It's noon. The main street that crosses Gaza from north to south, Salah al-Din Road is filled with thousands of residents seeking to move southward. The adults among them, men and women, raise their hands, carry identification documents, and continue to advance slowly. The main evacuation is now from the Zaytoun neighborhood and the city center.
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The forces securing and operating the movement on this axis, which has become a humanitarian corridor for hundreds of thousands of people, are from the IDF's Jerusalem Brigade – comprising reserve infantry units that joined the operation in the strip this week. The crowd gathers in the area south of Gaza City, where the IDF has opened a humanitarian crossing serving as a checkpoint.
The movement in this section of the axis is orderly, and the effort is to keep an eye on those moving south and try to prevent Hamas members from infiltrating the procession and blending in with the population.
Video: Palestinians moving from north to south as Israel continues its operation / Credit: Dana Ben-Shimon
As the procession of people flows south, IDF forces observe and occasionally stop suspected terrorists, telling them to step out of the crowd and approach the sterile area to the east.
"You with the black shirt, next to you is the child in green, come here," the soldiers say in Arabic. Every few minutes, they turn and pull out more suspects, who gather in a group at a safe distance from the forces. Some are questioned briefly, others wait or are sent for further investigation, and some are released a few minutes later after a dialogue conducted with the forces, and then they join the procession again once the army is convinced that they do not pose a threat.
Everything happens quickly, every second is crucial, and there is no time for mistakes. Suddenly, Hebrew is heard. "If there is a child who understands Hebrew, run over here now," the soldiers announce, "don't be afraid, come to me." These calls in Hebrew are part of the effort to identify and locate the captives taken by Hamas terrorists on Oct. 7. It is aimed at the ears of the Israeli captives who may have been forced to blend together with residents flowing into the southern parts of Gaza, with Hamas taking advantage of the humanitarian corridor.
Less than a mile separates the checkpoint and the area where there is no longer fighting. Since it was announced, about 330,000 Gazans have passed through the humanitarian crossing. The evacuation of the population is crucial to create convenient conditions for the war and allow freedom of action for the forces, as well as to prevent harm to civilians.
In addition to Salah al-Din Road., which serves as the main route for the movement of residents from north to south, there is also a humanitarian corridor along the coast in the western part of the strip. According to army estimates, there are still tens of thousands who have not evacuated. They are making their way to the safe area in the southern parts, where they will join their relatives who have already left everything behind. The number of those who insisted on staying in their homes in the north until now is decreasing as the days of the fighting progress. They understand that this war is different, and Israel intends to go all the way. Hamas' atrocities on Oct. 7 left Israel no choice. When the smoke clears and the shooting stops, for many of the people walking here, life will certainly be divided into before and after the war.
"It's still too early to think about the future," some residents of Gaza explained in recent weeks. It seems that even in these moments, they mainly want to save themselves and their families. They walk forward, trying not to look back, who knows when the next time they will return to the places they left, and what those places will look like. Hamas is still present and strong. Even those who disavow the massacre carried out by Hamas on October 7 don't dare to speak up. The few who do will just say something like "We don't condone what happened." For Israelis that may not sound like a clear-cut rejection of Hamas, but in the current reality, such a stance does carry significance.
Voices of explosions and gunfire in the air
The sky is covered with thick smoke indicating an attack that occurred minutes ago in Jabalia, in the northern part of the strip. Commercial buildings and structures along the humanitarian corridor are destroyed and damaged from the battles. The army is present everywhere. "We passed forces on the road that had just come under fire on your right side. The encounter is intense, we will know the results soon," Colonel Nitay Okashi, commander of the Jerusalem Brigade, tells me.
We are now a few kilometers to the west, on the outskirts of the Zaytoun neighborhood, where fighting expanded in the last two days. We see remnants of what until recently served as a gas station destroyed. The soldiers took over a few isolated houses in the agricultural area after operating to purge the area from terrorists.
"Slowly but surely, we are destroying the enemy and locating its weapons in all areas. In these areas, there are no residents; everyone has evacuated to create a relatively secure area here at the end of the corridor," Okashi says. "If there is a civilian here, we will probably extract him safely and not kill him, but it must be said – when we attacked this area, everyone who was here was a terrorist. We saw field observers and others with RPGs and Kalashnikovs." Some 200-100 meters north, the area has yet to be secured. It is under the operational control of the army but still poses a risk that terrorists will emerge from tunnels.
We are now in a house, in the middle of the sand. The army had taken over the place. The bullet holes on the walls indicate that there was close combat here. The entrance leads to a courtyard with citrus and olive trees. On a wall on the balcony, a traditional golden hookah is placed. Such calm scenery, yet very deceiving. After a few steps along the hedges in the villa's garden, the soldiers order us to stop. "Do not approach, we found grenades there," they warn. Inside the house in the back room, improvised explosive devices were discovered.
"This operation sends a message to all our enemies that you don't mess with Israel," Okashi says. "We did not choose this war, but from the moment it happened, we are here to defeat Hamas. I live and breathe the October 7 events; this is what gives me the energy to get the job done.
Q: Do you believe we can see a different Gaza?
"We are working on it. I have great faith in the army and in the country and have high hopes that now Gaza will be transformed, but only time will tell. The enemy keeps us on edge, Hamas constantly tries to sneak up on us; we constantly find weapons and tunnel shafts."
Q: Can you see the end?
"I think so. I have many dreams about Gaza; if it were up to me, you would be able to come back here in two months and walk leisurely along the beach; everyone knows that the beach in Gaza is a beautiful beach, and hopefully, the entire State of Israel can come and be here on the seafront."
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