Families in Gaza City face two deadly options, Islamic Relief says: ‘Stay put under increasing bombardment, or follow Israeli orders to move south to camps where families are being killed in their shelters and suffer life-threatening overcrowding, starvation and diseases’
Displaced Palestinians flee Gaza City by foot and vehicles, carrying their belongings along the coastal road toward southern Gaza, September 18, 2025
THE Israeli military said today that it will deploy “unprecedented force” on Gaza City, as hundreds of thousands of Palestinians continue to flee.
“From this moment, Salah al-Din Road is closed for southbound travel,” Israeli army spokesman Avichay Adraee said.
“The [army] will continue to operate with unprecedented force against Hamas and other terrorist organisations.
“The only possible escape route south is via al-Rashid Street,” he said.
“Take this opportunity and join the hundreds of thousands of city residents who have moved south to the humanitarian area.”
About 480,000 people have fled south from Gaza City since August, the Israelis said today.
Islamic Relief UK have warned that those escaping Gaza City have nowhere safe to go.
“Families in Gaza City are facing two deadly options — stay put under increasing bombardment and siege, or follow Israeli orders to move south to camps where families are being killed in their shelters and suffer life-threatening overcrowding, starvation and diseases,” the charity said.
Hundreds of thousands of civilians are trapped in the city and are terrified or unable to leave, it said.
“Many are malnourished, sick, elderly, exhausted from being repeatedly displaced, or have no fuel for transport. Others fear having nowhere to shelter if they leave and know they face extreme deprivation in the camps where they are being sent. Others fear never being allowed to return to their homes if they leave.”
Meanwhile, the United Nations general assembly voted today to allow Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to address its annual meeting of world leaders by video after the US revoked his visa last month. The motion passed by a vote of 145-5, with six abstentions.
Mr Abbas had hoped to attend a meeting next week called for by France and Saudi Arabia aimed at advancing a two-state solution to the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The governments of France, Britain, Canada and Australia have all said they plan to recognise a Palestinian state.
The US is opposed to those efforts, saying the promise of statehood has emboldened Hamas and made it more difficult to reach a deal for a ceasefire and hostage release in the Gaza Strip.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government was opposed to Palestinian statehood before he launched the current genocidal campaign on Gaza. He claims that recognition of a Palestinian state would reward the militant group.
The US once again vetoed a UN security council resolution after the Star went to press on Thursday night that had demanded an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza and the release of Hamas’s hostages.
But the US said that the effort did not go far enough in condemning Hamas.
The 14 other members of the UN’s most powerful body voted in favour of the resolution, which described the humanitarian situation in Gaza as “catastrophic” and called on Israel to lift all restrictions on the delivery of aid to the 2.1 million Palestinians in the territory.
“US opposition to this resolution will come as no surprise,” Morgan Ortagus, a senior US policy adviser, said before the vote.
“It fails to condemn Hamas or recognise Israel’s right to defend itself, and it wrongly legitimises the false narratives benefiting Hamas, which have sadly found currency in this council.”
