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About a million people have fled Gaza City amid Israeli strikes, with 450,000 civilians evacuated. UNICEF warns of unsafe conditions in southern Gaza as airstrikes continue

UN official said “new waves of mass displacement” were under way, after about 60,000 fled the new assault in 72 hours earlier this week.(AFP/Representative Image)
About a million people have been displaced from Gaza City in the last month, according to the United Nations.
Multiple strikes by Israeli artillery, tanks and warplanes hit Gaza City again on Thursday as a UN official said “new waves of mass displacement” were under way, after about 60,000 fled the new assault in 72 hours earlier this week, The Guardian reported.
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However, Israeli military officials said that the total number of Palestinians who were evacuated was much higher. They said that Gaza City was a “Hamas stronghold” and as many as 450,000 civilians had left.
According to The Guardian, an unbroken column of traffic heavily laden with household utensils, blankets, mattresses, gas cylinders and often entire families packed Gaza’s narrow coastal road on Thursday as a steady stream of Palestinians headed south towards areas designated by Israel.
Meanwhile, the prices for transport have hiked, forcing many to walk with their belongings and children.
“We are heading to go sleep on the streets towards the beach, like this, barefoot … We don’t know where to go,” Yasser Saleh told The Guardian.
Rosalia Bollen of UNICEF said: “The area in southern Gaza that people are ordered to go to is a largely overcrowded stretch of dunes. It is inappropriate, unprepared and unsafe to host displaced families with immense humanitarian needs there. And for the hundreds of thousands of people still left in Gaza City – half of them children – we are deeply worried, as airstrikes have been pounding Gaza City.”
The Guardian quoted the health ministry as saying that at least 79 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli strikes or gunfire across Gaza in the past 24 hours, mostly in Gaza City.
New York, United States of America (USA)
September 18, 2025, 23:12 IST
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