Israel orders Palestinians to leave Gaza City, saying those who stay will be considered militants

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israel's defense minister on Wednesday ordered all remaining Palestinians to leave Gaza City, saying it was their “last opportunity” and that anyone who stayed would be considered a militant supporter and face the “full force” of Israel's latest offensive.

At least 21 Palestinians were killed across the territory, according to local hospitals, as Hamas weighed a new proposal from U.S. President Donald Trump aimed at ending the war and returning the remaining captives taken in Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, attack that triggered it.

A senior Hamas official told The Associated Press that there are some points in the proposal that are unacceptable and must be amended, without elaborating. He said the official response will only come after consultations with other Palestinian factions.

Around 400,000 Palestinians have fled famine-stricken Gaza City since Israel launched a major offensive last month aimed at occupying it, but hundreds of thousands remain, many because they cannot afford to leave or are too weak to make the journey to tent camps in the south.

“This is the last opportunity for Gaza residents who wish to do so to move south,” Defense Minister Israel Katz wrote on X. “Those who remain in Gaza will be (considered) terrorists and terror supporters.”

The road south was packed as Palestinians fled, with hastily loaded trucks and cars driving alongside people on foot carrying their belongings.

“We left barefoot,” Hussein al-Del said. The Israelis “were striking at random, with no mercy for anyone. We left behind our food, our furniture, blankets, and everything. We left only with our souls," he said.

At least seven people, including first responders, were killed when two Israeli strikes minutes apart hit a school sheltering displaced people in Gaza City, according to Al-Ahli Hospital, where the casualties were taken. Officials there said more than three dozen people were wounded.

Five Palestinians were killed later in a strike on people gathered around a drinking water tank elsewhere in Gaza City, the hospital said. Shifa Hospital said a man was killed in a strike on his apartment. Strikes in central Gaza killed another eight people, according to Al-Awda Hospital.

Another strike hit a tent in the courtyard of Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the central town of Deir al-Balah, seriously wounding two people, according to hospital officials.

Earlier on Wednesday at the same hospital, dozens of people attended a funeral service for a Palestinian freelance journalist, Yahya Barzaq. He was killed Tuesday along with five other people in an airstrike while working for Turkish broadcast outlet TRT.

More than 189 Palestinian journalists and media workers have been killed by Israeli fire in Gaza since the outbreak of the war, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military on Wednesday's strikes or the strike that killed Barzaq. Israel states it tries to avoid harming civilians and blames Hamas for their deaths, saying its militants are embedded in populated areas.

The military said at least seven projectiles were launched into Israel from Gaza, all of which were either intercepted or fell in open areas. There were no reports of casualties. Hamas' military capabilities have been vastly depleted, but it still manages to carry out sporadic attacks.

Israel’s campaign in Gaza has killed more than 66,000 Palestinians and wounded nearly 170,000 others, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. The ministry does not differentiate between civilians and militants in its toll, but has said women and children make up around half the dead.

The ministry is part of the Hamas-run government. U.N. agencies and many independent experts view its figures as the most reliable estimate of wartime casualties.

The Hamas-led attack on southern Israel nearly two years ago killed some 1,200 people and 251 others were abducted. Most of the hostages have been freed under previous ceasefire deals, but 48 are still held in Gaza — around 20 believed by Israel to be alive.

On Wednesday, Egypt’s Foreign Minister Bader Abdelatty said Trump’s proposal requires more negotiations on certain elements, echoing remarks made by Qatar a day earlier.

The comments by Qatar and Egypt, two key mediators, appeared to reflect Arab countries’ discontent over the text of the 20-point plan that the White House put out after Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced they had agreed on it Monday.

The Hamas official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief media about the ongoing talks, said Hamas had conveyed its concerns to Qatar and Egypt, and had requested more time to discuss the proposal.

The plan, which has received wide international support, requires Hamas to release hostages, leave power in Gaza and disarm in return for the release of Palestinian prisoners and an end to fighting. The plan guarantees the flow of humanitarian aid and promises reconstruction in Gaza, placing it and its more than 2 million Palestinians under international governance. However, it sets no path to Palestinian statehood.

The Palestinian Authority in the occupied West Bank, led by rivals of Hamas, has welcomed the plan, as have Egypt, Jordan, Indonesia, Pakistan, Turkey, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and United Arab Emirates.

The Israeli military said that starting at midday Wednesday, it would only allow Palestinians to flee south from Gaza City and not to head north on the only north-south route still open.

Around 90% of Gaza's population has been displaced in the war, often multiple times, and finding food is a daily struggle for many. On Wednesday, the International Committee of the Red Cross said intensifying warfare in Gaza City forced it to suspend its operations there and relocate staff to southern Gaza.

Meanwhile, a widely watched flotilla of activists carrying a symbolic amount of humanitarian aid bound for Gaza said the Israeli navy was beginning to intercept their vessels as has happened in past such flotilla attempts.

The activists aboard the Global Sumud Flotilla of about 50 vessels have described their effort as the largest attempt to date to break Israel’s maritime blockade of the strip. The core vessels set sail from Barcelona, Spain, on Sept. 1.

Israeli authorities have warned the boats would not be allowed to reach Gaza.

Thursday is Yom Kippur — the high Jewish holiday of the Day of Atonement — when stores, businesses, public transportation and broadcasting shut down in Israel, beginning around sundown on Wednesday.

Magdy reported from Cairo, and Mroue reported from Beirut. Associated Press writers Giovanna Dell'Orto in Jerusalem and Renata Brito in Barcelona, Spain, contributed to this report.

Follow AP’s war coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war

Displaced Palestinian children search for firewood and plastic in a landfill beside the makeshift tent camp where they are taking shelter, in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Tuesday, Sept. 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

President Donald Trump greets Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the West Wing of the White House, Monday, Sept. 29, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Smoke rises following an Israeli military strike in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, Wednesday, Oct, 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

A Palestinian man injured by Israeli artillery fire targeting a group of civilians fleeing from northern Gaza to the south is evacuated on a horse-drawn cart, in central Gaza, Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

Smoke rises following an Israeli military strike in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, Wednesday, Oct, 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

A displaced Palestinian flashes a V-sign to the camera while fleeing northern Gaza along the coastal road near Wadi Gaza, Wednesday, Oct, 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Displaced Palestinians flee northern Gaza carrying their belongings along the coastal road near Wadi Gaza, Wednesday, Oct, 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Nahrawan Al-Khatib bids farewell to her husband, Yahya Barzaq, who was killed in an Israeli strike on Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Palestinians carry the body of a man killed in an Israeli strike on Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Palestinians carry the body of a man killed in an Israeli strike on Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Nahrawan al-Khatib, mourns her husband, Yahya Barzaq, who was killed in an Israeli strike on Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Palestinians mourn during the funeral of their relatives who were killed in an Israeli airstrike on Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip, Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Demonstrators march in Tel Aviv, Israel, on Tuesday, Sept. 30, 2025, calling for the immediate release of all hostages held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip and an end to the ongoing war. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

Demonstrators march in Tel Aviv, Israel, on Tuesday, Sept. 30, 2025, calling for the immediate release of all hostages held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip and an end to the ongoing war. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

An injured boy mourns over the body of a man killed in an Israeli strike on a carpentry shop and a café as the victim is brought into Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip, Tuesday, Sept. 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

A display during a protest in Tel Aviv, Israel, on Tuesday, Sept. 30, 2025, calling for the immediate release of all hostages held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip and an end to the ongoing war. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

Displaced Palestinian children search for firewood and plastic in a landfill beside the makeshift tent camp where they are taking shelter, in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Tuesday, Sept. 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

BERLIN (AP) — Standing on an open truck making its way through Berlin, Anahita Safarnejad turned to the crowd of Iranian protesters marching behind her and took the microphone.

“No more dictatorship in Iran, the mullahs must go!” she shouted. Hundreds of voices echoed her slogan with the same sense of urgency and desperation.

Across Europe, thousands of exiled Iranians have taken to the streets to shout out their rage at the government of the Islamic Republic which has cracked down on protests in their homeland, reportedly killing thousands of people.

Women have taken a prominent role in organizing the protests abroad, raising their voices against the theocratic government that discriminates against them.

But beyond the anger, there’s also a sense of fear and paralysis. Iran's government has been shutting down the internet and limiting phone calls for days, making it nearly impossible for Iranians in the diaspora to find out if their families back home are safe.

Safarnejad, 34, fled Iran seven years ago. She came to Berlin to study theater but now works in a bar when she's not attending one of the almost-daily protests in the German capital.

Since the demonstrations broke out in Iran in late December, Safarnejad said she's been living in two different realities that are almost impossible to combine. The easygoing hipster life of her new hometown is a jarring contrast to the bloody protests in Iran that she's been following every minute she doesn't have to work, glued to her phone for the latest updates.

While she was initially almost euphoric that the current uprising would finally bring freedom to Iran and she'd be able to go back home, her sense of hope has turned into horror.

Safarnejad hasn't spoken to her brother, also a protester, since communications with Iran were cut off. She's been scouring video on social media showing piles of dead bodies to see if he's among the corpses.

“I'm desperate and don't know how to keep going anymore,” she cried, tears rolling down her cheeks, as she spoke to The Associated Press during Wednesday's Berlin protest.

“I can’t really switch off. I can’t really stop reading the news either," she added, her voice breaking. “Because I’m waiting all the time for the internet to be available so I can get some answers from my family.”

The young woman's horror is felt by many of the more than 300,000 Iranians living in Germany — one of the biggest exile communities in Europe and similar in numbers to France and Britain. Many of them still have family ties to their homeland, even if they left decades ago.

Mehregan Maroufi's Persian cafe and bookstore in Berlin has become a place of solace for Iranians to share their grief without many words — because they know they are all living through the same nightmare.

Maroufi, the daughter of the late Iranian author Abbas Maroufi, welcomes Iranians and everyone else at the Hedayat Cafe, where she serves Persian tea with sweets such as chocolate cake topped with barberries. She lends an ear to anyone who has to get worries off their chest.

“For some, the emotions are still too high and too strong, so to speak, and it’s impossible to talk," the 44-year-old says, adding that she, too, had to force herself to open the cafe on some mornings because the violent images coming out of Iran sucked away all her energy.

“But at least you can find compatriots here. You can talk to a little, and that helps,” she said.

She says she's been listening to and learning from the convictions her fellow Iranians express when they talk about their dreams of an Iran after Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei that — due to the uprising — now seems closer that ever before.

While most in the diaspora agree that the theocracy has to be toppled, ideas of what a new Iran should look like differ widely.

Adeleh Tavakoli, 62, joined a demonstration outside Britain’s Parliament in London earlier this week. She hasn't been back to Iran in 17 years but has spent decades protesting from afar against the Islamic Republic.

But with the latest wave of protests, she hopes that the Iran’s exiled Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi, the son of the shah ousted by the Islamic Revolution in 1979, will return to power. If he does, she said, she has her bag packed and is ready to get on the first flight.

“For 47 years, our country has been captured by a terrorist regime,” she said. “We’ve been the voice of Iran. All we want is our freedom and to get rid of this horrible dictatorship.”

For Maral Salmassi, who came to Germany as a child in the 1980s, history explains the calls by exiled Iranians for Pahlavi to lead the country.

“As an Iranian, as someone who comes from this culture and knows its culture and history, I can only say that we have had kings and queens for thousands of years. It is our culture," said Salmassi. She is the chairwoman and founder of the Zera Institute think tank in Berlin, which researches democracy, radicalization and extremism.

She added that Iranians make up a multi-ethnic country and "to bring them all together again, we need a constitutional monarchy that symbolically and traditionally represents our identity and reunites everyone ... and then a democratic, federal parliament where everyone is represented equally.”

However, not everyone is convinced by Pahlavi. Maryam Nejatipur, 32, who also joined the protest in Berlin, thinks her country should avoid a cult of personality.

“We don’t need something like Khamenei again. We don’t need one person,” to lead us, she said, as she burnt a portrait of the Ayatollah and used the flames to light a cigarette — an act that's become a symbol of Iranian resistance.

Safarnejad, who led the recent Berlin protest, agrees.

“I don’t belong to the left, I’m not a liberal, I’m not a monarchist,” she stressed. “I’ve been there for women’s rights, I’m for human rights, I’m for freedom.”

Fanny Brodersen and Ebrahim Noroozi, in Berlin, and Brian Melley in London contributed reporting.

Protester Adeleh Tavakoli, left, demonstrates outside the House of Parliament, in London, Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)

People take part in a rally in support of anti-government protests in Iran, Berlin Germany, Wednesday, June 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)

Iranian Mehregan Maroufi poses for a photo before an interview with the Associated Press in her cafe in Berlin, Germany, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)

Iranian Maryam Nejatipur 32, poses for a photo after a demonstration in support of the nationwide mass protests in Iran against the government, in Berlin, Germany, Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)

Iranian Anahita Safarnejad, 34, poses for a photo after a demonstration in support of the nationwide mass protests in Iran against the government, in Berlin, Germany, Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)