On Sunday, Anas Al Kourd, a paramedic at Al Shifa Hospital in Gaza Metropolis, drove south with a bunch that included his cousin, whose legs had been amputated after she was wounded within the battle, and 4 kids. Theirs was the one automobile in sight. Round them, individuals held their arms up in a gesture of give up as they walked, carrying little white flags, he mentioned.
As they approached Kuwait Sq., a serious intersection in Gaza Metropolis, they had been shot at, forcing them to retreat, he mentioned.
Two or thrice they tried to drive ahead, solely to have to show round once more due to incoming hearth. Once they lastly made it to the sq., he mentioned, he might see greater than 50 Israeli tanks close by, the place an olive grove was once. He mentioned he waved a blanket rather than a white flag, whereas a few of his companions waved their pink German passports.
Mr. Al Kourd had traveled a few third of the remaining distance to the center zone of Gaza, bumping over splintered bushes and concrete blocks, when he mentioned they had been fired on once more. He was driving at “mad velocity” to get away, he mentioned, when a missile or bomb detonated close by. Nobody was struck, however an earlier crater within the street despatched their automobile flying, he mentioned.
“I don’t know the way we survived,” he mentioned a day later, having made it to the center zone of the Gaza Strip. His account couldn’t be independently confirmed.
The Israeli army mentioned in an announcement that it has been concentrating on Hamas all through Gaza in response to the group’s assault on Oct. 7, when Hamas gunmen killed greater than 1,400 individuals in Israel and seized greater than 200 hostages. The assertion mentioned that Israel’s assaults on army targets had been performed below worldwide regulation, together with taking “possible precautions to mitigate civilian casualties.”
The Israeli army denied placing put up checkpoints alongside the street and maintained that Hamas, not Israel, was making the passage south troublesome.
