Israel’s army says it is giving civilians in northern Gaza another window to flee to the southern region of the coastal strip.

The army would open a four-hour window on a specific road to the south, a spokesman wrote on Monday on platform X, formerly Twitter, accompanied by a map.

The spokesman called on people to move south quickly for their safety.

About a week ago, the military expanded its ground operations in the war against Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip.

On Sunday night, the army said it had divided up the territory and that there is now “a northern Gaza and a southern Gaza.”

Israel’s army has repeatedly called on people in the north to flee to the south.

According to the military, about 700,000 people have already left.

The United Nations said there are about 1.4 million internally displaced people and has described dire humanitarian conditions in Gaza.

In total, more than 2.2 million people live in the densely populated Gaza Strip.

The Israeli military is currently fighting Hamas, mainly in the north. However, there have also been Israeli airstrikes in the south.

The south is not a “safe zone” but is safer “than any other place in Gaza,” an army spokesperson said last week.

The current fighting started after the Palestinian Islamist Hamas movement launched a terrorist attack from the Gaza Strip against Israel on October 7, killing 1,400 mainly civilians and taking some 240 people hostage.

Israel then launched a retaliatory bombing campaign to eliminate Hamas that has killed at least 9,770 Palestinians in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry there. 

(dpa/NAN)