{"id":16705,"date":"2025-09-17T16:57:19","date_gmt":"2025-09-17T20:57:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cnewa.org\/ca\/?p=16705"},"modified":"2025-09-17T16:57:20","modified_gmt":"2025-09-17T20:57:20","slug":"gaza-offensive-begins-thousands-flee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cnewa.org\/ca\/gaza-offensive-begins-thousands-flee\/","title":{"rendered":"Gaza Offensive Begins, Thousands Flee"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have fled Gaza City since the Israeli Defense Forces issued a general evacuation order to all residents on 9 September ahead of its planned ground offensive.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>About 50,000 people fled on 15 September alone, after one of the heaviest nights of bombardment that targeted high-rise buildings and killed at least 70 people.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The I.D.F. said on 16 September about 350,000 people had fled the city, the same day it launched its ground offensive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The I.D.F. claims Gaza City is a Hamas stronghold and that Israeli hostages are being held there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Gaza Offensive Begins, Thousands Flee\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/reQO9-2bngA?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Hundreds of thousands of Palestinian civilians have decided to remain, however. Some are unable to pay for transportation or they fear the <a href=\"https:\/\/cnewa.org\/magazine\/it-is-famine\/\">travel route and hunger<\/a> and lack of shelter they will experience in the overcrowded south, despite its designation by the I.D.F. as a \u201chumanitarian area.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, as of 17 September, more than 65,000 Palestinians have been killed since the start of the Israel-Hamas war, most of them women and children. An independent commission of the United Nations has declared that \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ohchr.org\/en\/press-releases\/2025\/09\/israel-has-committed-genocide-gaza-strip-un-commission-finds\">Israel has committed genocide against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip<\/a>,\u201d in a statement issued on 16 September, \u201curging Israel and all states to fulfill their legal obligations under international law to end the genocide and punish those responsible for it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Click bellow to support CNEWA\u2019s\u00a0emergency campaign in Gaza.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n  <div class=\"donate-button\" id=\"minor-fund-campaign\">\n    <button class=\"donate-modal-toggle\" data-minor-fund='Palestine' data-minor-fund-code='PR'>Donate<\/button>\n  <\/div>\n  ","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have fled Gaza City since the Israeli Defense Forces issued a general evacuation order to all residents on 9 September ahead of its planned ground offensive.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":70080,"featured_media":16706,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3084,63,3056,3081,69],"class_list":["post-16705","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-responding-to-human-needs","category-middle-east","category-palestine","category-israel","category-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.3 (Yoast SEO v27.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Gaza Offensive Begins, Thousands Flee | CNEWA Canada<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have fled Gaza City since the Israeli Defense Forces issued a general evacuation order.\u00a0\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, 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