Israeli army threatens "unprecedented force" in Gaza City, closes key evacuation route

CAIRO – 19 September 2025: The Israeli military on Friday threatened that it would deploy "unprecedented force" in Gaza City, as it announced the closure of Salah Al-Din Street, a major thoroughfare, to civilian movement.

Residents were urged to evacuate the city immediately and head south via the coastal Rashid Road instead.

"To the residents of Gaza City: From this moment, Salah Al-Din Road is closed for movement to the south,” said army spokesman Avichay Adraee in a post on X on Friday.

He warned that the army will continue to operate with “extreme and unprecedented force” against Hamas and other groups in the enclave.

Adraee urged residents to join “hundreds of thousands of residents” who fled the city amidst intensified Israeli attacks, accusing Hamas of using civilians as “human shields.”

Gaza City Operation

Israeli forces have been pounding Gaza City, home to the enclave’s 2.2 million population, demolishing high-rise buildings, killing scores of Palestinians, and directing residents to flee southward toward a so-called safe zone in Al-Mawasi.

Many residents have reportedly refused to leave the city, expressing distrust in Israel’s claim that southern Gaza is any safer.

Since the beginning of the war on October 7, 2023, Israeli airstrikes and ground operations have killed 65,174 Palestinians and injured 166,071 others, according to Gaza’s health ministry on Friday.

Israeli attacks have also continued near humanitarian aid distribution centers operated by the US- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).

Of the total fatalities, 2,514 people have been killed, and 18,431 others injured, while seeking humanitarian assistance.

In an effort to pressure civilians to leave, the Israeli army announced in late August that it would end tactical pauses in famine-stricken Gaza City, halting brief ceasefires that had previously allowed limited aid deliveries to the northern city.

The ministry reported that starvation and acute malnutrition claimed the lives of four more people, including a child, in the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of such deaths to 440, including 147 children.

‘Israel Committing Genocide’

Israeli is facing allegations of committing a genocide as per a UN report concluded this week.

The United Nations’ commission of inquiry on the occupied Palestinian territories and Israel stated in its report that Israeli forces and authorities carried out four of the five acts defined under the Genocide Convention.

These include committing mass killings, causing serious harm, and deliberately creating unlivable conditions.

The commission also slammed statements made by Israeli officials as a “direct evidence of genocidal intent.”

Gaza Facing Famine

The UN report comes less than a month after another UN-backed food security analysis has officially confirmed that famine is underway in Gaza City, marking the first such declaration since the onset of the Israeli war.

The analysis by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) found that over 500,000 people are currently trapped in famine conditions, and projected that by the end of September, famine could spread across the entire enclave.

It further warned that by June 2026, more than 100,000 children under the age of five will be at risk of death due to acute malnutrition.

Meanwhile, Israel has intensified its military operations in Gaza, launching a ground invasion of the famine-stricken Gaza City, home to nearly half of the enclave’s 2.2 million residents, despite international condemnation.