Israel announces 3-hour Gaza highway clearance today for evacuees to move southward

The Israeli military said it would enable Palestinians to travel on a main Gaza Strip highway on Saturday as part of its three-week-old efforts to encourage civilians to evacuate southward away from areas that are the focus of its war with Hamas.

In a social media post in Arabic, the military said the Salah a-Din road could be used between 1pm and 4pm (1100 GMT and 1400). "If you care about yourself and your loved ones, heed our instruction to head south," it added.

Palestinians in Gaza have reported Israeli airstrikes overnight into Saturday across the besieged enclave, including explosions in the south where Israel had told civilians to seek refuge as its ground operation intensifies in northern Gaza.

The Palestinian death toll in the Israel-Hamas war has reached 9,227, according to the Health Ministry in Gaza. In the occupied West Bank, more than 140 Palestinians have been killed in violence and Israeli raids. The UNRWA says 72 of its staff members have been killed.

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More than 1,400 people in Israel have been killed, most of them in the Oct. 7 Hamas attack that started the fighting, and 242 hostages were taken from Israel into Gaza by the militant group.

Roughly 1,100 people have left the Gaza Strip through the Rafah crossing since Wednesday under an apparent agreement among the United States, Egypt, Israel and Qatar, which mediates with Hamas.

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