People in the north of the Gaza Strip and Gaza City have been given another evacuation period by the IDF today.
Avichay Adraee, the IDF spokesperson for Arab media posted on X that the IDF “will refrain from targeting” the route between 10am and 1pm (8am to 11am UK time).
A ground invasion has seemed imminent over the past few days but the IDF will not confirm how many days the evacuation routes will continue for.
Some hospitals have refused to evacuate, citing the impossibility of moving the injured without them dying. Some civilians have also decided to stay put, some because they have nowhere to go, and others because they refuse to be displaced from their land again.
Israel's war with Hamas appeared set to escalate as the country's military renewed a warning Saturday for civilians in the densely populated northern half of the Gaza Strip to evacuate to the south "to preserve your safety," ahead of a widely expected ground offensive. Missiles have rained down on the Palestinian territory since Hamas militants launched a brutal terror attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, firing thousand of rockets and storming into the Jewish state on a murderous rampage.
The warning from Israel sparked a desperate mass-exodus of civilians heading south through Gaza amid the ongoing airstrikes and dire humanitarian circumstances. Israel on Sunday offered an additional three-hour window ending 6 a.m. EDT for Gazans to flee to the south.
The combined death toll on both sides of the war climbed to more than 3,600, rising precipitously in Gaza as the Israel Defense Forces hammered the region with missiles that it insists have all targeted Hamas.
Israel's military said Hamas' attack and ongoing rocket fire from Gaza had killed more than 1,300 people, at least 276 of them troops, and left at least 3,200 people wounded. At least 29 Americans are known to be among the dead, a State Department spokesperson confirmed Saturday. In Gaza, the Health Ministry said Sunday that the Israeli airstrikes had killed 2,329 people, including 724 children, and left 9,714 others wounded.
The Israeli military said Sunday that at least 126 people were taken captive by Hamas to Gaza. The State Department spokesperson said Saturday that 15 Americans remain unaccounted for, along with one U.S. permanent resident.
The U.S. government says, meanwhile, that it's working with Israel and Egypt to get the only border crossing out of Gaza not sealed off by Israel — the Rafah crossing into northeast Egypt — opened for a limited time window to enable U.S. nationals to escape the Palestinian territory. The State Department said it was in contact with some of the estimated 500-600 U.S. nationals in the enclave and urged them to move toward Rafah if they believed they could do so safely.
The U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem announced Sunday that it had arranged for a ship to evacuate an unspecified number of Americans and immediate family members from the Israeli port of Haifa to Cyprus on Monday.
U.S. arranges for ship to evacuate Americans from Israel to Cyprus Monday
The United States has organized a ship to take Americans out of Israel to Cyprus on Monday, the U.S. Embassy said.
With Israel moving toward an invasion of the Gaza Strip, the ship will leave from the Israeli port of Haifa for Limassol, taking "U.S. nationals and their immediate family members with a valid travel document," the U.S. embassy said in a security alert Sunday.
Tens of thousands of U.S. passport holders live in Israel and 29 have been confirmed killed in the Hamas attacks on October 7. Another 15 are missing and believed to be among hostages held by Hamas since the attacks.
The U.S. embassy didn't say how many people would fit on the ship but said "boarding will proceed in order of arrival and is on a space limited basis."
Each passenger will have to sign a document promising to repay the cost of the trip and will only be allowed to bring one suitcase.
The embassy said some chartered flights would be arranged from Cyprus for onward travel.
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