Gazans flood road to north after rumors of lifted checkpoint; IDF denies opening
Army reiterates that Palestinians remain barred from moving to northern part of Strip as it’s ‘still a combat zone,’ after ‘false reports’ claimed residents could go home
Thousands of Gazans flooded the coast road north on Sunday after hearing that several people managed to cross a closed checkpoint towards Gaza City, despite Israel denying it was open.
An AFP journalist saw mothers holding their children’s hands and families piling onto donkey carts with their luggage as they made the journey.
They hoped to cross a military checkpoint on al-Rashid road south of Gaza City, but the Israeli army told AFP that reports the route had opened were “not true.”
On the other side, desperate families waited for their loved ones in the rubble of the battered main city in the Palestinian territory.
Mahmoud Awdeh said he was waiting for his wife, who has been in the southern city of Khan Younis since October 7, when Hamas launched a devastating terror onslaught against Israel that sparked the ongoing war.
“She told me over the phone that people are leaving the southern part and heading to the north,” Awdeh said.
“She told me she’s waiting at the checkpoint until the army agrees to let her head to the north,” he said, hoping she would be able to cross safely.
During the day rumors also spread that the Israeli army was allowing women, children and men over 50 to go to the north, a claim denied by the army.
“Further to the reports that IDF forces are allowing the return of residents to the north of the Gaza Strip, these are false reports,” the IDF said in a statement.
“The IDF will not allow the return of residents either through the Salah A-Din axis or through the Rashid axis [the coast]. The northern area of the Gaza Strip is still a combat zone and it will not be possible to return to it,” the military added.
Lt. Col. Avichay Adraee, the IDF’s Arabic-language spokesman, warned Gazans to avoid using the road to the north.
“For your safety, do not approach the forces operating there. The northern Gaza Strip area is still a war zone and we will not allow a return to it,” Adraee wrote in a post on X.
Since Israel launched its offensive in Gaza following the Hamas-led attack atrocities in October, the army has besieged the territory, telling Gazans to leave some areas and preventing them from moving across the narrow Strip.
More than 1.5 million Palestinians have taken refuge in the southern city of Rafah, according to the United Nations.
Several Gazans said they came under attack on the route and AFP footage showed people ducking for cover.
The Palestinian official news agency Wafa accused Israeli forces of having “bomb(ed) displaced Palestinians as they were trying to return to the north of Gaza Strip through Al Rasheed street.”
Wafa shared a video on X which AFP has not verified showing people running away from a blast.
Nour, a displaced Gazan, told AFP: “When we arrived at the (Israeli) checkpoint, they would let women pass or stop them, but they shot at men so we had to return, we didn’t want to die.”
The IDF did not immediately respond to comment on those allegations.
Elsewhere in Gaza, the fighting continued on Sunday after Iran launched a huge drone and missile attack on Israel overnight.
Iran’s first-ever direct assault on Israeli territory came in retaliation for a deadly strike on the Iranian consulate in Damascus that killed seven Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps members, including two generals, an attack that Tehran blamed Jerusalem for.
But in Rafah on Sunday, Palestinians told AFP they were underwhelmed by Iran’s attack on Israel.
“The Iranian response came so late, after 190 days of war,” Khaled Al Nems told AFP. “You can see our suffering.”
“Their response is too little too late,” he added.
Walid Al Kurdi, a displaced Palestinian living in Rafah, said that “Iran’s attack on Israel is not really our business.”
“The only thing we care about is going back to our homes,” he said.
“We are waiting for the coming 48 hours to see if (Israel) responds to Iran, or if they are playing with us and want to distract attention away from Rafah.”
Israel has said it plans to send ground forces into Rafah to eradicate the remaining Hamas terrorists there.
