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Israel Opens New Route Out of Gaza City, Death Toll Passes 65,000

Israeli tanks deployed near the border with the Gaza Strip in southern Israel, 17 September 2025. (EPA)
Israeli tanks deployed near the border with the Gaza Strip in southern Israel, 17 September 2025. (EPA)
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Israel Opens New Route Out of Gaza City, Death Toll Passes 65,000

Israeli tanks deployed near the border with the Gaza Strip in southern Israel, 17 September 2025. (EPA)
Israeli tanks deployed near the border with the Gaza Strip in southern Israel, 17 September 2025. (EPA)

The Israeli military said it was opening an additional route for 48 hours that Palestinians could use to leave Gaza City as it stepped up efforts on Wednesday to empty the city of civilians and confront thousands of Hamas combatants. 

Hundreds of thousands of people are sheltering in the city and many are reluctant to follow Israel's orders to move south because of the dangers along the way, dire conditions, a lack of food in the southern area and fear of permanent displacement. 

"Even if we want to leave Gaza City, is there any guarantee we would be able to come back? Will the war ever end? That's why I prefer to die here, in Sabra, my neighborhood," Ahmed, a schoolteacher, said by phone.  

At least 63 people were killed by Israeli strikes and gunfire across the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, with most of the casualties in Gaza City, local health authorities said. 

They said the latest fatalities took the Palestinian death toll from the two-year war between Israel and Hamas past 65,000. Palestinian officials and rescue workers say the true figure is likely higher as many remains are trapped under the rubble of destroyed buildings. 

The war was triggered by the Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken hostage, according to Israeli tallies. 

TANKS EDGE FORWARD, OFFICIAL SAYS ASSAULT WILL TAKE MONTHS 

Gaza health authorities also reported a drone attack on a specialist children's hospital, which did not cause casualties but forced young patients and their families outside. 

Israel estimates about 400,000 people, or 40% of those who were in Gaza City on August 10 - when it announced plans to take control - have already fled. The Gaza media office says 190,000 have headed south and 350,000 have moved to central and western areas of the city.  

A day after Israel announced the launch of its ground offensive to seize control of Gaza's main urban center, tanks had moved short distances towards the city's central and western areas from three directions, but no major advance was reported. 

An Israeli official said military operations were focused on getting civilians to head south and that fighting would intensify over the next month or two. 

The official said Israel expected around 100,000 civilians to remain in the city, which would take months to capture, and the operation could be suspended if a ceasefire was reached with the Hamas group. 

The prospects of a ceasefire appear remote after Israel attacked Hamas political leaders in Doha last week, infuriating Qatar, a co-mediator in ceasefire talks. Defying global criticism of the attack, including a rebuke by Israel's stalwart ally, the United States, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said Israel would strike Hamas leaders anywhere. 

NO CASUALTIES REPORTED AFTER DRONE HITS CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL 

The Hamas-run government's Ministry of Health said an Israeli drone had dropped grenades on one floor of the Rantissi children's hospital on Wednesday. No casualties were reported but the ministry said some 40 families took their children away. 

"This hospital is the only specialist facility for children with cancer, kidney failure, and other life-threatening conditions – but even these gravely ill children are not spared from relentless bombardment," said Fikr Shalltoot, Gaza director at the UK-based charity Medical Aid for Palestinians. 

The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 

In leaflets dropped over Gaza City, the military said Palestinians could use the newly reopened Salahudin Road to escape towards the south and that they had until lunchtime on Friday to do so. 

But the situation remained chaotic and dangerous for civilians, who have been streaming away on foot, by donkey cart or in vehicles in recent days. 

Much of Gaza City was laid waste early in the war in 2023, but around 1 million Palestinians had returned there to homes among the ruins. Forcing them out would mean confining most of Gaza's population to overcrowded encampments in the south where a hunger crisis is unfolding. 

ISRAEL FACING INTERNATIONAL CENSURE OVER NEW OFFENSIVE 

The United Nations, aid groups and foreign governments have condemned Israel's offensive and the proposed mass displacement. In a separate response to the Gaza conflict in general, a UN Commission of Inquiry concluded on Tuesday that Israel had committed genocide in Gaza. Israel called the assessment "scandalous" and "fake". 

Israeli forces control Gaza City's eastern suburbs and have been pounding three areas in the southeast, north and northwestern coastal areas of the city, from which tanks have been pressing towards the center and western areas. 

"Gaza is being wiped out. A city that is thousands of years old is being wiped out in front of the whole cowardly world," said Ahmed, the schoolteacher. 

In Nuseirat refugee camp in the enclave's center, an airstrike destroyed a high-rise building on Wednesday, prompting residents of nearby buildings to flee in panic. 

Palestinian and UN officials say no place is safe, including in the southern area designated by Israel as a "humanitarian zone". On Tuesday, an airstrike killed five people in a vehicle as they were leaving Gaza City for the south. 

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Arab World

Sudan's RSF Detains El-Fasher Survivors for Ransom

Sudanese displaced people who fled El-Fasher after the city fell to the Rapid Support Forces on 26 October (AFP)
Sudanese displaced people who fled El-Fasher after the city fell to the Rapid Support Forces on 26 October (AFP)
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Sudan's RSF Detains El-Fasher Survivors for Ransom

Sudanese displaced people who fled El-Fasher after the city fell to the Rapid Support Forces on 26 October (AFP)
Sudanese displaced people who fled El-Fasher after the city fell to the Rapid Support Forces on 26 October (AFP)

Witnesses, aid workers and researchers said the Rapid Support Forces, which surrounded El-Fasher in Darfur before capturing it in late October, have been holding survivors from the siege in a systematic campaign, demanding ransom for their release and killing or beating those whose families cannot pay, according to a Reuters report.

Reuters said it could not determine how many people are being held by the RSF and allied armed groups in and around El-Fasher, the capital of North Darfur.

However, accounts indicate that large groups are being detained in several villages about 80 kilometers from the city, while others were taken back into El-Fasher where the RSF demands payments worth thousands of dollars from their relatives.

The detention of survivors underlines the risks facing those who failed to escape El-Fasher, which had been the last major stronghold against the RSF in Darfur before its fall.

Witnesses described collective reprisals since the takeover, including summary executions and sexual violence.

The accounts also highlight the plight of tens of thousands still unaccounted for as relief agencies try to reach famine hit El-Fasher and its outskirts, which have become a focal point in the two and a half year war between the RSF and the Sudanese army.

Pay or be killed

Reuters said it interviewed 33 former detainees and 10 aid workers and researchers who provided previously unreported details about the violence faced by detainees, the locations where they were held and the scale of the arrests.

Survivors described ransoms ranging from five million Sudanese pounds, about 1400 dollars, to 60 million pounds, about 17 thousand dollars, sums that are enormous for residents of such a poor region.

Eleven survivors said some of those unable to pay were shot at close range or killed in groups, while others were severely beaten.

According to the agency, survivors who fled across the border to Chad were documented with injuries that appeared to result from beatings and gunshots. Reuters said it could not fully verify their accounts.

Mohamed Ismail, who spoke to Reuters by phone from Tawila, a neutral-held town near El-Fasher, said the RSF gives families three or four days to pay. If no transfer is sent, “they kill him,” he said.

He said he left El-Fasher when the RSF seized the city on 26 October but was arrested with 24 men in the village of Um Jalbakh. He and his nephew were forced to collect 10 million pounds from their family for their release. Nine other men were killed in front of them, he said.

RSF denies responsibility and says it is investigating

RSF legal adviser Mohamed al-Mukhtar told Reuters that most cases of detention and extortion of people from El-Fasher were carried out by a rival group wearing uniforms similar to the RSF.

A committee within the RSF is investigating more than 100 alleged abuses a day in El-Fasher, and many suspects have been detained while nine have been convicted, said committee head Ahmed al-Nour al-Hala.

The fall of El-Fasher after an 18-month siege marked a turning point in a war triggered by a power struggle between the army and the RSF, which the United Nations has described as the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. Both sides face accusations of war crimes.

Survivors of RSF detention in and around El-Fasher told Reuters they were often asked about their tribal identity and were subjected to racial insults.

The International Organization for Migration estimates that more than 100 thousand people fled El-Fasher after the RSF took control. Aid agencies say more than 15 thousand have reached Tawila and about 9500 have crossed into Chad, but most remain in RSF controlled villages around the city, including Garney and Um Jalbakh.

Aid groups say it remains unclear how many have stayed inside El-Fasher itself. Some residents could not flee because they could not afford the cost of leaving, while others were too sick or injured to travel.

Negotiations with families

Yassir Hamad Ali, 36, a former detainee who reached Chad, said RSF fighters arrested him on 29 October with 16 other men after he fled El-Fasher. He said they beat him heavily and demanded 150 million pounds for his release.

Speaking to Reuters from a hospital in Tine near the Chad Sudan border, he said the fighters used a Starlink satellite internet device mounted on their Toyota Land Cruiser to contact his family on Facebook Messenger.

Large areas under RSF control have been cut off from telecommunications since the start of the war, prompting widespread use of Starlink devices. Starlink did not respond to a request for comment.

Ali said his family negotiated the amount down to five million pounds, which they sent via a Sudanese mobile money platform, according to transfer receipts seen by Reuters.

Another man in Tine, Ibrahim Kitr, 30, said his family borrowed against their home in Atbara to pay the 35 million pound ransom, saying he doubted they would be able to repay the loan.

His brother, Alhaj Altijany Kitr, 31, said fighters placed a gun to his head and beat him severely during a video call with their family, a method similar to that used by smuggling gangs on migrant routes in neighboring Libya, where captors show relatives the abuse to pressure them for higher ransom.

The RSF has often recruited fighters or allied factions with the promise of looting rather than a fixed salary, and widespread looting has taken place in areas under its control.

But aid workers said the large ransom demands around El-Fasher represent a new phenomenon.

Satellite images of Garni village on 28 November show hundreds of newly built temporary shelters over the past month. Two aid workers said this suggests people could be held there for extended periods.

Detention inside El-Fasher

Reuters said men and women were separated on arrival in Garney, but women were also detained there. One woman said she was blindfolded and raped repeatedly over several days. Another said she witnessed similar assaults.

The second woman cried as she spoke by phone from Tawila. She said RSF fighters threatened to kill her when she tried to intervene.

Eight former detainees said they were taken back to El-Fasher and held for ransom in buildings that included military facilities and university dormitories.

A 62-year-old teacher, who requested anonymity, said he found himself in El-Fasher Children’s Hospital with hundreds of other men.

They were packed in rows, he said, with nothing to drink, so they took water from a stagnant pool in the hospital grounds that they later discovered was sewage. The teacher said about 300 men died.

Two human rights researchers who spoke to witnesses gave Reuters similar estimates.

Mujahid Eltahir, 35, who was detained in El-Fasher, said he was released after a beating for a ransom of 30 million pounds, only to be detained again in Zalingei, where his captors forced his family to pay another six million pounds.

Speaking to Reuters in N’Djamena, Chad, he said he saw the bodies of seven men he had fled with lying along the road, shot in the head and chest. Eltahir displayed a photo of his feet covered in sores from walking barefoot after RSF fighters took his shoes.

Since taking El-Fasher, the RSF has posted videos showing people receiving food and medical care in the city.

A nurse who said she had been detained by the RSF told Reuters that fighters filmed her receiving food and saying she was treated well. She said they abuse people, then show them moments later on livestreams.

Arab World

‘Deeply Worried’ Macron to Work to Free French Journalist Held in Algeria

(FILES) This undated handout photograph released on June 30, 2025, shows Christophe Gleizes, a prominent French sports journalist, at an unknown location. (Photo by Handout / SO PRESS - RSF / AFP)
(FILES) This undated handout photograph released on June 30, 2025, shows Christophe Gleizes, a prominent French sports journalist, at an unknown location. (Photo by Handout / SO PRESS - RSF / AFP)
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‘Deeply Worried’ Macron to Work to Free French Journalist Held in Algeria

(FILES) This undated handout photograph released on June 30, 2025, shows Christophe Gleizes, a prominent French sports journalist, at an unknown location. (Photo by Handout / SO PRESS - RSF / AFP)
(FILES) This undated handout photograph released on June 30, 2025, shows Christophe Gleizes, a prominent French sports journalist, at an unknown location. (Photo by Handout / SO PRESS - RSF / AFP)

France’s President Emmanuel Macron will work toward the release of a French journalist in jail in Algeria “as soon as possible,” his office said Thursday, a day after an Algerian court confirmed his incarceration.

An appeals court upheld a seven-year prison term against Christophe Gleizes, a sports journalist who was jailed in June on terrorism-related charges.

Gleizes, 36, is France’s only journalist imprisoned abroad, according to Reporters Without Borders (RSF).

Macron was “deeply worried” to learn the news, his office said, according to Agence France Presse.

“We will continue to engage with the Algerian authorities to secure his release and his return to France as soon as possible,” it added.

Gleizes was arrested and placed under judicial control in May 2024 after traveling to Tizi Ouzou in northeastern Algeria’s Kabylia region — home to the Amazigh Kabyle people — to write about the country’s most decorated football club, Jeunesse Sportive de Kabylie.

He was accused of having been in contact with a local football figure prominent in the Movement for the Self-Determination of Kabylie (MAK), designated a “terrorist” organization by the authorities in 2021.

French Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said on Thursday that the journalist’s release was “a major element” in current talks between the two countries.

Macron said he was “available” to speak to Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune if it were to allow progress in tense relations between both sides.

Tebboune last month pardoned French-Algerian novelist Boualem Sansal after a year-long imprisonment in Algeria, following comments made by the writer.

Arab World

New Hamas Security Measures amid Fears of Overseas Assassinations

The building damaged in the Israeli strike on Hamas leaders in Doha last September (Reuters)
The building damaged in the Israeli strike on Hamas leaders in Doha last September (Reuters)
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New Hamas Security Measures amid Fears of Overseas Assassinations

The building damaged in the Israeli strike on Hamas leaders in Doha last September (Reuters)
The building damaged in the Israeli strike on Hamas leaders in Doha last September (Reuters)

Hamas is increasingly bracing for what it sees as a looming Israeli assassination attempt against senior figures operating outside Palestinian territory.

Senior officials in the movement told Asharq Al-Awsat that concern has been mounting over a potential strike targeting Hamas’s top echelon, particularly after the killing of senior Lebanese Hezbollah official Haitham Tabtabai.

The sources said that despite “reassurance messages” conveyed by the United States to several parties, including mediators in Türkiye, Qatar and Egypt, that last September’s Doha operation will not be repeated, the movement’s leadership “does not trust Israel”.

One source linked “expectations of a new assassination attempt with the Israeli government’s efforts to obstruct the second phase of the ceasefire agreement and its claim that the movement has no intention of advancing toward a deal”.

According to the sources, Hamas’s leadership has tightened security measures since the attempted assassination in Doha, convinced that “Israel will continue tracking the leadership and locating them through different methods, foremost of which are advanced technologies”.

A “non-Arab state”

A Hamas source said “there are assessments that the movement’s leaders may be targeted in a non-Arab state”, declining to identify it.

Since the start of the war on Gaza in October 2023, Israel has threatened and carried out overseas assassinations against Hamas leaders. It first killed Saleh al-Arouri, the movement’s deputy leader, in Beirut in January 2024, then killed the head of its political bureau, Ismail Haniyeh, in Tehran in July 2024.

Israel then attempted to eliminate the movement’s leadership council in the Doha operation.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu later apologized to Qatar after pressure from US President Donald Trump.

US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner subsequently met Khalil al-Hayya, head of the Hamas delegation for ceasefire talks, who had been a primary target in the Doha operation.

“New security instructions”

Asharq Al-Awsat reviewed an internal directive distributed to Hamas leaders abroad regarding personal security and precautionary measures to prevent possible assassinations or at least reduce their impact.

The new instructions, which appear to have been drafted by security experts, say all fixed meetings in a single location must be canceled, and that leaders should resort to irregular meetings in rotating locations.

The instructions also require leaders to “keep mobile phones completely away from meeting sites by no less than 70 meters, and to ban the entry of any medical or electronic devices including watches into meeting venues. There must be no air conditioners, internet routers, television screens or even home intercom systems.”

The guidelines stress the need to “constantly inspect meeting venues in case miniature cameras have been planted anywhere through human agents, particularly since Israeli security services resort to installing cameras and spying devices during maintenance work inside buildings that they identify as future targets”.

The document warns leaders that “Israel relies on a chain of elements to monitor and track its targets, including human factors such as cleaning staff or others, or even individuals in the first circle around the wanted person, as well as mobile phones and other tools that can be used for surveillance such as screens, air conditioners and more”.

It adds that “switching off phones alone does not prevent tracking, especially since there is the ability to hack any device operating through Wi-Fi. Smart watches and similar devices can be used to determine the number of people in any room. Several types of missiles can also penetrate any wall or building and reach their target in a very short period”.

Gaza commander survives

Meanwhile, Israel on Wednesday attempted to assassinate a commander in the Rafah Brigade of the Qassam Brigades, the Hamas military wing, after bombing a tent sheltering his family in the Mawasi area of Khan Younis in southern Gaza.

The strike came hours after four Israeli soldiers were wounded in a firefight with Qassam gunmen in Rafah as the troops emerged from tunnels.

Sources told Asharq Al-Awsat that the targeted figure survived. He is the intelligence chief of the Rafah Brigade.

Israel had previously said it succeeded in dismantling the Rafah Brigade completely and eliminating it, but successive operations carried out by armed cells from the brigade inside the city, which is under Israeli control, have fueled significant doubt about Israel’s narrative.