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Tens of thousands of Palestinians flee to southern Gaza
Photo: IBRAHEEM ABU MUSTAFA / REUTERS
According to Israeli sources, tens of thousands of Palestinians fled from the embattled north of the Gaza Strip to the south of the coastal area on Friday. For the sixth day in a row, Palestinian civilians were able to flee safely for several hours, the Israeli Cogat Authority, which is responsible for Palestinian affairs, announced. According to the army, the escape corridor should be passable for six hours during the day. The information cannot be independently verified.
"Time is running out for an evacuation," an army spokesman warned on X, formerly Twitter, in Arabic. The army and the Cogat authority also released videos purporting to show a number of people fleeing. Several people can be seen waving white flags.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had previously announced that civilians would be allowed to flee safely from the combat zone in the blockaded Gaza Strip. "We want to allow safe passage of civilians out of the combat zone in certain places for a certain period of time, a few hours here, a few hours there," he told Fox News.
Earlier, the communications director of the National Security Council in the United States, John Kirby, said that Israel had agreed to daily, four-hour humanitarian breaks in the northern part of the Gaza Strip.
According to Israeli media, more than 100,000 Palestinians have used the escape route in recent days.
In the south of the Gaza Strip, too, there have been repeated Israeli air strikes. According to the army, in the areas designated for the civilian population, there are only targeted attacks on Hamas leaders. People live there in precarious conditions. Aid organizations speak of a humanitarian catastrophe.
czl/dpa