Star Metro - Palestinians flee Gaza City in face of deadly Israeli offensive

AFP images showed a steady stream of Gazans heading south on foot, by car and on donkey carts, with their few belongings piled high as Israel bombarded the city.

Israel had announced the day before that the US-backed campaign in the Gaza Strip's largest city had begun, pledging to destroy the militant group Hamas in the area.

The offensive has sparked outrage among the international community, with the Palestinian territory already devastated by nearly two years of war and the Gaza City region gripped by a UN-declared famine.

Gaza's civil defence agency, a rescue force operating under Hamas authority, said Israeli fire had killed at least 62 people across the territory on Wednesday.

Media restrictions in the territory and difficulties in accessing many areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify the details provided by the civil defence or the Israeli military.

The Israeli military said it was opening a temporary new route Wednesday to allow people to flee, after unleashing a massive bombardment before dawn on Tuesday and pushing its troops deeper into Gaza City.

It came as a United Nations probe accused Israel of committing genocide in the Palestinian territory, saying Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other senior officials had incited the crime.

On Wednesday, the Israeli military said it was opening "a temporary transportation route via Salah al-Din Street", as AFP images showed fresh bombardments.

Its Arabic-language spokesman, Colonel Avichay Adraee, said the corridor would remain open for just 48 hours from midday (0900 GMT).

- 'Death is cheaper' -

The United Nations estimated at the end of August that about one million people were living in Gaza City and its surroundings.

The Israeli military said Wednesday that more than 350,000 had so far fled south.

But many Gazans say nowhere is safe and have vowed to stay in their homes.

"I won't leave Gaza. There's shelling here and there," said Umm Ahmed Yunes, who is living in her partially destroyed home.

"Where would I find $1,000 or $2,000 for transport costs? Where would I buy a tent? There are no tents and prices are insane," said the 44-year-old.

"Death is cheaper and more merciful."

Mother of four Fatima Lubbad left Gaza City with 10 relatives but said the ordeal was unbearable.

"I wish we would all die together," said the 36-year-old.

"Last night we slept in the street by the sea in Deir el-Balah -- there was nowhere to put a tent... I cried all night as I looked at my children sleeping on the ground."

The Israeli military said it had struck more than 150 targets in Gaza City since launching its ground assault on Tuesday.

In Gaza City's Shati camp, an Israeli air strike killed four people, including a woman and her child, according to the civil defence agency.

"Enough, we want to be free. We want to live, we don't want to die, who told you we want to die? Tell Netanyahu: we don't want to die!" said Mohammed al-Danf, an eyewitness.

The war was sparked by Hamas's October 2023 attack on southern Israel which resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally of official figures.

Israel's retaliatory campaign has killed at least 65,062 people, also mostly civilians, according to figures from the territory's health ministry that the United Nations considers reliable.

The Israeli military estimates there are 2,000 to 3,000 Hamas militants in central Gaza City, and that about 40 percent of residents have fled.

- UN investigators say Israel committing genocide -

On Tuesday, the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry (COI), which does not speak for the world body, found that "genocide is occurring in Gaza and is continuing to occur", commission chief Navi Pillay told AFP.

Israel said it "categorically rejects this distorted and false report" and called for the "immediate abolition" of the COI.

On Wednesday, Qatar became the latest country to urge Israel to stop its assault on Gaza City, calling it "an extension of its genocidal war against the Palestinian people".

Pope Leo XVI expressed "deep solidarity with the Palestinian people in Gaza who continue to live in fear and survive in unacceptable conditions, being forcibly displaced once again from their lands".

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar meanwhile warned the EU against taking action against Israel, after the bloc's executive proposed curbing trade ties and sanctioning far-right ministers over the Gaza war.

"The recommendations... are morally and politically distorted," Saar wrote on X.

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F.Leblanc--SMC