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Israel's Military Announces A Brief Window For People In Northern Gaza To Flee South
Palestinians look at the destruction after Israeli strikes on the Gaza Strip in Khan Younis, Nov. 4, 2023.
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Fatima Shbair
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AP
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TEL AVIV, Israel — Hundreds of thousands of people still stuck in northern Gaza will have just three hours to flee south today, Israel's military announced Saturday.
The Israeli Defense Forces announced there will be a brief three-hour window (starting 1 p.m. local time until 4 p.m.) for people trapped in northern Gaza to travel on the road to southern Gaza safely.
The Israeli military said it will "avoid hitting" this main road heading south, but emphasized that this move is in no way a cease fire.
The United Nations estimates that there could be as many 300,000 internally displaced people still stuck in northern Gaza, including Gaza City — an area Israeli forces have surrounded as part of their ground operation.
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NPR has learned that mediators have quietly given Hamas a proposal to hand over all its weapons to ensure Gaza's reconstruction. -
Israel has strengthened its security with a series of sweeping military victories in the past two years. It has also become far more isolated internationally, with no clear path ahead. -
Israel's military has begun striking the Gaza Strip again, as Israel and Hamas traded blame for violating the ceasefire brokered by President Donald Trump.
It's been about a week since Israeli troops pushed into Gaza through a ground offensive and remained in the Strip. This military effort has mostly been focused in the north and has effectively cut the strip in half, preventing aid from getting in or civilians from getting out.
What we know so far
Death toll and casualties
- Israeli officials report an attack by Hamas militants on Oct. 7 killed about 1,200 people. In addition, they say about 250 people were taken hostage, some have since been released.
- Gaza health officials have reported more than 25,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli airstrikes.
— NPR (Jan. 24)
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This order means civilians will most likely flee to the south of Gaza, with likely nowhere else to go.
Officials in Gaza also closed the one available border crossing from Gaza into Egypt on Saturday. They said foreign passport holders will not be allowed to leave Gaza through the Rafah border crossing into Egypt unless patients from the hospitals in Gaza City and northern Gaza are permitted to get to the crossing.
The crossing has been opened the past three days for Palestinians with foreign nationalities, or Palestinians with connections to foreign countries and foreign employers.
The list of people approved to leave Gaza today — in what would have been the fourth day for the border to be open — included more Americans.
Understanding how we got here
The history of this region is both complicated and fraught. Here is some context about what led up to the most recent attacks and counterattacks.
NPR's Aya Batrawy and Daniel Estrin called the initial attack "one of the most dramatic escalations in violence in recent memory" adding there are "concerns the chaos could spread to the occupied West Bank and different countries in the Middle East."
- This round of bloodshed began with a surprise attack by Palestinian fighters from Gaza into Israel during the Jewish holiday of Simchat Torah. On Oct. 7, militants infiltrated Israel's border using paragliders, motorbikes and boats and fired thousands of rockets toward the country from Gaza.
NPR's Fatima Al-Kassab reported on the history of the Gaza Strip. Some key excerpts:
- The Gaza Strip is a 25-mile-long by 6-mile-wide enclave, bounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Israel to the north and east and Egypt to the south.
- Gaza is one of two Palestinian territories. The other is the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
- The strip has been under a blockade by Israel and Egypt, restricting the movement of people and goods since Hamas seized control of the territory in 2007. Israel controls its airspace and shoreline, as well as what goods can cross Gaza's borders.
NPR's Fatma Tanis examined how we got here and what might come next in this longstanding conflict.
For anyone looking for guidance on how to talk to children about this war:
Here's the latest on a growing movement on college campuses nationwide, as students organize against Israel's war in Gaza.
Copyright 2024 NPR. To see more, visit npr.org.
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