Sawt Falasteen - Israel tells residents to leave Gaza City ahead of offensive

The military gave no timeline for the assault, and has previously indicated it would not be announced in advance to maintain the element of surprise.

"Take this opportunity to move early to the (Al-Mawasi) humanitarian zone and join the thousands of people who have already gone there," military spokesman Avichay Adraee said on social media.

The army said separately that Al-Mawasi, on Gaza's southern coast, has "field hospitals, water pipelines, and desalination facilities, alongside the continued supply of food, tents, medicines, and medical equipment".

It said relief efforts there "will continue on an ongoing basis in cooperation with the UN and international organisations, in parallel to the expansion of the ground operation".

Israel first declared Al-Mawasi a safe zone early in the war, but has carried out repeated strikes there since, saying it targeted Hamas fighters hiding among civilians.

Gaza City residents told AFP on Saturday that they believed it made little difference whether they stayed or fled.

"Some say we should evacuate, others say we should stay," said Abdel Nasser Mushtaha, 48, a resident of the city's Zeitoun neighborhood now sheltering in a tent in the Rimal area.

"But everywhere in Gaza there are bombings and deaths. For the past year-and-a-half, the worst bombings that caused massacres of civilians have been in Al-Mawasi, this so-called humanitarian zone," he added.

"It no longer makes any difference to us," said his daughter Samia Mushtaha, 20. "Wherever we go, death pursues us, whether by bombing or hunger."

- US in 'deep negotiation' -

The military's call for people to leave comes as it steps up its operations around Gaza City despite mounting domestic and international pressure to end the nearly two-year conflict.

Hamas agreed last month to a proposal for a temporary ceasefire and staggered hostage releases, but Israel has demanded the militant group release all the hostages at once, disarm and relinquish control of Gaza, among other conditions.

At the White House on Friday, President Donald Trump said the United States was in talks with Hamas over the captives being held in Gaza.

"We're in very deep negotiation with Hamas," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.

"There could be some (hostages) that have recently died, is what I'm hearing. I hope that's wrong, but you have over 30 bodies in this negotiation," he said.

Militants took 251 hostages during the October 2023 Hamas attack on Israel that sparked the war. The Israeli military says 47 remain in Gaza, including 25 believed to be dead.

"We said let them all out right now, let them all out, and much better things will happen for them," said Trump.

"But if you don't let them all out, it's going to be a tough situation, it's going to be nasty."

- 'Disaster' -

The UN estimates nearly one million people remain in and around Gaza City, where it declared a famine last month. It has warned of a looming "disaster" if the assault proceeds.

Israel has said it expects the offensive to displace a million people further south.

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

Hamas's 2023 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.

Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed at least 64,300 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to figures from the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza that the United Nations considers reliable.

Media restrictions in Gaza and difficulties in accessing many areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify the tolls and details provided by the civil defence agency or the Israeli military.

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H.Darwish--SF-PST