Sawt Falasteen - Israel says expecting one million Gazans to flee new offensive

In Jerusalem, meanwhile, hundreds of Israeli protestors took to the streets to call for a truce and hostage release deal after nearly two years of war.

Israel's military has been building up its forces for the planned operation to seize Gaza City, the Palestinian territory's largest urban centre located in its northern part, despite mounting global concern for Palestinian civilians suffering dire humanitarian conditions.

Military chief Eyal Zamir said troops were already "intensifying our combat operations", according to an army statement.

The senior official from COGAT, the Israeli defence ministry body that oversees civil affairs in the Palestinian territories, said "approximately 70,000" Palestinians had already left Gaza's north in recent days, fleeing the Israeli advance.

Briefing journalists on condition of anonymity, the official said Israeli authorities expected "a million people" to flee south, without giving a specific timeframe.

The vast majority of Gaza's more than two million people have been displaced at least once during nearly two years of war.

According to UN estimates, nearly a million people currently live in and around Gaza City, where famine has been declared.

In late August, an Israeli military spokesman said the evacuation of Gaza City was "inevitable", while the Red Cross has warned that any Israeli attempt to do so would be impossible in a safe and dignified manner.

- 'Waiting 700 days'-

Families of hostages held in Gaza and Israeli anti-war groups called for a three-day protest in Jerusalem, culminating on Friday -- day 700 since the Palestinian group Hamas launched its unprecedented attack on Israel in October 2023.

The mother of soldier Matan Angrest, who is held in Gaza, appealed to Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at a news conference.

"I have been waiting 700 days for you to get my child out of hell, and it is in your hands. I could see Matan again tomorrow, with a single decision on your part," said Anat Angrest.

Of the 251 hostages seized during the Hamas attack, 47 are still in Gaza, including 25 the Israeli military says are dead.

Last month Hamas said it had accepted a new truce proposal that would include phased hostage release.

But as mediators have awaited a formal Israeli response, Netanyahu said the war would only end on Israel's terms as he pushed ahead with plans for the Gaza City offensive.

"Instead of seizing the agreement on the table to reach a comprehensive deal, you choose to continue sacrificing them, abandoning them," Angrest said.

Nira Sharabi, whose husband Yossi was killed in captivity, called for an end to the war.

"Military pressure endangers the lives of the hostages" and "jeopardises the possibility of bringing back the dead" for burial, she said.

During the protests in Jerusalem, a bin was set ablaze near the prime minister's residence, and the fire spread and destroyed a car belonging to a reservist.

Police called it "a red line that has been crossed", while Justice Minister Yariv Levin denounced "terror" on the part of the demonstrators.

- Deadly strikes -

On the ground, Gaza's civil defence agency said Israeli forces killed at least 62 people on Wednesday.

Umm Abd Abu Al-Jubain told AFP she lost her daughter, son-in-law and several other relatives in a strike on Gaza City.

The bodies were "in pieces, and we pulled this boy out" from under the rubble, she said of her grandson, who survived the strike.

"Your father and mother have gone and left you, my dear," Abu al-Jubain told the bruised boy, holding him in her arms.

Israel had designated the coastal area of Al-Mawasi a humanitarian zone in the early days of the war, but has repeatedly struck it since.

In mid-August, UN human rights office spokesman Thameen al-Kheetan said Palestinians in Al-Mawasi had "little or no access to essential services and supplies, including food, water, electricity and tents".

Hamas's 2023 attack that triggered the war resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures.

Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed at least 63,746 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to figures from the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza that the United Nations considers reliable.

N.Awad--SF-PST