IDF announces second evacuation route out of Gaza City

17 September 2025, 7:36 am

2 Edit

Palestinians flee to the southern Gaza Strip along Salah al-Din Street in Bureij, Gaza Strip, November 9, 2023. (AP Photo/Hatem Moussa)

The Israel Defense Forces tells Gazans it is opening a second evacuation route for those wishing to flee Gaza City as the military presses into the city.

The route, along Sala-al-Din Street in the southern Strip, will be open from noon today until noon on Friday, IDF spokesman Avichay Adraee announces in Arabic on his X account.

#عاجل ‼️ إعلان هام إلى سكان مدينة غزة وأحيائها،
⭕️يعلن جيش الدفاع أنه ومن أجل تسهيل الانتقال جنوباً يتم فتح مسار انتقال مؤقت عبر شارع صلاح الدين
⭕️سيُتاح لكم الانتقال عبر شارع صلاح الدين وثم مواصلة التحرك جنوباً من وادي غزة.
⭕️في هذه المرحلة، سيتاح الانتقال عبر هذا المسار لمدة 48… pic.twitter.com/PZMhtu4B51

— افيخاي ادرعي (@AvichayAdraee) September 17, 2025

Gazans until now have only been able to leave via a coastal road, which has been inundated with foot and vehicle traffic as thousands make their way out the city south to avoid the looming onslaught.

Salah al-Din, a main inland artery running to central Gaza, was used as a main evacuation route during an offensive in the city in the first months of the war.

Displaced Palestinians flee northern Gaza along the coastal road toward the south, after Israel’s military says its expanded operation in Gaza City has begun and warns residents to leave, Sept. 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Gazan media sources, some linked to Hamas, report that Israeli forces continued to bombard the city and other parts of the Strip overnight, injuring or killing several people. The accounts cannot be immediately verified.

According to reports, booby-trapped unmanned vehicles were blown up in the northwest Tel al-Hawa neighborhood and in the south of the city.

Airstrikes and artillery fire are also reported in several areas around the city’s edges.

There is no immediate comment from the IDF on the reported attacks.