy and evacuating the population”, omitting any mention of the freeing of the remaining Israeli hostages, which was been a constantly stated war aim until now. Hostage families and their supporters protested near Netanyahu’s Jerusalem residence on Tuesday, accusing him of abandoning their loved ones.
The UN secretary general, António Guterres, said it was clear that Israel had no interest in a peaceful outcome.
“Israel is determined to go up to the end and [is] not open to a serious negotiation for a ceasefire, with dramatic consequences from Israel’s point of view,” Guterres said.
More on this story in a moment. Here are other recent developments:
The health ministry in Gaza reported on Tuesday afternoon that 59 people had been killed and 386 wounded in the previous 24 hours, bringing the official toll of Palestinians from nearly two years of war to almost 65,000. The actual number is feared to be significantly higher.
On Wednesday, the European Commission is due to present a plan to member states to impose “measures to pressure the Israeli government to change course over the war in Gaza”, said the EU foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas.“Israel’s ground offensive in Gaza will make an already desperate situation even worse,” Kallas said, adding: “It will mean more death, more destruction and more displacement.”
Australian broadcaster SBS has indicated it will not follow the lead of a growing number of European Union countries and boycott next year’s Eurovision song contest if Israel is permitted to compete. The decision on Israel’s inclusion will be made by the contest’s governing body in December, but SBS told the Guardian on Tuesday it intended to participate in the 2026 event in Vienna, regardless of December’s decision.
Sally Rooney, Deborah Levy, Nobel laureate Annie Ernaux and Pulitzer winner Viet Thanh Nguyen are among 20 authors urging French president Emmanuel Macron to resume a “lifeline” programme for evacuating Palestinian writers, scholars and artists from Gaza. The Pause programme for writers and artists in emergency situations, as well as a student evacuation programme, were abruptly suspended by the French government at the beginning of August over a Palestinian student’s allegedly antisemitic online remarks.
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