Palestinians stand by a building destroyed in an Israeli airstrike in Rafah in the Gaza Strip on Saturday.
Hatem Ali/AP
Hatem Ali/AP
Thousands of Palestinians continue to rush out of northern Gaza as the Israeli military prepares to launch an expected ground assault.
The mass migration was sprung by an unprecedented evacuation order sent out by the Israeli military on Friday. Israeli military spokesperson Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus said that northern Gaza will be the center of Israel’s next counterattack in an effort to strike Hamas leaders.
“Gaza City is where the focus and the hub of Hamas activities are, that is where most of the commanders are, most of their infrastructure and their ability to continue to operate,” Conricus said Saturday.
He added that troops are “in formation” surrounding the Gaza Strip for the next stage of operations. Two main routes remained open until 4 p.m. local time, or 9 a.m. ET.
Meanwhile, the Rafah crossing in southern Gaza is expected to be open until 5 p.m. local time (10 a.m. ET) for Americans attempting to leave Gaza, a senior State Department official said. U.S. officials estimate that between 500 and 600 Palestinian Americans are in Gaza, but it is unclear how many are seeking to leave.
Israel has launched a mass response to the deadly attack last week by Hamas militants that more than 1,300 people dead in southern Israel. Some 2,200 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s bombardment of Gaza. On Friday, the Israeli military staged limited raids into the Gaza Strip in an effort to find Israelis who were kidnapped by Hamas.
Israeli forces said they retrieved bodies of several missing Israelis, as well as items that could potentially lead them to more missing people. Israeli military spokesperson Daniel Hagari added that troops destroyed “terrorist infrastructure and squads, including a Hamas unit that fired anti-tank missiles toward Israel.”
NPR’s Peter Kenyon, Aya Batrawy and Michele Kelemen contributed reporting.